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Hesse

Encyclopedia : H : HE : HES : Hesse

This article refers to a state in Germany. For other uses of the term, see Hesse (disambiguation).
Civil Flag

State Service Flag

Coat of arms

Statistics
Capital: Wiesbaden
Area: 21,100 km²
Inhabitants: 6.097.800 (2004)
pop. density: 288 people/km²
Website: http://www.hessen.de/
ISO 3166-2: DE-HE
Politics
Prime Minister: Roland Koch (CDU)
Ruling party: CDU
Map
250px
Hesse (German: Hessen) is one of Germany's sixteen federal states (Bundesländer) . It has an area of 21,110 km² and just over six million inhabitants. The capital city of Hesse is Wiesbaden (Kassel until 1945 ) while its economic center and largest city is nearby Frankfurt and the surrounding Rhine Main Area.

Contents

Geography

Situated in western-central Germany, Hessen borders on (from the north-west and clockwise) the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. Its principal cities include Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt,Offenbach, Gießen and Wetzlar in the greater Rhine Main Area, Fulda in the east, as well as Kassel and Marburg in the north.

The main rivers in the northern part of Hessen are Fulda and Lahn. It is a hilly countryside, the main mountain chains being the Rhön, the Westerwald, the Taunus and the Spessart.

Most inhabitants live in the southernmost part of Hesse between the rivers Main and Rhine. The latter borders Hessen on the southwest without running through the state. The mountain chain between the Main and the Rhine is called the Odenwald.

See also List of places in Hesse.

Hessen is divided into 21 districts and five independent cities:

hesse_map.png

  1. Bergstraße (Heppenheim, Bensheim)
  2. Darmstadt-Dieburg (Darmstadt, Dieburg)
  3. Fulda (Fulda)
  4. Gießen (Gießen)
  5. Groß-Gerau (Groß-Gerau, Rüsselsheim)
  6. Hersfeld-Rotenburg (Bad Hersfeld)
  7. Hochtaunuskreis (Bad Homburg)
  8. Kassel (Kassel)
  9. Lahn-Dill (Wetzlar)
  10. Limburg-Weilburg (Limburg, Weilburg)
  11. Main-Kinzig (Hanau)
  12. Main-Taunus (Hofheim, Bad Soden)
  13. Marburg-Biedenkopf (Marburg)
  14. Odenwaldkreis (Erbach)
  15. Offenbach (Offenbach)
  16. Rheingau-Taunus (Idstein)
  17. Schwalm-Eder (Fritzlar, Borken)
  18. Vogelsbergkreis (Alsfeld, Lauterbach)
  19. Waldeck-Frankenberg (Korbach)
  20. Werra-Meißner (Eschwege, Witzenhausen)
  21. Wetteraukreis (Friedberg, Bad Nauheim)
The 21 districts and five independent cities are grouped in three administrative regions (Regierungsbezirke): Kassel, Gießen and Darmstadt.

History

In the early Middle Ages, Hesse was a part of Thuringia, but in the War of the Thuringian Succession (1247-64) Hesse gained its independence and became an Landgraviate within the Holy Roman Empire. It shortly rose to primary importance under Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous, who was one of the leaders of German Protestantism. After Philip's death in 1567, the territory was divided up among his four sons from his first marriage (Philip was a bigamist) into four lines: Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Rheinfels and the also previously existing Hesse-Marburg. As the latter two lines died out quite soon (1583 and 1605, respectively), Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Darmstadt were the two core states within the Hessian lands. Several collateral lines split off during the centuries, such as in 1622, when Hesse-Homburg split off from Hesse-Darmstadt. In the late 16th century, Kassel adopted Calvinism, while Darmstadt remained Lutheran and subsequently the two lines often found themselves on different sides of a conflict, most notably in the disputes over Hesse-Marburg and in the Thirty Years' War, when Darmstadt fought on the side of the Emperor, while Kassel sided with Sweden and France.

Hesse-Kassel was elevated to the dignity of an Electorate in 1803, but this remained without effect as the Holy Roman Empire was disbanded in 1806. The territory was annexed by the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1806, but restored to the Elector in 1813. While other Electors had gained other titles, becoming either Kings or Grand-dukes, the Elector of Hesse-Kassel alone retained the anachronistic dignity. The name survived in the term Kurhessen, denoting the region around Kassel. In 1866 it was annexed by Prussia, together with the Free City of Frankfurt, Hesse-Homburg and the duchy of Nassau, which established the province of Hesse-Nassau.

Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to the dignity of a Grand Duchy in 1806. In the War of 1866, it fought on the side of Austria against Prussia, but retained its autonomy in defeat, because a greater part of the country was situated south of the Main river and Prussia did not dare to expand beyond the Main line as this might have provoked France. But the parts of Hesse-Darmstadt north of the Main river (the region around the town of Gießen, commonly called Oberhessen) were incorporated in the Norddeutscher Bund, a tight federation of German states, established by Prussia in 1867. In 1871 the rest of the Grand Duchy joined the German Empire. Around the turn of the century, Darmstadt was one of the centres of the Jugendstil.

With the revolution of 1918 Hesse-Darmstadt became a republic, calling itself officially the "Volksstaat Hessen" (People's state Hesse). The parts of Hesse-Darmstadt on the left bank of the Rhine (province Rheinhessen) were occupied by French troops until 1930 under the terms of the Versailles peace treaty that officially ended WWI in 1919.

After World War II the Hessian territory left of the Rhine was again occupied by France, whereas the rest of the country was part of the US occupation zone. The French separated their part of Hesse from the rest of the country and incorporated it into the newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). The US on the other side formed the state of Groß-Hessen (Greater Hesse) already in 1945, out of Hesse-Darmstadt and most of former Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau. On December 4, 1946 Groß-Hessen was officially renamed Hessen.

See also Rulers of Hesse.

Name

The state is called Hessen in German and Hesse in English; the English name for the state was taken from French. An inhabitant of the state is a Hesse (masculine) or Hessin (feminine) in German and a Hessian in English (see Hessian troops). Occasionally the German term Hessen is also used in English. Hessia is another variant, although rarely used.

List of Hesse's prime ministers

(The title is Ministerpräsident in German)
  1. 1945: Ludwig Bergstraesser
  2. 1945 - 1946: Karl Geiler
  3. 1946 - 1951: Christian Stock (SPD)
  4. 1951 - 1969: Georg-August Zinn (SPD)
  5. 1969 - 1976: Albert Osswald (SPD)
  6. 1976 - 1987: Holger Börner (SPD)
  7. 1987 - 1991: Walter Wallmann (CDU)
  8. 1991 - 1999: Hans Eichel (SPD)
  9. since 1999: Roland Koch (CDU)

February 2, 2003 state election

See also: Hessen state election, 2003

Roland Koch remained Prime Minister of a CDU government. His former partner in coalition, the FDP, was not needed any more and went into opposition.
Party Party List votes Vote percentage Total Seats Seat percentage
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 1,333,863 48.8% (+5,4) 56 (+6) 50.9%
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 795,576 29.1% (-10,3) 33 (-13) 30.0%
Alliance '90/The Greens 276,276 10.1% (+2,9) 12 (+4) 10.9%
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 216,110 7.9% (+2,8) 9 (+3) 8.2%
The Republicans 34,563 1.3% (-1,4) 0 (=) 0.0%
All Others 78,604 2.9% (+0,6) 0 (=) 0.0%
Totals 2,734,992 100.0% 110 100.0%

Seat results -- SPD in red, CDU in black, Greens in green, FDP in yellow
Enlarge
Seat results -- SPD in red, CDU in black, Greens in green, FDP in yellow


National anthem

The national anthem of Hesse is called "Hessenlied" (Song of Hesse). It was written by Carl Preser (1828-1910, text) and Albrecht Brede (1834-1920, melody).[link]

TV & radio stations

The National Hesse State Broadcasting Station (Radio and TV) is the "Hessischer Rundfunk" (Hesse Broadcast) situated in Frankfurt with regional studios all over the country. Beside this state-run station there are many private stations.

Traffic and public transportation

Hesse has one of the best transportation infrastructures in Europe. Many trans-European and German interstate freeways cross Hesse as well as high-speed train lines and many important trans-European waterways. Frankfurt International Airport is Germany's biggest airport and number three in Europe (after London and Paris).

Death penalty

The death penalty is still mentioned in the constitution of Hesse, as the Hessian constitution was ratified in 1946, when the death penalty was still part of the German penal code (and carried out as well). Because the 1949 federal constitution provides for the abolition of the death penalty and because of the supremacy of the federal constitution, the Hessian constitutional articles still mentioning the death penalty are de facto obsolete. Nonetheless, no politician has yet proposed to formally abolish the death penalty in Hesse because that would require a plebiscite, and it is doubtful whether Hessian voters will vote to abolish the death penalty.

Trivia

The chemical element of Hassium is named for Hesse alongside with Darmstadtium for the Hessian City of Darmstadt.

Hesse is a sister state of Wisconsin, a member state of the United States of America

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