Hesse

Hesse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Situated in west-central Germany, Hesse borders on the German states (starting ... The principal cities of Hesse include Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, ...
en.wikipedia.org

Hermann Hesse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Biography, with links to essays on some of his works. ... Hesse was born in the Black Forest town of Calw in Württemberg, Germany to a ...
en.wikipedia.org

Hesse: Definition from Answers.com
Hesse A region and former grand duchy of west-central Germany. ... Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Hesse ... Hesse has no unified history. ...
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Hermann Hesse: Biography from Answers.com
Hermann Hesse The novels of the German author Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) are lyrical and confessional and are primarily concerned with the relationship
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HESSE

www.hesse.jp

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hesse
The name of a German tribe, and also a district in Germany extending along the Lahn, Eder, Fulda, Werra, and the Lower Main and Rhine
www.newadvent.org

HERMANN HESSE
Hesse's Original Writing "In the Fourh Year of War - 1918" ... Hesse was born on July 2, 1877, in the town of Calw at the Northern edge of the Black Forest. ...
www.geocities.com

Hesse travel guide - Wikitravel
Open source travel guide to Hesse, featuring up-to-date information on ... Natives of Hesse have a strong dialect of German, that can even be confusing to ...
wikitravel.org

Hermann Hesse - Biography and Works
Hermann Hesse. Biography of Hermann Hesse and a searchable collection of works.
www.literature-web.net

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
Biography for the Nobel Prize-winning German poet and novelist, who has explored the duality of spirit and nature in his works.
www.kirjasto.sci.fi

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This article refers to a state in Germany. For other uses of the term, see Hesse (disambiguation). {{Infobox German Bundesland|Name = Hesse|German_name = Hessen|state_coa = Coat of arms of Hesse.svg|map = Deutschland Lage von Hessen.svg|flag = Flag of Hesse.svg|flag2 = Flag of Hesse (state).svg|capital = Wiesbaden|largest_city = Frankfurt|area = 21100|area_source =|population = 6077000|pop_ref = |pop_date = 2006-08-31|GDP = 198|GDP_year = 2005|GDP_percent = 8.8|Website = www.hessen.de|leader_title =|leader = Roland Koch|leader_party = CDU|ruling_party1 = CDU|ruling_party2 =|votes = 5|NUTS = DE7|lat_deg = 50|lat_min = 36|lon_deg = 9|lon_min = 3-->Hesse () is a States of Germany with an area of 21,110 square kilometre and just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden. Hesse's largest city is nearby Frankfurt am Main.Hesse contibutes the largest share to the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region.

Geography Situated in western-central Germany, Hesse 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, Hesse, Hanau, Gießen, Wetzlar and Limburg an der Lahn in the greater Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region, Fulda in the east, as well as Kassel and Marburg an der Lahn in the north.

The most important rivers in Hesse are Fulda River and Eder river in the north, the Lahn in the central part of Hesse, Main and Rhine in the south. It is a hilly countryside with numerous mountain ranges, like the Rhön, the Westerwald, the Taunus, the Vogelsberg_Mountains, the Knüll or the Spessart.

Most inhabitants live in the southern part of Hesse in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region. The Rhine borders Hesse on the southwest without running through the state, only one old arm -- the socalled Alt-Rhein -- does. The mountain range between the Main and the Neckar river is called the Odenwald. The plain in between the rivers Main, Rhine and Neckar, and the Odenwald mountains is called the Ried.

See also List of places in Hesse.

Hessen is divided into 21 counties and 5 independent cities:

{] (Heppenheim)

Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg (Darmstadt, Ortsteil Kranichstein)

Groß-Gerau (district) (Groß-Gerau)

Hochtaunuskreis (Bad Homburg)

Main-Kinzig-Kreis (Gelnhausen)

Main-Taunus-Kreis (Hofheim am Taunus)

Odenwaldkreis (Erbach (Odenwald))

Offenbach (district) (Dietzenbach)

Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis (Bad Schwalbach)

Wetteraukreis (Friedberg (Hessen))

Gießen (district) (Gießen)

Lahn-Dill-Kreis (Wetzlar)

Limburg-Weilburg (Limburg an der Lahn)

| valign="top" |

Marburg-Biedenkopf (Marburg)

Vogelsbergkreis (Lauterbach (Hessen))

Fulda (district) (Fulda)

Landkreis Hersfeld-Rotenburg (Bad Hersfeld)

Landkreis Kassel (Kassel)

Schwalm-Eder-Kreis (Homberg (Efze))

Werra-Meißner-Kreis (Eschwege)

Waldeck-Frankenberg (Korbach)

|}

Independent cities:

Darmstadt
Frankfurt am Main
Kassel
Offenbach am Main
Wiesbaden

History An early Celtic presence in what is now Hesse is indicated by a mid 5th century BC La Tène style burial uncovered at Glauberg. The region was later settled by the Germanic peoples Chatti tribe in ca. the 1st century BC, and the name Hesse is a continuation of that tribal name. In the early Middle Ages, a Frankish Gau (country subdivision) comprising an area around Fritzlar and Kassel and a Saxon one further north were known as Hessengau. In the 9th century the Saxon Hessengau also came under the rule of the Franconians. In the 12th century it was passed to Thuringia.

In the War of the Thuringian Succession (1247-64), Hesse gained its independence and became a Landgrave within the Holy Roman Empire. It shortly rose to primary importance under Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse, 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 Polygamy) into four lines: Hesse-Kassel, Landgraviate of 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.

During the American Revolution, Great Britain hired mercenaries from Hesse, commonly known as Hessians, to fight the patriots in America. The Hessians got drunk celebrating Christmas in 1776, allowing George Washington to cross the Delaware River and launch successful attacks against them at Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey. Ironically, a British spy had spotted the Americans crossing the Delaware and wrote a note to warn Colonel Raul. Raul was too absorbed in the festivities to notice, and only noticed the note when the doctors cut away his clothes to treat the bullet wound he sustained during Washington's attack.

Hesse-Kassel was elevated to the rank 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 (duchy), which established the province of Hesse-Nassau.

Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to the rank 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.Until 1907, the Grand Duchy of Hesse used only the Hessian red and white lion as its coat-of-arms

The revolution of 1918 transformed Hesse-Darmstadt from a monarchy to a republic, which officially renamed itself to "Volksstaat Hessen" (People's State of Hesse). The parts of Hesse-Darmstadt on the western banks 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 United States, on the other side, proclaimed the state of Greater Hesse (Groß-Hessen) on 19 September 1945, out of Hesse-Darmstadt and most of the former Prussian province of 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 language and Hesse in English language; the English name for the state was taken from French language. 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.Hesse refers to the Germanic tribe of the Chatts, who settled in the region in the first centuries B.C.

List of Hesse's prime ministers (The title is Ministerpräsident in German)

1945: Ludwig Bergstraesser

1945 - 1946: Karl Geiler

1946 - 1951: Christian Stock (Social Democratic Party of Germany)

1951 - 1969: Georg-August Zinn (Social Democratic Party of Germany)

1969 - 1976: Albert Osswald (Social Democratic Party of Germany)

1976 - 1987: Holger Börner (Social Democratic Party of Germany)

1987 - 1991: Walter Wallmann (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)

1991 - 1999: Hans Eichel (Social Democratic Party of Germany)

since 1999: Roland Koch (Christian Democratic Union of Germany)

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.{] (CDU)| align="right" | 1,333,863| align="right" | 48.8% (+5,4)| align="right" | 56 (+6)| align="right" | 50.9%|-| Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)| align="right" | 795,576| align="right" | 29.1% (-10,3)| align="right" | 33 (-13)| align="right" | 30.0%|-| Alliance '90/The Greens (FDP)| align="right" | 216,110| align="right" | 7.9% (+2,8)| align="right" | 9 (+3)| align="right" | 8.2%|-| [The Republicans (Germany)| align="right" | 34,563| align="right" | 1.3% (-1,4)| align="right" | 0 (=)| align="right" | 0.0%|-| All Others| align="right" | 78,604| align="right" | 2.9% (+0,6)| align="right" | 0 (=)| align="right" | 0.0%|-|- bgcolor=lightgrey! | Totals! align="right" | 2,734,992! align="right" | 100.0%! align="right" | 110! align="right" | 100.0%|}

State Song The state song of Hesse is called "Hessenlied" (Song of Hesse). It was written by Carl Preser (1828-1910, text) and Albrecht Brede (1834-1920, melody).

TV & radio stations Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) is the main ARD (broadcaster) broadcaster in Hesse, providing a third TV programme as well as its local radio stations ( HR 1, HR 2, HR 3, HR 4, you fm and HR info ). Other than HR, ZDF and other privately run TV stations flourish. Among the commercial radio stations that are active in Hesse are Hit Radio FFH, Planet Radio, Harmony FM, SKY Radio and Main FM.

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 Hesse constitution, 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 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany provides for the abolition of the death penalty (Art. 102) and because of the supremacy of the federal constitution (Art. 31, incidentally the two shortest articles in the whole 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.

Trivia

Locals from the area speak the Rhine Franconian dialect known as Hessisch.

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, one of the U.S. state of the United States of America

During the 17th and 18th centuries thousands of Hessians fought in the American Revolution and other conflicts as soldiers of fortune (though usually conscripted, the pay going to their Lord) on both sides.