Hesse is a parliamentary republic and a partially sovereign member
state (land) of the Federal Republic of
Germany. It is the fifth largest of the sixteen countries by population.
It borders on Lower Saxony in the north, on North Rhine-Westphalia and
Rhineland-Palatinate in the west, on Bavaria and Thuringia in the east
and on Baden-Württemberg in the south.
After the Congress of
Vienna in 1815, what is now Hesse consisted primarily of the Grand Duchy
of Hesse, the Electorate of Hesse, the Duchy of Nassau, the Free City of
Frankfurt, the Principality of Waldeck, the Landgraviate of
Hesse-Homburg and the Rhenish-Prussian area around Wetzlar. Electoral
Hesse, Nassau, Hesse-Homburg (which came to Hesse-Darmstadt by
inheritance on March 24, 1866) and Frankfurt were annexed by the Kingdom
of Prussia in 1866 and combined as the province of Hesse-Nassau. During
the Weimar Republic, the former Grand Duchy became the republican
People's State of Hesse and Waldeck became part of the Free State of
Prussia in 1929. In 1944 the province of Hesse-Nassau was divided into
the provinces of Kurhessen and Nassau.
After the Second World
War, the state of Hesse was founded on September 19, 1945 under the name
Groß-Hessen in the American occupation zone and was the first state in
the Federal Republic that still exists today to receive a new democratic
constitution. The part of Rheinhessen on the left bank of the Rhine,
which belonged to the People's State of Hesse, and part of Nassau fell
to the French occupation zone and now belong to Rhineland-Palatinate.
Geographically, Hesse is characterized by low mountain ranges and
forests away from the Upper Rhine Plain. In the Rheingau and on the
Bergstraße there are cultural landscapes typical of viticulture, and
meadow orchards can also be found in numerous regions, which are also
used to produce the cider that is widespread in Hesse. The Hessian
dialects belong to the Rhine-Franconian language area of West Central
German.
The southern part of the state, the administrative
district of Darmstadt (southern Hesse), is one of the most densely
populated and economically strongest regions in Germany with the core of
the transnational Rhine-Main area located there. The state capital is
Wiesbaden, the most populous city is Frankfurt am Main. Other major
cities are the two historical residential cities of Darmstadt and Kassel
as well as Hanau and Offenbach am Main.
North Hesse
Hilly landscapes and many half-timbered towns.
Kassel Rothaargebirge Kaufunger Forest Habichtswald Reinhardswald
Kellerwald Hoher Meißner Knüll Waldecker Land Waldhessen
Werra-Meißner-Land
East Hesse
Fulda and the Hessian Rhön.
Rhön · Spessart
central Hesse
In the heart of Hesse with the
student city of Marburg.
Giessen Marburg Hessian Westerwald Burgwald
Lahn-Dill-Bergland Vogelsberg
southern Hesse
Rhein-Main
region, cider and mild climate.
Rhein-Main area Wetterau Taunus
Rheingau Hessisches Ried Bergstrasse Odenwald
A characteristic landscape feature of Hesse are the numerous
beautiful river valleys. As transport routes, they have been of great
economic importance for the country over the centuries. Today this has
changed significantly. Shipping on the Lahn, Fulda, Werra and the Weser
only takes place in the tourist area. But more and more visitors are
discovering the charm of these river landscapes. Whether on a bicycle or
by canoe, there is a lot to discover: half-timbered towns, castles and
palaces, ship tunnels and locks on the Lahn that you can operate
yourself, and even a bicycle cable car on the Fulda.
Information
about water hiking on the Lahn, Fulda, Werra and Weser can be found in
the topic article Water hiking in Germany.
The river landscapes
in Hesse (indented rivers are tributaries):
Weser · (is only touched
upon)
Werra - see also: Werra valley
Fulda - see also: Fulda cycle
path
Eder with the Edersee - Schwalm - Haune
diemel
Rhine -
Hessen also has some share in the famous Middle Rhine Valley
Neckar –
the places worth seeing, Hirschhorn and Neckarsteinach, belong to Hesse
Main-Kinzig-Nidda
Lahn - Ohm - Dill - Weil - Aar (Taunus) - see also:
Lahntal, Weiltalweg, Aartalradweg
The five largest cities
1 Frankfurt am Main.
The "Mainhattan", banking metropolis and transport hub with Frankfurt
Airport and train stations, annual book fair. It stands out with its
high-rise skyline, which is unique in Germany. Here you will also find
important places of history such as the Römer (old town hall), where the
Roman-German kings were elected, and the Paulskirche, where the first
German parliament met. The city also offers several museums of national
importance: the Senckenberg Natural History Museum (Germany's largest
natural history museum), the art collection of the Städel Museum and the
Goethe House.
2 Wiesbaden. State capital and
former world spa town with 14 hot thermal springs. The baroque castle
Biebrich, the Neroberg with the Russian-Orthodox church, the Kurhaus
with casino and the state theater are worth mentioning. The Wiesbaden
Museum is dedicated to both art and natural history.
3 Kassel.
In the North Hessian city of Kassel there are a number of tourist
destinations such as the UNESCO-listed Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe with the
large statue of Hercules, the documenta as the world-famous and largest
exhibition of modern art, which draws several million visitors from all
over the world to Kassel every 5 years, as well as the Grimm World
Kassel, in which, among other things, exhibits on the children's and
house fairy tales are shown.
4
Darmstadt. Science City and the
Mathildenhöhe Landscape Park, which includes the striking Wedding Tower
and the Darmstadt Artists' Colony.
5 Offenbach. historical origin of
many leather goods.
Other cities worth seeing
6 Büdingen .
historic old town with the best-preserved medieval city facilities in
Europe and is therefore also apostrophized as "the Rothenburg of Hesse".
7 Friedberg. Old town with half-timbered buildings and fortress.
8
Fulda. Bishop's seat between
Vogelsberg and Rhön. One of the most worth seeing buildings is the
baroque Cathedral of St. Salvator and Boniface.
9 Gelnhausen.
Barbarossa city with many historical sights.
10
Marburg. University town on the
Lahn. Worth seeing is the pretty old town, the Elisabeth Church and the
Landgrave Castle above the town.
11
Hanau. goldsmith town.
12 Wetzlar.
very well-preserved half-timbered old town with cathedral.
Saalburg
Gießen
Limburg an der Lahn
Arolsen Castle
Auerbach Castle
Burg Ludwigstein
Kellerwald-Edersee National Park
Löwenburg Castle
Half-timbered jewels
Many half-timbered towns and villages are
hidden between the Hessian low mountain ranges. The most worth
seeing can be found in the following list:
Alsfeld - well-known
half-timbered institution in Upper Hesse with a well-known
half-timbered town hall
Bad Sooden-Allendorf - one of the most
beautiful Hessian half-timbered pearls on the Werra
Eschwege -
half-timbered town in the Werra valley
Fritzlar - old town with
half-timbered market square, largely preserved city wall with its
wall towers and the Romanesque cathedral;
Heppenheim - one of the
most beautiful half-timbered marketplaces in Hesse, also
picturesquely situated in the Bergstraße wine region
Herborn -
Pearl in Central Hesse on the Dill
Idstein - half-timbered idyll
in the Taunus
Limburg an der Lahn - impresses with its unusual,
seven-tower cathedral, the medieval castle and an overall
well-preserved old town with numerous half-timbered houses
Naumburg (Hesse) - nice, small half-timbered town in the
Habichtswald nature park (rather unknown).
Melsungen -
half-timbered town on the Fulda with an imposing half-timbered town
hall
Michelstadt - half-timbered town in the Odenwald
Rotenburg an der Fulda - pretty half-timbered town on the middle
Fulda
Wanfried - small half-timbered town in the Werra valley
towards Thuringia
Zwingenberg - small residential town with
half-timbered houses on the mountain road
The largest and most famous health resorts:
Bad Hersfeld –
festival town, Lullusfest (oldest folk festival in Germany)
Bad
Homburg v. i.e. Height
Bad Nauheim - beautiful spa park with
graduation towers (salt extraction plants)
Bad Wildungen
Background
A checkered history has
given the country a cultural heritage, from Roman garrisons,
Carolingian castles, Romanesque churches to Gothic cathedrals.
Hessen was established after the war in September 1945 by
American forces. It arose from the former Prussian provinces of
Electoral Hesse and the larger part of Nassau and the part of the
former People's State of Hesse on the right bank of the Rhine
(Starkenburg and Upper Hesse) in the American occupation zone. Since
Rheinhessen was occupied by the French, this part of the country was
assigned to Rhineland-Palatinate. The districts of Mainz on the
right bank of the Rhine were separated and assigned to the state
capital of Wiesbaden and the district of Groß-Gerau.
Today's
Hesse has developed into the leading economic center, especially the
financial center and the traffic hub in Frankfurt am Main.
By plane
International passengers mostly land at Frankfurt Airport
(IATA: FRA), the second largest airport in Europe and the hub of
Deutsche Lufthansa. From this airport you can reach Frankfurt city
center with the S-Bahn from the regional train station every 15 minutes
in 11 - 12 minutes. Many ICE's and IC's also stop at the airport
long-distance train station in addition to or instead of Frankfurt Hbf.
The former military airport Hahn Airport (IATA: HHN), often
misleadingly referred to as Frankfurt-Hahn, is despite this name in the
Hunsrück in Rhineland-Palatinate and is served by low-cost airlines.
From there, the bus ride to Frankfurt am Main takes at least 90 minutes.
By train
Central long-distance transport hubs are the two train
stations Frankfurt Hbf and Frankfurt Flughafen Fernbahnhof. There is an
hourly or every 2-hour direct ICE connection to almost all major German
cities. ICE's also go to Vienna, Zurich, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
Other ICE stops are Frankfurt-Süd, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Fulda, Hanau,
Darmstadt and the state capital Wiesbaden. A TGV runs daily to Marseille
via Strasbourg and Lyon.
InterCity trains run every 2 hours from
Hamburg via Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Marburg, Gießen, Friedberg, Frankfurt
am Main and Darmstadt to Baden-Württemberg. Intercity trains come every
hour on the left bank of the Rhine from Cologne via Koblenz and Mainz to
Frankfurt am Main.
Regional express trains run in a star pattern
from Frankfurt main station to Limburg, Gießen, Siegen, Marburg and
Kassel, to Fulda, Aschaffenburg, Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Mannheim,
Saarbrücken via Mainz, and to Koblenz via Mainz and Bingen as well as
via Wiesbaden (StadtExpress) and Rüdesheim .
Within Hesse and
Mainz you can use the Hesse ticket on all local bus and train services.
For up to 5 people it costs €36 (as of 2022), and taking your bike with
you is free. It is valid Mon-Fri from 9:00 a.m. and all day on Saturdays
and Sundays. There is no single version.
Bicycles are free of
charge in Hesse with RMV and NVV tickets, in the VRN area Mon-Fri only
from 9:00 a.m. Bikes are also free with the Hessen ticket. For other
train tickets, it costs an additional €6.50 (as of 2020).
By bus
The development of the long-distance bus market is currently subject to
rapid change, both in terms of providers and routes.
In the
street
In Hesse there are many Park+Ride car parks that allow you to
switch from your car to public transport. The website pundr.hessen.de
provides an overview of the parking spaces and the current tariffs.
By boat
The Rhine and Main are navigable in the Hessen area.
Federal waterways, which are almost exclusively used by recreational
shipping, are the Lahn, Fulda and Weser.
With the exception of the southern tip, Hesse is divided into two
large transport associations:
Nordhessischer VerkehrsVerbund
(NVV) − North Hesse north of Marburg and Fulda
Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) – central and southern Hesse to
Darmstadt and Odenwald, including Mainz
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar
(VRN) – area of the Bergstraße district south of Darmstadt, offers
transitional tariffs to the RMV area.
With the Hessen ticket from
the three Hessian transport associations, up to five people can travel
as often and as far as they like within Hesse and Mainz for a day from 9
a.m. on local trains, S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains, trams and buses. The
ticket is valid all day on Saturdays and Sundays.
With the senior
citizen ticket, people aged 65 and over can travel for 12 months for 365
euros Monday to Friday from 9 a.m., otherwise all day long on all local
public transport in Hesse and Mainz.
Numerous well-developed and
signposted cycle paths and long-distance cycle paths such as the
Lahntalradweg or the Vulkanradweg run through the country. The article
Cycle routes in Hesse provides an overview.
The Hessian dialects are spoken in large parts of Hesse and sometimes beyond. In the south (Bergstraße and Odenwald) the language is Kurpfälzisch, in the Westerwald Moselle Franconian, in northern Hesse partly also Low German (Korbach/Edersee area and in the Werratal). Due to the close relationship, the Hessian is usually understood quickly by people from the Palatinate and Franconia, others will have serious problems. However, due to the strong immigration to Hesse, but also due to the current mobility of the inhabitants, the Hessian language is almost threatened with extinction. Genuine Hessian is almost impossible to find in southern Hesse and in northern Hesse only in smaller communities. The "Hessian" propagated on radio and television is just a regional dialect that is only spoken in the greater Frankfurt area. In terms of sound, it bears no relation to the dialects in the north of Hesse, the historical heartland of Hesse. There is no difference between ch and sch in Hessian. The words church and cherry sound the same.
You can find more about food and drink in Hesse on the page: Eating and drinking in Hesse
Universities are available in Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Marburg, Gießen and Kassel. There are universities (formerly Fachhochschulen) in Wiesbaden (with branch offices in Rüsselsheim and Geisenheim), Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Giessen (with branch offices in Friedberg and Wetzlar) and Fulda.
In large parts of Hesse, the security situation is the same as in all of Germany with the exception of a few surrounding communities around Frankfurt, especially in Dietzenbach, which has become a hot spot.
Free WiFi hotspots
throughout Hesse can be found on the Hessen WiFi map. There are other
free hotspots in the S-Bahn and express bus lines of the RMV, as well as
in many food and drugstores (including Rewe, Aldi and dm). There are now
also free hotspots at many RMV ticket machines. These can be helpful for
travel planning or timetable information.
In some cities, the
free WiFi from Ipster has prevailed (e.g. Bad Orb, Steinau an der
Straße). The network is either without a password or password-protected
with the password ipster.me and can be used free of charge without
further ado. Information on this can be found at
www.ipster.me
The areas between Spessart and Rhine are classified as TBE risk areas, i.e. areas in which between 1985 and 2004 at least five cases of tick-borne encephalitis or at least two cases of TBE within one year were registered. Another affected region is between Bad Nauheim and Bad Wildungen.
The State of Hesse has created the Hesse Security Portal platform with an integrated defect reporter. Anyone can enter deficiencies in the city/municipality on this, e.g. B. littering and vandalism. The defects entered there are then forwarded to the cities/municipalities.
Hesse has an area of 21,114.94 square kilometers. As of December 31,
2014, the use of this total floor area is divided into the following
types of use:
Settlement and transport area 3,315 km², including
Building and open space 1,572 km²
For housing 910 km²
For trade
and industry 170 km²
Recreation area 209 km²
Traffic area 1,433
km²
Agricultural area: 8,859 km²
Forest area 8,477 km²
Water
area 294 km²
According to the evaluation of around 35,000
measuring points along the Hessian border, the geographical center of
Hesse is in Flensungen, a district of the municipality of Mücke in the
Vogelsberg district. From January 1, 2007 to June 30, 2013, the
geographic center of the European Union was in the Barbarossa town of
Gelnhausen, Meerholz district, in the Main-Kinzig district.
Hesse extends from the approximate center of Germany to the south to southwest and borders with a total border length of 1410 km on the states of North Rhine-Westphalia (border length: 269.3 km), Lower Saxony (167.0 km), Thuringia (269.6 km) , Bavaria (261.9 km), Baden-Württemberg (176.5 km) and Rhineland-Palatinate (266.3 km).
Hesse is characterized by low mountain ranges up to 950 m in height.
The basin landscapes, on the other hand, are often at altitudes below
200 m above sea level. NN, the river valleys sometimes fall below the
100 meter mark.
The north of Hesse belongs to the so-called
German low mountain range. These include, on the one hand, the natural
spatial main unit groups of the Rhenish Slate Mountains Süderbergland,
Taunus, Westerwald, Giessen-Koblenzer Lahntal and Mittelrheingebiet, on
the other hand in the Hessian Bruchschollentafelland West and East
Hessian Uplands as well as the Lower Saxony Uplands in the north and the
Thuringian Basin in the east.
The south and south-east of Hesse
belongs to the south-west German strata with the main unit group
Hessian-Franconian Uplands, the south-west to the Upper Rhine lowlands.
Hesse is one of the most densely forested states in Germany, as the
forests here cover around 42 percent of the state area.
Hesse's landscape consists of numerous low mountain ranges, sorted
according to their highest (Hessian) mountains: Rhön, Taunus,
Rothaargebirge, Vogelsberg, Hoher Meißner, Kellerwald, Westerwald,
Söhre, Kaufunger Wald, Knüllgebirge, Habichtswald, Gladenbacher
Bergland, Odenwald, Stölzinger gebirge , Spessart, Schlierbachswald,
Seulingswald, Richelsdorf Mountains and Reinhardswald.
The
highest point in the state is on the Wasserkuppe (950.2 m above sea
level. NN) in the Rhön in the district of Fulda (to the Hessian low
mountain ranges and other mountains: list of mountains in Hesse).
In the south-west of Hesse, in the Upper Rhine lowlands, which also
includes the Rhine-Main metropolitan area and the Wetterau, is the
largest basin in terms of area. It is part of the Mediterranean-Mjösen
Zone and is extended within this to the north (east) by the Giessen
Basin, the Amöneburg Basin and the West Hessian Depression, which
extends north of Kassel.
Away from this, the Limburg Basin on the
western state border with Rhineland-Palatinate between the Taunus and
Westerwald forms a larger intramontane subsidence area within the
Rhenish Slate Mountains. In contrast, the Wetschaft Depression extends
the eastern boundary of the Rhenish Slate Mountains north of Wetterau
and the Giessen Basin.
The mostly tectonic basins are mostly not
basins in the geomorphological sense, but partly spacious lowlands
through which rivers flow. Loess covers are often found here, which
together with the favorable climate form the basis for productive
agriculture.
The lowest point in Hesse is near Lorch am Rhein (81
m above sea level) in the Rheingau-Taunus district.
The north and east of Hesse belong to the catchment area of the
Weser, which crosses the state in the extreme north. Its source rivers,
the Fulda and the Werra, flow through Hesse over a length of 215 km and
95 km respectively. In contrast, the rest of the country is drained
towards the Rhine, which forms the 107 km border with
Rhineland-Palatinate in the south-west. Its most important tributaries
for Hesse are the Main and Lahn, but the Neckar also flows a short
distance through the extreme south of Hesse.
All rivers flowing
through Hesse with a total length of more than 100 km or a flow distance
in Hesse of more than 50 km are listed below. The Hessian and the total
length are given.
At the end of August 2019, the Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection announced a renaturation program for 100 streams.
There are no larger natural lakes in Hesse. Four of the largest
reservoirs in the state are in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district in
north-west Hesse: the Edersee, by far the largest lake in Hesse, as well
as Affolderner See, Diemelsee and Twistesee. Other important reservoirs
are the Kinzig reservoir in East Hesse's Main-Kinzig district and the
Aartalsee in the municipality of Bischoffen in West Hesse's Lahn-Dill
district.
The largest quarry ponds in Hesse include the Borkener
See in the Schwalm-Eder district, the Werratalsee in the Werra-Meißner
district and the Langener Waldsee in the Offenbach district, which is
the largest lake in southern Hesse.
nature and protected areas
763 nature reserves with a total area of more than 36,000 ha have been
designated in the various natural areas of Hesse. This corresponds to
about 1.7% of the country's area. In addition, 125 landscape protection
areas have been set up.
As part of the European Natura2000
program, 583 FFH areas and 60 EU bird sanctuaries were placed under
protection. There are 31 natural forest reserves in Hesse with a total
reserve area of 1228 ha. Numerous individual trees, rock formations or
smaller areas are protected as natural monuments.
Hesse's only
national park is the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park. Since 2011, part
of it has been part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage "Old and
primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe".
As a world-class fossil deposit, the Messel Pit has been a World
Heritage Site since 1995.
History of Hesse
In today's state of
Hesse are the former territories of the Hessian principalities
Landgraviate of Hesse (later including Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt,
Hesse-Rotenburg and Hesse-Homburg), the County of Erbach, the
Principality of Solms and large parts of the Duchy of Nassau, the County
Hanau, the County of Isenburg, the Principality of Waldeck, the
Bishoprics of Mainz and Fulda, and the Free Imperial Cities of Frankfurt
am Main, Friedberg, Gelnhausen and Wetzlar, or the former territories of
the successor states.
The proclamation of the American military
government on September 19, 1945 laid the foundations for today's state
of Hesse, which united the Prussian provinces of Kurhessen and Nassau
and the people's state of Hesse to form the state of Greater Hesse,
excluding the areas in the west that had become part of the French
occupation zone were. On the one hand, these were the Nassau districts
of Sankt Goarshausen, Unterlahn, Oberwesterwald, Unterwesterwald and, on
the other hand, Rheinhessen, the left bank of the Rhine province of the
former People's State of Hesse, with the parts of the cities of Mainz
and Worms on the right bank of the Rhine in the American occupation zone
remaining in the occupation zone and therefore today (still) belong to
Hesse. The French-occupied areas became part of the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate in 1946 as the administrative districts of
Montabaur and Rheinhessen. The former exclave of Wimpfen became part of
the newly founded federal state of Württemberg-Baden against the
majority resistance of the population and of Hesse. With the adoption of
the constitution of the State of Hesse by referendum on December 1,
1946, the previously formed “State of Greater Hesse” became the “State
of Hesse”.
Name origin
According to
general opinion, the name Hessen is the modified form of the tribal name
of the Germanic Chatti, whose settlement focus was in what is now
northern and central Hesse.
Due to its central location, the area of present-day Hesse has always
been characterized by immigration. Friedrichsdorf, Bad Karlshafen,
Walldorf and Neu-Isenburg were founded by religious refugees such as
Huguenots and Waldensians. Other places like Trutzhain were founded
after the Second World War by expellees. The largest group that settled
in Hesse were expelled German Bohemians and German Moravians,
collectively often referred to as Sudeten Germans. In the 1960s,
so-called guest workers came to Hesse from Italy, Spain, Yugoslavia and
Turkey, later repatriates and late repatriates from Romania, Poland and
the former Soviet Union, as well as immigrants from the Middle East,
North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Iran, Afghanistan and other countries
Asia. The centers of immigration today are the large cities in the
Rhine-Main area such as Frankfurt am Main or Offenbach.
At the
end of December 2013, 810,639 foreigners lived in Hesse, which
corresponds to 13.4 percent of the Hessian total population. The
proportion of the population with a migration background is 25.5%, which
means that Hesse has the second-highest proportion of migrants among the
non-city German states after Baden-Württemberg.
A large number of
Hessian cities have a high proportion of foreigners (registered
residents without German citizenship). The cities of Offenbach am Main
(31.5%), Kelsterbach (31.0), Raunheim (28.0), Dietzenbach (27.4),
Frankfurt am Main (26, 8), Rüsselsheim am Main (23.1), Hanau (21.2) and
Neu-Isenburg (20.9%). All of the cities mentioned are in the urban
region of Frankfurt, the agglomeration around the core city of Frankfurt
am Main.
As of 2018, 33.4 percent of the population belonged to the Protestant
state churches, 22.3 percent were Roman Catholic and 44.4 percent of the
Hessian population belonged to another religious community or no
religious community. At the end of 2020, Hesse had 6,293,154
inhabitants, 31.6% were Protestant, 21.2% Catholic and 47.3% had either
another religion or no religion at all. The number of Protestant and
Catholic Christians in Hesse fell by an average of 0.78 percent per year
from 2001 to 2018.
Some of the non-religious people are organized
in the Humanistic Community of Hesse, a public ideological community.
A representative study commissioned by the Hessian Ministry for
Social Affairs and Integration came to the conclusion that 63 percent of
the Hessian population identified themselves as Christians, three
percent as Muslims and one percent as followers of another religious
community. According to the study, 32 percent said they were
non-denominational. According to a 2009 projection by the Federal
Ministry of the Interior, more than ten percent of all Muslims in
Germany live in Hesse.
The average life expectancy in the period 2015/17 was 79.0 years for
men and 83.4 years for women. Men thus rank 3rd among the German federal
states, while women rank 4th. Regionally, in 2013/15 the Hochtaunuskreis
(expectation of the total population: 82.76 years), the
Main-Taunus-Kreis (82.40) and the district of Offenbach (82.19) had the
highest, as well as Limburg-Weilburg (80.22) , the Schwalm-Eder district
(80.04) and the Werra-Meißner district (79.75) have the lowest life
expectancy.
In 2017 there were 159 hospitals with 36,432 beds in
Hesse. The country had 12,756 full-time doctors, 535 affiliated doctors
and a further 66,426 employees in hospitals.
Hessian constitution
The Hessian constitution of December 1, 1946
is the oldest constitution of a German state still in force today. The
constitution is divided into two main parts. Of the 161 constitutional
articles, the first 63 articles deal with fundamental rights. The
structure of the state is regulated in the second main part. Here, the
state organs that are called upon to exercise state power are described
with their tasks, rights and duties (see section “State structure”
below). In the constitution, Hesse is committed to peace, freedom,
international understanding and the German Republic (which is still to
be created when the constitution comes into force). War is outlawed. The
right to resist anti-constitutional laws and actions is enshrined in the
constitution.
Up until 2018, the Hessian constitution included
the option of the death penalty, but this was broken by federal law and
therefore could not be applied in Hesse. This option was removed by
referendum at the same time as the state elections in Hesse in 2018.
Since 2018 there has also been a Data Protection and Freedom of
Information Act (HDSIG) in Hesse. It guarantees in § 80 paragraph 1 the
free access of Hessian citizens to information of the public
administration (Freedom of Information Act).
The first
constitutionally elected prime minister was Christian Stock. With the
promulgation of the Basic Law on May 23, 1949, Hesse became part of the
Federal Republic of Germany.
Generally
According to its constitution, Hesse is a member of the
German Republic, which expresses the right to membership in a new German
state (at the time the constitution was passed). The form of government
is a democratic and parliamentary republic.
Legislative - State
Parliament
Legislative power – the legislature – is exercised by the
state parliament, insofar as it is not intended for the people through a
referendum. The Landtag consists of members elected by the people. All
voters who have reached the age of 18 have the passive right to vote.
All parties with more than five percent of the votes are represented in
the state parliament. The legislative period has been five years since
2003, before that it was four years.
Executive - state government
The executive power – the executive – is the Hessian state government
and the state administration subordinate to it. The state government
consists of the prime minister and the ministers. The prime minister
determines the guidelines of government policy and is accountable to the
state parliament for this. Within these guidelines, each minister
manages the branch of business entrusted to him independently and under
his own responsibility to the state parliament. The Prime Minister
represents the State of Hesse externally. The state parliament elects
the prime minister in a secret ballot without debate, with more than
half the legal number of its members. The prime minister then appoints
the ministers. A special feature is that members of the noble
houses/families who ruled in Germany or another country or rule in
another country up to 1918 cannot become members of the state
government.
Judiciary – regional courts
Judicial power – the
judiciary – is exercised by the state court and other courts in the
country. The State Court of Justice consists of eleven members, namely
five judges and six members elected by the state parliament according to
the principles of proportional representation who may not belong to the
state parliament. The Constitutional Court decides on the
constitutionality of laws, violations of fundamental rights, contesting
the result of a referendum, constitutional disputes and in the cases
provided for in the Constitution and laws. In Hesse, there is also the
special feature that there is the institution of a provincial prosecutor
who can, of his own accord, arrange for the state court to examine the
constitutionality of a law.
From 1945 to 1987, the SPD provided the Prime Minister of Hesse. The
state was therefore often referred to as the red Hessen. The SPD was
also the strongest party until 1970. From this time, the CDU succeeded
for the first time in becoming the strongest party; however, the
government was formed by a coalition of SPD and FDP until 1982. After
the Greens, who at that time still saw themselves as the fundamental
opposition, entered the Hessian state parliament for the first time as a
result of the state elections in Hesse in 1982, there was no majority
capable of governing. This situation did not end until the end of 1985,
when the first red-green state government in Germany came into being. In
early 1987 it broke again. The following early elections saw the CDU and
FDP emerge as victors. Since then, there have been narrow majorities in
every election in the country, often with only one seat. From 1991 to
1999, the SPD and the Greens governed again, before a coalition of CDU
and FDP was formed in 1999 under Roland Koch. In 2003, the CDU received
an absolute majority in parliament (56 seats) for the first time in
Hesse.
In the state elections on January 27, 2008, the CDU was
unable to defend its majority. The first entry of the party Die Linke,
even if it only just cleared the five percent hurdle with 5.1% of the
vote, meant that none of the government coalitions that the parties were
striving for in advance (CDU/FDP or SPD/Greens) achieved a found
majority. In the weeks that followed, all attempts by the parties
elected to the state parliament to put together a governable majority,
which would require either two large parties (CDU and SPD) or one large
and two smaller parties (FDP, Greens and Left) failed, failed. The new
state parliament did not elect a prime minister in its constitutive
session on April 5, 2008, which, according to Article 113 of the Hessian
constitution, meant that the previous CDU government under Roland Koch
remained in office until further notice. At the beginning of November,
another attempt by SPD top candidate Andrea Ypsilanti to achieve a
majority with the help of the Greens and the Left failed due to a lack
of support in her own parliamentary group. As a result, all factions
voted for the dissolution of the state parliament and thus made new
elections possible on January 18, 2009. These brought a clear majority
for the CDU and FDP, so that Roland Koch was re-elected prime minister
of a government made up of CDU and FDP on February 5, 2009 became. On
August 31, 2010, Volker Bouffier was elected prime minister after Koch's
resignation. However, in the state elections in Hesse in 2013, the Union
and the FDP were unable to maintain their majority – the SPD and the
Greens were also unable to win a majority without the left. The Union
held talks with both the SPD and the Greens. Finally, Bouffier led to
the first coalition between the Union and the Greens in a non-city area.
Even after the state elections in Hesse in 2018, the black-green
coalition under Prime Minister Bouffier was able to continue its work.
After Bouffier's resignation, Boris Rhein was elected Prime Minister on
May 31, 2022.
The state of Hesse was the first German state to draw up a state
balance sheet. In contrast to state balance sheets, which are based on
data from the national accounts, Hesse's state balance sheet was drawn
up in accordance with the rules of the Commercial Code. That is, an
inventory of the assets and liabilities and their valuation were made.
The opening balance sheet was prepared as of January 1, 2009, and the
annual financial statements are prepared as of December 31 each year.
The last available financial statements are for the year 2011. The
opening balance sheet and the annual financial statements were checked
and certified by the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Equity, which is negative in Hesse's case, results from the difference
between assets and liabilities. This means that the country is
over-indebted. The debt ratio remained roughly constant in the years
2009 to 2011, but has deteriorated since 2012.
Since Hesse, along
with Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, is one of the few net contributors
to the state financial equalization system due to its financial
strength, it can be assumed that the financial position of most German
states is rather poor. However, a comparison with the city states is
difficult because the state balance sheets of large states do not
contain the assets of the municipalities. According to the forecast in
the 2011 Annual Report, negative equity will increase to around EUR 90
billion by 2020 and decrease to EUR 85 billion from 2021 to 2025. The
2013 annual report states: “The state government assumes that there will
be the possibility of repaying the deficit that is not covered by
equity. An annual deficit of around EUR 3.1 billion is expected for
2014.”
In addition to the balance sheets, the State of Hesse also
prepares cameralistic annual financial statements. The fiscal year is
the calendar year. These follow the requirements of the Budget
Principles Act. This makes them comparable to the qualifications of
other federal states. However, they do not provide an overview of the
financial situation. For the 2013 financial year, the state government
gave an account of the state's income and expenditure as well as the
product budget with the budget statement.
According to a ruling
by the State Court of Justice of the State of Hesse on October 27, 2021,
the Hessian state government has to reorganize the billions in loans for
the Corona aid. The state court justified its decision with the fact
that the state government had exceeded the budgetary powers with the
special fund. There would have been other forms of crisis management.
The state government has now been given a transitional period until the
end of March 2022 to end the unconstitutionality. The state's
loan-financed special fund has a total volume of 12 billion euros. The
purpose of the special fund was to mitigate the consequences of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The State of Hesse represents its interests in the European Union by
participating in various bodies and committees, and Hessian MPs are
represented in the European Parliament. In addition, the State of Hesse
maintains a permanent representation in Brussels, and Hesse also sends
members to the Committee of the Regions or is involved through the
regional MEPs in Brussels. In November 2010, the state government also
adopted its European policy strategy entitled "Taking advantage of
Hessen's opportunities in Europe".
Hessian European policy is
coordinated by the Hessian Minister for Federal and European Affairs,
who is based at the Hessian State Chancellery. In Brussels, the Hessian
state government maintains a representation headed by Lucia Puttrich. In
the Hessian state parliament, the European Committee is responsible for
cross-sectional European policy issues, currently chaired by Aloys Lenz
(CDU). A separate agreement was reached in 2011 on the state government
informing the state parliament about matters relating to the European
Union.
The national emblems of the State of Hesse include the state coat of
arms, the state flag, the state service flag, the state seal, the
official shield of the state authorities and the red and white state
cockade.
The name of the country is written out in capitals,
using the Avenir font, as it is used in all official publications.
Blazon: “The state coat of arms shows a nine times silver and red
divided rising lion with golden claws in the blue shield. On the shield
rests a thread of golden foliage with fruits formed by blue pearls.”
Coat of arms of the state of Hesse Blazon: “The state coat of arms
shows a blue shield with a nine times silver and red divided rising lion
with golden claws. On the shield rests a thread of golden foliage with
fruits formed by blue pearls.”
Justification for the coat of
arms: The state coat of arms with the red and white lion on a blue
background with a golden crown is a design by the artist Gerhard Matzat,
who was born in East Prussia in 1921, and which he designed in 1949 for
the newly formed state of Hesse.
Coat of Arms
Since the coat
of arms can only be used by the Hessian authorities due to its sovereign
function, the state published the "Hessen Sign" in 1981, which can be
used freely. In doing so, Hessen complied with the desire of private
individuals, associations and companies to express their connection to
their state with a symbol. It consists of the slightly modified and
stylized heraldic figure of the lion and can be used either in black or
in the national colors of white or red.
coat of arms figure
Hessen lion or colorful lion is the name for the coat of arms figure in
the coat of arms of Hesse. This name refers to the white and red striped
heraldic animal with the tongue out in red. It is a lion divided nine
times by silver and red.
The lion was originally used by the
Ludowingers, who were also landgraves in Thuringia. It is still used
today in Hesse's coat of arms. The oldest depiction of a coat of arms is
the coat of arms of Landgrave Konrad of Thuringia († 1240), Regent of
Hesse (until 1234) and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (from 1239),
on his tomb in the Landgrave Choir of the Elisabeth Church in Marburg.
At the time of Grand Duchy he was a crowned lion, armored in gold,
divided nine times by silver and red, with double tails in a blue
shield, and brandishing a sword in his right paw. He can be found in
many coats of arms of the country and embodies the affiliation to the
same. He is either shown whole or he is growing (half lion, only upper
body).
“The national flag consists of an upper red and a lower white
horizontal stripe; the ratio of the height of the flag to its length is
3:5. The national flag is also the commercial flag. The state service
flag is the state flag that shows the state coat of arms in the middle.”
The red and white coloring of the national flag is taken from the
heraldic animal; the state service flag may only be used by Hessian
departments, such as the ministries.
state seal
The state seal
shows the heraldic figure, the lion. The large state seal is an embossed
seal and shows the state's heraldic figure without inscription,
surrounded by a thread of foliage. The small state seal shows the coat
of arms figure of the state with a circumscription designating the place
bearing the seal. It is used as an embossed seal, seal mark or ink stamp
(made of metal or rubber). The small state seal should have a diameter
of three and a half centimeters.
The small state seal is used by
the state administrations, the heads of state schools and universities,
the notaries appointed by the state government and authorized to use an
official seal, and the registry offices.
With the consent of the
Minister of the Interior, the competent supreme state authority can
permit public-law corporations, institutions and foundations that are
subject to the supervision of the state government to use the state’s
coat of arms figure in their seals if they perform sovereign tasks
important to the state. The coat of arms figure is placed in the lower
semicircle of the seal, the designation of the seal-bearing body in the
upper semicircle of the seal.
The official sign of the state authorities is a white rectangle on which the state coat of arms is located. Below the coat of arms is the name of the authority in black letters, without specifying the location. The official sign marks the entrance of a state authority.
The official anthem of the state of Hesse is the Hessenlied. The
Hessenlied was already created during the time of the German Empire. The
melody was composed by the Kassel music teacher Albrecht Brede
(1834-1920), who came from Besse, and the accompanying text was written
by the poet Carl Preser (1828-1910).
representations
The state
of Hesse is represented abroad in the form of permanent representations
at the European Union in Brussels and representative offices for
economic issues (United States, People's Republic of China, Hungary,
Cuba, Russia, Poland and Iran). In addition, there is the Hessian state
representation at the federal level in Berlin.
Administrative districts
When it was
founded, Hesse was administratively divided into three administrative
districts: Darmstadt, Kassel and Wiesbaden. In 1968 the administrative
district of Wiesbaden was dissolved and merged with the Darmstadt
administrative district. In the effort to be closer to the citizens, the
administrative district of Gießen was reestablished in 1981, so that
today there are three administrative districts again. These are divided
into five urban districts and 21 rural districts with 423 district
municipalities.
One district cities
There are five urban
districts in Hesse, which are also exactly the five major cities in the
state. The city of Kassel is in the administrative district of the same
name, all others are in the administrative district of Darmstadt.
However, the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden are directly
subject to municipal supervision by the Hessian Ministry of the Interior
and Sport.
These are the cities:
Darmstadt
Frankfurt am
Main
kassel
Offenbach am Main
Wiesbaden
special status
cities
With the local government reforms of 1974 and 1977, four
cities lost their administrative status. Together with the remaining
three towns with more than 50,000 but less than 100,000 inhabitants,
they received a special status that still enabled them to continue to
independently take on some of the tasks otherwise taken on by the rural
districts (e.g. running schools).
The seven special status cities
are:
Bad Homburg before the height
Fulda, independent district
until 1974
Gießen, independent of a district until 1976
Hanau,
independent district until 1974
Marburg, independent district until
1974
Ruesselsheim am Main
Wetzlar
cities and communes
Frankfurt am Main is one of the most important German cities in Hesse.
The city has 759,224 inhabitants (December 31, 2021), more than 2.3
million people live in the Frankfurt city region. More than half of the
Hessian population lives in the entire Rhine-Main metropolitan area, and
most other large cities are also located here: Wiesbaden (278,950
inhabitants), Darmstadt (159,631), Offenbach am Main (131,295), Hanau
(98,502), Rüsselsheim am Main (66,125) and Bad Homburg in front of the
height (54,144).
The largest city in the other parts of the state
is Kassel, the historic capital of northern Hesse, with 200,406
inhabitants today the third largest city in the state. Giessen (91,255
inhabitants), Marburg (76,571) and Wetzlar (52,969) are in Central
Hesse, Fulda (68,462) in East Hesse.
Eleven other towns with more
than 30,000 inhabitants (Oberursel (Taunus), Rodgau, Dreieich, Hofheim
am Taunus, Maintal, Langen (Hesse), Neu-Isenburg, Mörfelden-Walldorf,
Bad Vilbel, Dietzenbach and Bad) are in the area around Frankfurt am
Main Nauheim). There are three other towns of this size (Bensheim,
Viernheim and Lampertheim) on the Bergstraße in southern Hesse. Despite
the low population of 35,783, Limburg an der Lahn has a central function
for the sparsely populated west of the state and for the nearby towns in
the Westerwald district and in the Rhein-Lahn district of the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate.
dialects
The Hessian dialects belong to the Rhine-Franconian, i.e.
Central German, dialect groups. The dialects of the various parts of the
country, which are connected via the dialect continuum, show strong
differences in detail.
North Hessian is spoken in the region
around Kassel. To the north and west of it, including parts of Waldeck,
runs the border with Westphalia, which already belongs to the Low
German-speaking area. The central Hessian dialects are traditionally
spoken north of the Wiesbaden-Aschaffenburg line and extend to the
borders of the Siegerland, e.g. B. in the hinterland Platt and
Wittgensteiner Platt. In the west, in the Limburg Basin and the
Westerwald, the Moselle Franconian language area reaches into Hesse,
especially in the former Electoral Trier towns. East Hessian is the
dialect in the region around Fulda and in the Hessian Rhön (Rhöner
Platt). On the state borders with Thuringia, in the Werra area and in
parts of the Rhön on the border with Bavaria, Thuringian and East
Franconian dialects are also spoken, as a sprinkling of Eichsfeld and
Henneberg or Grabfeld dialects. The traditional Frankfurt city dialect
already belongs to the group of southern Hessian dialects, which are
also spoken in the Darmstadt area and on the Bavarian Lower Main.
In the metropolitan areas, however, dialects are rarely heard due to
the high immigration rate. Standard German predominates or modern urban
languages are emerging, such as the Neuhessian Regiolekt in the
Rhine-Main area. It is also referred to as "RMV-Hessian" because it
roughly covers the area of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, or as
"Fernsehhessisch" and also mockingly as "Äbbelwoihessisch" because many
productions of the Hessischer Rundfunk contributed to its spread.
Because of its spread in popular culture, for example through artists
such as Badesalz and Bodo Bach, the Neuhessian regiolect is often
considered to be Hessian, even though it does not do justice to the
variety of dialects spoken in Hesse. All traditional Hessian dialects
show clear differences to the New Hessian dialect and are very popular
today.
In general, potatoes are usually served as a side dish in Hesse. The
following specialties are nationally known:
Awl Sausage
cider
bethman
Frankfurt's green sauce
Frankfurt wreath
Frankfurters
Hessian hand cheese, also as hand cheese with music
With the Wiesbaden Museum, the Hessen Kassel Museum Landscape and the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt, the State of Hesse operates three universal museums, which are jointly under the Hessian Ministry for Science and Art. The collections are structured in a similar way, but generally complement each other. For example, Eugen Bracht's work "Gestade der Unfall" (Stade of Oblivion) is exhibited in Darmstadt and "Hannibal's Grave" in Kassel; both works are the artist's main works par excellence. The “Block Beuys” is located in Darmstadt, but there are also extensive inventories of Joseph Beuys in Kassel and Wiesbaden.
New Year
Good Friday
easter monday
Labor Day
Ascension of
Christ
Whit Monday
Corpus Christi
Day of German unity
1st
day of Christmas
2nd day of Christmas
Mining has been going on in Hesse for centuries. In the 21st century, 283 companies are still under the supervision of the Hessian mining authorities.
From 1923 to 1991, the Main-Weser power plant was operated with
lignite. It had an output of 356 megawatts.
The Biblis nuclear
power plant was built in the early 1970s. With a planned gross
electrical output of 5,215 megawatts, it was one of the largest of its
kind in Germany. Of the four reactors, only two actually went into
operation with a combined output of 2525 megawatts. The reactors that
went into operation in 1974/1975 were shut down on May 30, 2011 as part
of the nuclear moratorium.
There are also several thermal power
plants, including the Staudinger power plant in Großkrotzenburg and the
West thermal power plant in Frankfurt am Main. The Waldeck pumped
storage power plant is used to store electricity.
The development
of renewable energies began as early as 1990 with the first Vogelsberg
wind farm. By mid-2016, 918 wind turbines with a total capacity of 1,477
megawatts had been installed.
After the Ruhr area, the Rhine-Main area has the highest
concentration of industry in Germany. Of particular economic importance
are the chemical and pharmaceutical industries with Industriepark
Höchst, Merck KGaA, Heraeus, SGL Carbon and Evonik. The Rhine-Main area
is also a center of the IT and telecommunications industry.
In
machine and vehicle construction, Opel in Rüsselsheim am Main should be
mentioned in particular, as well as automotive suppliers such as
Continental. Numerous foreign automotive groups have settled their
German or European headquarters here.
The financial center
Frankfurt am Main is an important international financial center. The
first things to think about here are the European Central Bank and the
Deutsche Bundesbank. The headquarters of the four largest German banks
Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank, the development bank KfW and Commerzbank have
their headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, as well as numerous smaller
banks, public and cooperative credit institutions and more than 150
branches of foreign banks. Frankfurt am Main is also the most important
German stock exchange with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Insurance
companies have settled with a focus on Wiesbaden. The city's largest
private employer is R+V Versicherung with around 3,900 employees. There
are also insurers such as DBV-Winterthur, SV SparkassenVersicherung and
the Delta-Lloyd Group. The leather industry in Offenbach is also worth
mentioning.
Frankfurt Main Airport is a particularly important
business location and, with the companies based there, forms the largest
workplace in Germany for 81,000 employees (as of 2016). Important
employers are the airport operator, Fraport AG, Deutsche Lufthansa,
other airlines, freight companies, ground handling services, hotels and
shops.
Outside of this region, for example, companies with a
global reputation are based in Wetzlar in central Hesse. With Leica
Microsystems, Leica Camera, Minox, Zeiss and Hensoldt, a center of the
optical, electrical engineering and precision engineering industry in
Germany and the Buderus company are based there. The Fulda tire works,
the Volkswagen factory in Kassel in Baunatal and the locomotive
construction in Kassel at Bombardier Transportation are also of greater
importance. Northern Hesse also has the Original Parts Center of
Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest spare parts warehouse, which is
networked by Volkswagen Original Parts Logistics, as well as the
Viessmann works, a major manufacturer of heating technology products.
In October 2020, Hesse had 193,972 unemployed. The unemployment rate
is therefore 5.6% (October 2019: 4.3%). The district of Fulda has the
lowest rate at 3.4%, while the independent city of Offenbach am Main has
the highest rate nationwide at 10.5%.
In terms of gross domestic
product (GDP) per capita, Hesse is one of the most prosperous states in
Germany, it is tied with Bavaria in third and fourth place among the
federal states after Hamburg and Bremen. In comparison with the GDP of
the European Union, expressed in purchasing power standards, Hesse
achieved an index value of 145 in 2014 (EU-28: 100; Germany: 126). In
2014, Hesse had a GDP per capita of 41,400 euros, the purchasing power
per inhabitant was 39,700 euros (PPS per inhabitant). In 2016, among all
German districts, the Hochtaunus district was in second place with
31,238 euros per inhabitant and the Main-Taunus district was in fourth
place with 30,530 euros per inhabitant. The ten urban districts in
Germany with the highest purchasing power in 2016 include Frankfurt am
Main in third place with an index value of 115.4 and Wiesbaden in sixth
place with an index value of 112.1 (national average = 100). In 2019,
the GDP per employed person was 83,320 euros, which was 9.7 percent
above the national average and had the highest value of the German
non-city states.
Since December 1, 2006, shop opening times have
been liberalized in Hesse. Only Sundays and public holidays are still
protected, with four exceptions per year that can be determined by the
municipalities. On the exceptional days, which can only be open for sale
in connection with a market, shops are allowed to remain open for up to
six hours.
In 2012, the economic output in the state of Hesse,
measured in terms of gross domestic product, was around 230 billion
euros. About a third of the Hessian area is used for agriculture. One of
the German nuclear power plants with two separate blocks is located in
Biblis. According to plans by the state government, by 2050 100 percent
of energy consumption should be covered entirely by renewable energies.
In terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, Hesse is one of the
most prosperous states in Germany, it is tied with Bavaria in third and
fourth place among the federal states after Hamburg and Bremen. In
comparison with the GDP of the European Union, expressed in purchasing
power standards, Hesse achieved an index value of 145 in 2014 (EU-28:
100; Germany: 126). In 2014, Hesse had a GDP per capita of 41,400 euros,
the purchasing power per inhabitant was 39,700 euros (PPS per
inhabitant). In 2016, among all German districts, the Hochtaunus
district was in second place with 31,238 euros per inhabitant and the
Main-Taunus district was in fourth place with 30,530 euros per
inhabitant. The ten urban districts in Germany with the highest
purchasing power in 2016 include Frankfurt am Main in third place with
an index value of 115.4 and Wiesbaden in sixth place with an index value
of 112.1 (national average = 100). In 2019, the GDP per employed person
was 83,320 euros, which was 9.7 percent above the national average and
had the highest value of the German non-city states.
Since
December 1, 2006, shop opening times have been liberalized in Hesse.
Only Sundays and public holidays are still protected, with four
exceptions per year that can be determined by the municipalities. On the
exceptional days, which can only be open for sale in connection with a
market, shops are allowed to remain open for up to six hours.
In
2012, the economic output in the state of Hesse, measured in terms of
gross domestic product, was around 230 billion euros. About a third of
the Hessian area is used for agriculture. One of the German nuclear
power plants with two separate blocks is located in Biblis. According to
plans by the state government, by 2050 100 percent of energy consumption
should be covered entirely by renewable energies.
In 2020, the fire brigade in Hesse had over 107,800 active members, including around 68,600 volunteer firefighters, around 2,100 professional firefighters, 700 plant firefighters and around 23,900 young people and 12,500 children. They are active in over 2,400 voluntary fire brigades, 7 professional fire brigades, 57 plant fire brigades, 2,000 youth fire brigades and over 1,000 children's fire brigades. In the same year, the Hessian fire brigades were alerted to over 56,300 calls. More than 13,500 fires had to be extinguished, technical assistance had to be provided more than 42,100 times and action had to be taken on 700 other operations. In addition, several hundred thousand supporting members belong to the local fire brigade associations. The fire brigades are combined via district fire brigade associations, district fire brigade associations and the state fire brigade association of Hesse to form the German fire brigade association, which represents them in the world fire brigade association CTIF.
Bundeswehr locations are primarily in the north of the country. In the Burgwald barracks in Frankenberg (Eder), the EloKa telecommunications force belonging to the cyber and information space organization is stationed. Stadtallendorf with the Herrenwald barracks and the Hessen barracks is the seat of the Rapid Forces Division. The Fritzlar Army Airfield is the location of the 36th Combat Helicopter Regiment belonging to the Rapid Forces Division. At the Knüll barracks in Schwarzenborn there is a military training area and the location of the 1st Jäger Battalion. In other cities such as Frankfurt am Main-Hausen, in Pfungstadt and in the state capital Wiesbaden smaller locations of the Bundeswehr, in which more administrative offices are located. The Army Music Corps Kassel is located in Kassel. However, despite the historically related name, it does not belong to the army, but to the Bundeswehr military music center of the armed forces base.
Due to its central location, Hessen is an important transit country
for German and European long-distance traffic. Frankfurt am Main has an
outstanding position as a hub for road, rail and air traffic.
Streets
The internationally important A 3,
A 5 and A 7 motorways run through Hesse. The Frankfurter Kreuz
(intersection of the A 3 and 5 motorways) is considered the motorway
junction with the highest traffic volume in Europe, the one around
Frankfurt am Main with up to four lanes in each direction The expanded A
5 is one of the busiest roads in Germany. Other major autobahns running
through Hesse are the A 4 (eastern part), the A 44, the A 45, the A 66
and the A 67. There are also a number of other smaller autobahns and
important federal highways, some of which are similar to autobahns. Due
to the population density and the topography, the Rhine-Main area is
much better developed than the rural areas of Hesse.
The
currently longest motorway tunnel in Hesse is the Neuhof tunnel in East
Hesse, which will be replaced by the Hirschhagen tunnel in 2022. The
Kinzigtal Bridge is the longest motorway bridge in Hesse.
Railroad
Many important railway lines also
run through Hesse, including the Cologne-Frankfurt am Main and
Hanover-Würzburg high-speed lines. In addition to other north-south
connections, the important east-west connections from Wiesbaden/Mainz
via Frankfurt and Hanau to Fulda or Aschaffenburg and from Fulda or
Kassel via Bebra to Eisenach and Erfurt also cross Hesse. Together with
the regional traffic, this leads to a route utilization on many routes
that no longer allows any significant increase. The main train station
in Frankfurt am Main is the most important hub in German train traffic.
With the S-Bahn Rhein-Main, the region around Frankfurt am Main has
a S-Bahn network that is supplemented by numerous regional connections.
In the rest of the country, the rail network is far less dense, but
apart from a few smaller closures it is stable. In northern Hesse, the
railway network has been linked to the tram system in Kassel by the
RegioTram since 2007. Old closed routes are being reactivated.
The RegioTram is integrated into the North Hessian transport
association. In contrast, all of central and southern Hesse, with the
exception of the Bergstraße district, belong to the catchment area of
the Rhein-Main transport association.
The railway lines in
northwest Hesse (Uplandbahn, Ederseebahn, Warburg–Sarnau railway, Obere
Lahntalbahn, Obere Edertalbahn and Volkmarsen–Vellmar-Obervellmar
railway) were taken over by the DB subsidiary Kurhessenbahn in 2002.
Since then, tracks, platforms and level crossings have been renewed. The
number of passengers then rose and the threatened closure of the
Burgwald Railway and the Wabern–Bad Wildungen section of the Edersee
Railway could be averted. The Lower Edertalbahn between Frankenberg and
Korbach, on which passenger services had been discontinued in 1987, was
reactivated and has been running again according to the timetable since
September 2015.
The Rhine-Main area, as the economic center of Hesse, is connected to
the European waterway network through the Main and the Rhine, which
represents the state border for a longer section. Hesse also has a share
of the Neckar with its southernmost tip near Hirschhorn and
Neckarsteinach and the Oberweser in the far north up to Bad Karlshafen.
In addition, individual sections of the Lahn, Werra and Fulda are
navigable. From an overall economic point of view, only shipping on the
Rhine and the Main are of importance for Hesse, with the Kostheim Main
lock being the lock with the highest volume of traffic in Europe.
Aviation
In terms of flight movements,
passenger volume and freight volume, Frankfurt Main Airport is by far
the most important airport in Germany, the fourth largest in Europe and
one of the fourteen largest airports worldwide (as of 2019).
Frankfurt-Egelsbach airfield, which is mainly frequented by smaller
aircraft, is located 9 km south-east of Frankfurt Airport.
The
headquarters of DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung is located in Langen, 6 km
south-east of Frankfurt Airport.
Kassel-Calden regional airport,
which opened in April 2013 and replaced a previously operated airfield,
is located in northern Hesse. In Hesse there is a high density of
airfields and gliding areas. Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, which is mainly
used by low-cost airlines, is located about 100 km from Frankfurt am
Main in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Bicycle
traffic
Hessen runs a network of cycle paths. The nine long-distance
cycle paths (R1-R9) as well as the Lahntal cycle path, the Weser cycle
path and the Werratal cycle path are of national importance. There are
also a large number of regional routes which, like the long-distance
cycle paths, are of particular importance for cycle tourism, e.g. the
Vogelsberg Southern Railway Cycle Path or the Vulkan Cycle Path.
daily newspapers
Two of the most important daily newspapers in
Germany, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Frankfurter
Rundschau, are published in Frankfurt am Main. Together with the
Frankfurter Neue Presse and the regional edition of Bild, these also
dominate the regional newspaper market in the Rhine-Main region. The
market leader in the North Hessian newspaper market is the
Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine, which appears in Kassel. There
are also some regional daily newspapers from publishing groups (e.g.
Wiesbadener Kurier, Darmstädter Echo), which are either market leaders
in their respective publication areas or at least have significant
market shares (according to IVW).
See also: Category:Newspaper
(Hessen)
television and radio stations
Various television and
radio stations are operated in Hesse. These include the Hessian
Broadcasting Corporation as the state broadcaster with hr-fernsehen in
Frankfurt am Main.
The Hessian State Institute for Private
Broadcasting and New Media is responsible for licensing private radio
and television broadcasters. Nationwide private broadcasters are based
in Hesse, such as Bloomberg TV and Kinowelt TV (both in Frankfurt am
Main), Evangelism Broadcasting in Wetzlar or TGRT Europe in
Mörfelden-Walldorf. Regional broadcasters are the broadcaster Offener
Kanal and Rheinmaintv.
As a radio station, the American Forces
Network, a military station of the US armed forces, is based in
Wiesbaden. Private, non-commercial radio stations are Freies Radio
Kassel, Radio-X in Frankfurt am Main, Radio Unerhör Marburg (RUM), Radio
Darmstadt, Radio Rüsselsheim, Radio RheinWelle 92.5 in Wiesbaden and
RundFunk Meißner (RFM) in Eschwege. The private commercial radio
stations include the radio station Hit Radio FFH in Bad Vilbel, Antenne
Frankurt and Radio Bob in Kassel.
The Evangelical news agency
Idea is based in Wetzlar.
A directory of the universities located in Hessen can be found under
Universities in Hessen. Below is a selection:
public universities
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main
Justus-Liebig
university of Giessen
Philipps University of Marburg
Darmstadt
University of Technology
University of Kassel
Public
universities in the state of Hesse
Technical University of Central
Hesse in Giessen and Friedberg and Wetzlar (StudiumPlus), (formerly
Giessen-Friedberg University of Applied Sciences)
Frankfurt
University of Applied Sciences
Geisenheim University
RheinMain
University of Applied Sciences (formerly Wiesbaden University of Applied
Sciences)
Darmstadt College
University of Fulda
Protestant
University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt
University of Finance and
Justice in Rotenburg an der Fulda
Other
accadis University Bad
Homburg
Workers Samaritan Federation State School Hesse - rescue
service school in Wiesbaden
Vocational Academy North Hesse in Bad
Wildungen
Rhein-Main vocational academy in Rödermark
Hessian
vocational academy in Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Offenbach
DIPLOMA
– FH Nordhessen in Bad Sooden-Allendorf
dr Hoch's Conservatory -
Music Academy in Frankfurt am Main
EBS University of Economics and
Law in Oestrich-Winkel
Protestant University of Applied Sciences
Darmstadt (EFHD)
Evangelical University Tabor Marburg (EHT Marburg)
FOM University of Economics & Management (FOM) in Frankfurt am Main
Federal University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration -
Department of Agricultural Social Insurance - in Kassel
University of
Applied Sciences for Archiving in Marburg
Frankfurt School of Finance
& Management (formerly HfB) in Frankfurt am Main
Giessen Free
Theological University
Offenbach am Main College of Design
Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts
Kunsthochschule
Kassel
State technical school for the Hesse chimney sweep trade in
Bebra
Hessian state fire brigade school in Kassel
Lutheran
Theological College Oberursel
Private long-distance university of
applied sciences in Darmstadt
Academy of Music in Darmstadt
Sankt
Georgen Philosophical-Theological University in Frankfurt am Main
Provadis School of International Management and Technology in Frankfurt
am Main
State Drawing Academy Hanau in Hanau
Erzhausen Theological
Seminary in Erzhausen
Theological Faculty in Fulda
Fresenius
University in Idstein
Study group Darmstadt (SGD)
Hessian Film and
Media Academy (hFMA)
Wiesbaden Music Academy, professional academy
for music education
research institutes
Max Planck Institute
for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg
Max Planck Institute for Heart
and Lung Research, W.G. Kerckhoff Institute, Bad Nauheim
Max Planck
Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt am Main
GSI Helmholtz
Center for Heavy Ion Research, Darmstadt
Institute for Social
Research (IfS) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am
Main
Leibniz Institute for Educational Research and Educational
Information, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin
Research Institute for the
German Language - German Language Atlas - at the Philipps University of
Marburg
Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt am Main
Paul Ehrlich
Institute, Langen
Research Institute and Natural History Museum
Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main
Institute for Solar Energy Supply
Technology (ISET e. V.) (from 2009 member of the Fraunhofer Society),
Kassel
Leibniz Institute Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict
Research PRIF, Frankfurt am Main
Institute for Social-Ecological
Research ISOE, Frankfurt am Main
European Space Operations Center
ESOC, Darmstadt
Athena (Research Center), Darmstadt
Hessian Center
for Artificial Intelligence hessian.AI, headquarters in Darmstadt, other
locations in Hesse
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
DFKI, location in Darmstadt
The best-known and most important sports club is Eintracht Frankfurt,
which is mainly known for its football department. There are winter
sports opportunities in the Rhön and in the north-eastern part of the
Rothaargebirge. The Mühlenkopfschanze in Willingen in North Hesse is the
largest operating large hill in the world. The Lahn and the Edersee are
well known as water sports centers for canoeists. After the Second World
War, sports such as basketball and American football also came to Hesse,
especially to central Hesse, with the United States Army.
american football
American football is very common in the Rhein-Main
area. With the disbanded team of the Frankfurt Galaxy, which played in
NFL Europe, the record winner with four titles (1995, 1999, 2003, 2006)
of the World Bowl was based in Hesse.
Today, five Hessian teams
play in the GFL: the Marburg Mercenaries in the first division and the
Bad Homburg Sentinels, Frankfurt Universe and Gießen Golden Dragons in
the second division.
The newly founded Frankfurt Galaxy plays in
the European League of Football, which was founded in 2020, and won the
league in its first season.
basketball
The Skyliners Frankfurt
and the Giessen 46ers play in the men's basketball Bundesliga. For
women, BC Marburg, German champions from 2003, is in the top league.
With the Bundesliga club RSV Lahn-Dill, Wetzlar is the stronghold of
wheelchair basketball. The club based there is already thirteen-time
German champion, fourteen-time cup winner (eleven times the double
champion and cup), seven-time Champions League winner, world cup winner
in 2010 and runner-up world cup winner in 2006 as well as WBC European
cup winner (Willi Brinkmann Cup) in 2002 In 2009, the women of the
Rhein-Main Baskets, based in Hofheim and Langen, were promoted to the
1st Basketball Bundesliga.
ice Hockey
The Frankfurt Lions and
the Kassel Huskies played in the German Ice Hockey League until the
2009/10 season. Since the 2013/14 season, the Roten Teufel Bad Nauheim
have been playing in the DEL2, the second division in German ice hockey.
The Kassel Huskies and the Frankfurt Lions have also been active there
since the 2014/15 season.
football
In the 2022/23 season,
Eintracht Frankfurt plays in the Bundesliga, SV Darmstadt 98 in the 2nd
Bundesliga and SV Wehen Wiesbaden in the 3rd division.
With seven
German championships, nine cup wins and four international titles, the
1. Frauen-Football-Club Frankfurt was one of the most successful clubs
in German women's football. In the 2020/21 season, the club merged with
Eintracht Frankfurt on July 1, 2020; The first and second teams of 1.
FFC were integrated into Eintracht Fußball AG and have since played
under the name Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga (first team) and in
the 2nd Bundesliga South (second team). The FSV Frankfurt women's team,
which was dissolved in 2006, has three championship titles and five cup
wins. In addition to FSV Hessen Wetzlar (formerly Eintracht Wetzlar),
the women of TSV Jahn Calden and TSG Neu-Isenburg play in the
Regionalliga Süd.
handball
HSG Wetzlar and MT Melsungen play
in the Handball Bundesliga. Former long-standing handball Bundesliga
clubs were SG Wallau/Massenheim (1984/85, 1987-2005), TV Hüttenberg
(1972-1985, 2011/12, 2017/18) and SG Dietzenbach (1971-1974, 1975-1978,
1979-1983).
There was also the TV Lützellinden, which dissolved
in 2006, a national league-wide successful women's handball club since
the late 1980s. From 2014 to 2017, HSG Bad Wildungen was the only
Hessian representative in the women's Bundesliga. As champions of the
2016/17 season, HSG Bensheim/Auerbach followed them into the upper
house.
hockey
The most successful Hessian hockey team is the
Rüsselsheimer RK. To date, its hockey department has won 51 German
championships in hockey (field and hall), countless vice championships,
southern German championships and Hessen championships. European hockey
cups have already been presented 18 times in the price display case at
the RRK Bootshaus. Today the RRK plays with the first ladies in indoor
hockey in the 1st Bundesliga and in field hockey in the 2nd Bundesliga.
The first men play field hockey in the regional league and indoor hockey
in the 2nd federal league.
Other well-known clubs are: SC
Frankfurt 1880, whose first men play in the 2nd field hockey national
league for men in 2017/18 and in the indoor hockey national league for
men. The women play in the 2nd regional league south. Next the SC SAFO
Frankfurt, the 1st Hanauer THC and the Limburger HC.
inline
hockey
The history of Hessian inline hockey began in Hanau in
1994/1995. To this day, the sport is more popular than almost any other
federal state, the Hessian Oberliga and the Regionalliga are considered
to be the strongest in Germany.
Motorsports
In motorcycle
track racing, Hessen is represented by the MSC Diedenbergen speedway
race in Hofheim-Diedenbergen im Taunus and the international grass track
races in Melsungen, Bad Hersfeld and Heringen. Ice speedway at World
Championship level has already been held in the ice stadium in Frankfurt
am Main.
equestrian sport
The International Whitsun Tournament
is organized annually in the Biebrich Castle Park by the Wiesbaden
Riding and Driving Club. The traditional Frankfurt am Main racecourse of
the Frankfurt am Main racing club gave way to the DFB Academy in 2022.
rugby
SC Frankfurt 1880 is one of the oldest and most successful
German rugby clubs. RK Heusenstamm also belongs to the first Bundesliga.
A total of twelve clubs belong to the Hessian Rugby Association.
table tennis
TTC Rhön-Sprudel Fulda-Maberzell plays in the men's
Bundesliga. Two-time Champions League winner TTV Gönnern played in the
Bundesliga from 1996 to 2009, but then withdrew his team due to
financial problems and ceded the license to TG Hanau, who played in the
Bundesliga from 2009 to 2012 before they also decided not to start in
the Bundesliga due to financial problems. The women of TSV Langstadt
1909 play in the 1st Bundesliga for women.
World class Timo Boll
was born in Hesse from Erbach (Odenwald), as was double world champion
Jörg Roßkopf from Dieburg.
triathlon
The largest triathlon
club in Germany is the triathlon department of Eintracht Frankfurt e. V.
with over 1000 members.
Do gymnastics
There are a total of six
cities in Hesse where academies for Olympic sports are operated. The
locations are in Dillenburg (trampoline gymnastics), Kassel (LZ
Nordhessen), Limburg, Heusenstamm and Wiesbaden. Another performance
center for artistic gymnastics (women and men) is in Wetzlar. Fabian
Hambüchen also comes from there. In addition to the academies, there are
other bases that promote competitive sports.
The state
performance center is located in the association center for top-class
sport of the German Gymnastics Federation in Frankfurt am Main. At this
location, the Hessian Gymnastics Association guarantees and implements
professional sports support. In addition to professional training,
school supervision and the possibility of connecting to a boarding
school are also guaranteed. In addition to the state performance center,
there is also a federal base for male apparatus gymnastics, female
apparatus gymnastics and trampoline gymnastics in Frankfurt am Main.
volleyball
The women's team of 1. VC Wiesbaden plays in the 1st
Bundesliga. The men's team of TG Rüsselsheim plays under the name United
Volleys Frankfurt in the 1st Bundesliga.
water polo
With VfB
Friedberg, SC Wasserfreunde Fulda, SGW Frankfurt/Offenbach and WV
Darmstadt 70, four clubs are represented in the second highest German
league.
The non-naturally occurring chemical element with the atomic number
108 has been called Hassium since 1997, which is derived from the Latin
name Hassia for Hesse. It was first produced in 1984 at the GSI
Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt by fusing lead with
iron.
The asteroid (5846) Hessen bears the name of the federal
state.
Dietwulf Baatz and others: The Romans in Hesse. Stuttgart 1989, ISBN
3-8062-0599-X.
Gerd Bauer and others: The Hesse Lexicon. Frankfurt am
Main 1999, ISBN 3-8218-1751-8.
Wilhelm Diehl: Hassia Sacra. Vols.
1-11, Darmstadt 1921 ff.
Karl Ernst Demandt: History of the State of
Hesse. 2nd edition, Bärenreiter, Kassel and Basel 1972, ISBN
3-7618-0404-0.
Announcements from the Association for Hessian History
and Regional Studies. (1845–1860 as periodical sheets). Association for
Hessian history and regional studies, Kassel 1845 ff. (full text).
Walter Heinemeyer: The becoming of Hesse. Ed. Historical Commission for
Hesse, N. G. Elwert, Marburg 1986, ISBN 3-7708-0849-5.
Fritz-Rudolf
Herrmann, Albrecht Jockenhövel: The prehistory of Hesse. Konrad Theiss,
Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0458-6.
Wilhelm Müller: Hessian place
name book. 1. Vol. Starkenburg, Darmstadt 1937.
Frank-Lothar Kroll:
Hessen, A strong story. Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN
3-8062-2004-2.
Hans Sarkowicz (ed.): The big Hessen. Insel, Frankfurt
am Main 1996, ISBN 3-458-16817-6.
Uwe Schultz: The history of Hesse.
Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8062-0332-6.
Wolfgang
Schroeder, Arijana Neumann (ed.): Politics and government in Hesse, VS -
Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-531-17302-3
Ph. A. F. Walther: The Grand Duchy of Hesse. Darmstadt 1854.
Literature on political history in Hesse
Peter Assion: From Hesse to
the New World. Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-458-14603-2.
Gerd
Bauer: The history of Hesse. Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-8218-1750-X.
Gerhard Beier: Labor movement in Hesse. On the history of the Hessian
labor movement through one hundred and fifty years (1834-1984). Insel,
Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-458-14213-4.
Gerhard Beier: SPD Hessen
- Chronicle 1945 to 1988. Publisher J. HW. Dietz Nachf. GmbH, Bonn 1989,
ISBN 3-8012-0146-5.
Karl E. Demandt: History of the State of Hesse.
2nd edition, Kassel 1972.
Joschka Fischer: Governing is about
studying. Athenaeum, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-610-08443-X.
Eckhart G. Franz: The Chronicle of Hesse. Chronicle publishing house,
Dortmund 1991, ISBN 3-611-00192-9.
Eike Hennig (ed.): Hesse under the
swastika. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1983, ISBN 3-458-14114-6.
Bernd Heidenreich, Eckhart G. Franz (ed.): The Hessians and their
history. Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-927127-32-9.
Hans Herder (ed.):
Hessian emigrant book. Frankfurt am Main 1983, ISBN 3-458-14115-4.
Hessian State Chancellery: The Hessen InfoBook. Numbers, data facts and
service. Hessian State Chancellery, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-933732-61-1.
Eugen Katz: Agricultural workers and agriculture in Upper Hesse.
Dissertation (= Munich Economic Studies. Piece 64). Editors: Lujo
Brentano, Walther Lotz. Cotta'sche bookstore, Stuttgart/Berlin 1904, DNB
580342719.
Frank Lothar Kroll: Hesse. A strong story. Stuttgart 2006,
ISBN 3-8062-2004-2.
Walter Mühlhausen: Hesse 1945-1950. Frankfurt am
Main, ISBN 3-458-14292-4.
Utta Müller-Handl: Thoughts often run back
– Hessian refugee women remember. Verlag Historical Commission for
Nassau, Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 3-922244-91-2.
Christine Wittrock:
Injustice goes hand in hand with a safe step. Materials on the regional
history of fascism in Hesse, CoCon Verlag, Hanau, ISBN 3-928100-71-8.
Hesse – 60 years of democracy. Contributions to the state anniversary (=
political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Volume 45;
publications of the Historical Commission for Nassau. Volume 76). In
memory of Wolf-Arno Kropat ed. by Helmut Berding and Klaus Eiler.
Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-930221-17-9.
Literature on art history in Hesse
Chr. Belser AG for publishing
business & Co: art travel guide Hessen. Gondrome, Bindlach 1988, ISBN
3-8112-0588-9.
Renate Liebenwein, Stefan Rothe: Imperial Palace and
Skyscraper. (1200 years) Art in Hesse. Koenigstein i. Ts. 2000, ISBN
3-7845-4612-9.
Hans Sarcowicz, Ulrich sunshine (ed.): The great
Hessen. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main/Leipzig 1996, ISBN
3-458-16817-6.
Literature on nature in Hesse
Roland Becker,
Thomas Reischmann, Hessian State Agency for Nature Conservation,
Environment and Geology (eds.): Geology of Hesse. Verlag Schweizerbart,
Stuttgart 2021, ISBN 978-3-510-65442-0.
Hermann-Josef Rapp (ed.):
Reinhardswald. A cultural history. Euregio, Kassel 2002, ISBN
3-933617-12-X.
Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Paths to old trees. Vol. 1 –
Hesse. WDV Wirtschaftsdienst, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN
3-926181-06-0.
Wilhelm Sievers (ed.): Geographical communications
from Hesse. Giessen 1900-1911.
Wilhelm Sievers: To the knowledge of
the Taunus. Stuttgart 1891.
Hessian Nature Conservation Foundation
(ed.): The Wetterau - fields, floodplains and visions. Herwig Klemp,
Wardenburg/Tungeln 2001, ISBN 3-931323-10-2.
Gerd-Peter Kossler,
Gottfried Lehr, Klaus Seipel: The corrected river - the nidda between
regulation and renaturation. Distribution: Gerd-Peter Kossler, Frankfurt
am Main 1991, ISBN 3-9800853-3-3.
Literature on folklore in Hesse
Hans Friebertshäuser: The Hessian dialect book. C.H. Beck, Munich 1987,
ISBN 3-406-32317-0.
Hans Friebertshäuser: Small Hessian dictionary.
C.H. Beck, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-406-34192-6.
Hessian papers for folk
and cultural research. Jonas (periodicals), Marburg/Lahn.
Carl
Hessler: "Hessian folklore". The former Kurhessen and the hinterland at
the end of the 19th century. Volume II, Unrevised reprint of the
original 1904 edition, N.G. Elwert Marburg, reprint under license from
Verlag Weidlich Würzburg 1984, ISBN 3-8035-1037-6.
Regina Klein: In
the meantime. Deeply hermeneutic case studies on female positioning in
the modernization process 1900-2000. Psychosocial publishing house,
Gießen 2003, ISBN 3-89806-194-9.
Robert Mulch and others: South
Hessian Dictionary. Giessen 1966 ff.