Darmstadt is an independent city in the south of Hesse, the
administrative seat of the administrative district of Darmstadt and
the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg. The city belongs to the
Rhine-Main area and is one of the ten regional centers of the State
of Hesse. Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the
fourth largest city in the state of Hesse after Frankfurt am Main,
Wiesbaden and Kassel. The closest larger cities are Frankfurt am
Main and Offenbach, about 30 km north, Wiesbaden and Mainz, about 40
km northwest, Mannheim, about 45 km and Heidelberg about 55 km
south.
Darmstadt describes itself as a science city. This
title was awarded to the city in 1997 by the Hessian Ministry of the
Interior. It owes this status to a number of universities and
research institutions, such as the Technical University founded in
1877, the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, the Protestant
University and the Wilhelm Büchner University with a total of around
50,000 students. The GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research,
the European Space Flight Control Center (ESA / ESOC), the European
Organization for the Use of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and
three institutes of the Fraunhofer Society are among the more than
30 other research institutions. In addition, there are large
companies and institutions in the communications and IT sector that
conduct applied research and development.
Darmstadt's
reputation as the “Center of Art Nouveau” goes back to the artist
colony established by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig on Mathildenhöhe in
1899. Darmstadt is home to the second division soccer club SV
Darmstadt 98.
Darmstadt ranks 52nd among the largest cities
in Germany.
The name "Darmstadt"
The origin of the name Darmstadt is
unclear. The oldest surviving mention of the settlement under the
name Darmundestat comes from the 11th century, several centuries
after the settlement was founded. The attempts to explain the origin
of the name are very different:
The local press prefers the
explanation that Darmstadt was the fortified settlement of a royal
wild boar named Darimund.
Another interpretation sees the name as
a derivation of the terms darre for gate or obstacle and mouth for
protection, so Darmundestat would be a settlement on a paved
passage.
Another derivation wants to recognize the Celtic word
stems dar for oak or tree and mont for mountain.
Furthermore,
attempts are being made to see the origin of the name in the
Darmbach. Following this theory, Darmstadt would be either the site
on the torrent (Dam-unda-stat) or the site on the moor brook
(Darm-unda-stat). However, what speaks against this thesis is that,
according to current knowledge, the Darmbach was only called that
later.
Darmstadt is the only German city after which an element,
namely Darmstadtium, was named.
Historical forms of names
Historically documented mentions of the place are (in brackets the
year of the mention):
Darmundestat (2nd half of the 11th century)
Darmistat (1234)
Intestinal stat
Gutestat (1315)
Darmstad
(1377)
Darmbstadt (1451)
Darmstatt (1477)
Darmstait (1479)
Darmstadt (1488)
Darmbstadt (1555)
Darmstatt (1586)
Darmbstatt (1600)
Incorporations
The municipality of
Bessungen was incorporated on April 1, 1888. On April 1, 1937,
Arheilgen and Eberstadt and around 25% of Griesheims, including the
military training area with the August Euler airfield, the Tann
settlement and today's Sankt Stephan, were added. Wixhausen followed
on January 1, 1977.
Outsourcing
On January 1, 1977, the
Sankt Stephans settlement, which had around 2,000 inhabitants at the
time, was returned to the neighboring town of Griesheim.
Desolation
From the 13th to the 15th century, Klappach was a
hamlet south of the village of Bessungen near Darmstadt.
Population development
On April 1, 1937, the city's population
exceeded 100,000 due to the incorporation of Arheilgen and
Eberstadt. During the Second World War, the city lost around 40
percent (45,000) of its residents between 1939 (115,000 inhabitants)
and 1945 (70,000 inhabitants). In 1953 the population had reached
the pre-war level again. The population of Darmstadt reached its
highest level to date on December 31, 2016 with 159,982 registered
residents.
The following overview shows the population
figures according to the respective territorial status. Up to 1833
it is mostly estimates, then census results (highlighted in color)
or official updates by the respective statistical offices or the
city administration itself. From 1843 onwards, the information
relates to the “local population”, from 1925 to the resident
population and since 1987 to the “population at the location of the
main residence ”. Before 1843 the number of inhabitants was surveyed
inconsistently.
Denomination statistics
According to the 2011 census, 33.1% of
the population were Protestant, 19.3% Roman Catholic and 47.6% were
non-denominational, belonged to another religious community or did
not provide any information. The number of Catholics and Protestants
has decreased since then. At the end of 2019, 25.6% of the residents
were Protestant, 17.1% Roman Catholic and 57.3% had no denomination
or belonged to another religious community. A year earlier (as of
December 2018), 26.5% of Darmstadt's residents were Evangelical
Lutheran Christians, 17.5% Catholics and 56.0% others (of a
different or no denomination).
Christianity
In 1526,
Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous introduced the Reformation
according to the Lutheran confession, so that Darmstadt remained a
Lutheran city for a long time. The Christians of the Reformed
Confession did not receive the right to hold church services until
1770/71. Since Darmstadt was the residential city, the consistory
(church administration) of the Evangelical Church in Hesse was
located here, which was united with the regional churches of
Frankfurt and Nassau in 1934 and 1947 respectively. Furthermore, the
seat of the superintendent or Propstei Starkenburg is located in
Darmstadt. Today all Protestant parishioners in Darmstadt - provided
they do not belong to an evangelical free church or a parish of the
independent Evangelical Lutheran Church - are assigned to the
Darmstadt-Stadt deanery within the Evangelical Church in Hesse and
Nassau.
Roman Catholic parishioners moved back to the city no
later than the 18th century. They were allowed to hold services
again from 1790. In 1827 the dome-roofed Ludwigskirche was
completed. Darmstadt is the capital of the Darmstadt deanery in the
diocese of Mainz.
Furthermore, there are various Christian
free churches in Darmstadt, some of which are members of the
Evangelical Alliance. These include, for example, the Christian
Center Darmstadt (CZD), the Free Evangelical Community Darmstadt
(FeG), the Free Christian Community (FCG), the Christian Community
Ecclesia, the Christian Community (Brethren Movement) and numerous
other Christian communities.
Orthodoxy is also represented in
Darmstadt. The Russian Orthodox community celebrates services in the
Russian Chapel (Church of St. Mary Magdalene) on Mathildenhöhe, the
Greek Orthodox community in the Church of St. Nikolaos in Eberstadt.
Judaism
There is also an active Jewish community life in
Darmstadt. In 1988 the new synagogue was inaugurated.
In
October 2003, the remains of the Liberal Synagogue, which had been
destroyed on November 9, 1938, were uncovered during construction
work on the grounds of the Darmstadt Clinic. Part of this former
synagogue was destroyed in 1940 when an extinguishing water basin
was built. In 1970, further foundations were removed due to new
extensions to the clinic. The Liberal Synagogue was built from 1873
to 1876. In addition to the remains of the foundation, not only the
remains of a circulating air heating system were found in the
cellar, but also countless metal and glass fragments. The
conservation concept of the State Office for the Preservation of
Monuments, which has taken over the safeguarding of the finds,
pursues an “unadorned and as unchanged as possible representation of
the historical moment of destruction”. Since November 2009, visitors
have been able to visit the site in a place of remembrance Liberal
Synagogue. An employee of the Mathildenhöhe Institute completed a
1:50 scale model of the Liberal Synagogue by 2006. It has been in
the community center of the Jewish community since 2010.
Darmstadt's Orthodox Synagogue on Bleichstrasse was also destroyed
on November 9, 1938. In 2010 a memorial stone reminded of the
location of the church.
For several years now, symbolic
“stumbling blocks” by the artist Gunter Demnig can be found in the
Darmstadt city area. These are set in the ground in front of
buildings to commemorate their former Jewish residents and others
such as Jehovah's Witnesses, communists or Zigans, as well as
resistance fighters, who were expelled or murdered during the time
of National Socialism.
Here is the list of stumbling blocks
in Darmstadt.
Islam
There are several Muslim communities
of different religious or ethnic groups in Darmstadt. The largest
mosques are the Emir Sultan Mosque of the ATIB community, IRD
(Islamic Religious Community Darmstadt eV), the Arabic-speaking
Salam Mosque (Mesjid Issalaam) and, among others, the Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community Nuur-ud-Din- Mosque. There are also several other
prayer rooms, especially those of the Turkish state controlled DİTİB
communities.
Four natural spaces meet in Darmstadt: The west of the urban area
is in the Upper Rhine Plain. In the southern part of the city, to
the east, the narrow edge of the mountain road, which begins here,
connects. The south-east of the urban area is part of the Vorderen
Odenwald up to about Mathildenhöhe. The northernmost point of the
Odenwald is on the B 26 near the Institute for Botany and Zoology.
The northeast of Darmstadt, on the other hand, is part of the
Messeler Hügelland natural area. The city is traversed by the
Darmbach and, in the southern district of Eberstadt, the Modau.
As a regional center, Darmstadt is also the central location for
the districts of Darmstadt-Dieburg and Odenwaldkreis as well as the
communities of the southern district of Groß-Gerau, an area with a
total of around 650,000 inhabitants. Neighboring centers are
Frankfurt am Main in the north, Aschaffenburg in the east,
Heidelberg and Mannheim / Ludwigshafen in the south and Mainz in the
north-west.
Neighboring communities
Darmstadt borders in
the north on the Offenbach district and in the east, south and west
on the Darmstadt-Dieburg district. It borders (clockwise from the
north) on the municipality of Egelsbach, the cities of Langen and
Dreieich (all three districts of Offenbach), the municipalities of
Messel, Groß -zimmer and Roßdorf, the city of Ober-Ramstadt, the
municipalities of Mühltal and Seeheim-Jugenheim, the Cities
Pfungstadt, Griesheim and Weiterstadt as well as the community
Erzhausen (all district Darmstadt-Dieburg).
City structure
and districts
The urban area of Darmstadt is divided into nine
districts. For statistical reasons, they are divided into
statistical districts, each of which is numbered. Of the total of
nine districts, five are in the city center (districts 100 to 500)
and four are in the outskirts (districts 600 to 900).
Darmstadt's social geography shows a relatively large gap between
affluent and socially weaker districts, which has existed since the
19th century. In the core city (without outer districts) there is a
clear east-west divide with the most affluent residential areas on
the eastern edge of the city from the composer's quarter in the
north to Rosen- and Mathildenhöhe, Lichtwiese and Paulusviertel to
Ludwigshöhe in the south. The city center with its rebuilt post-war
buildings is on average, while Johannesviertel and Martinsviertel in
the north and Alt-Bessungen in the south are among the more
sought-after residential areas in which gentrification processes
have been taking place since around 1975 due to their partially
preserved old buildings. In contrast, the west of Darmstadt is
characterized by a strong mix of functions, commercial, residential
and formerly military use, so that there are many conversion areas
and the high pollution from industry and traffic as well as the lack
of social infrastructure in some areas cause urban planning
problems. On the other hand, the west is the only inner city area
where new living space can be created to a significant extent in
order to alleviate the general shortage in Darmstadt. This area
along the Main-Neckar-Bahn, as a western city, has been in the focus
of Darmstadt's urban planning since the turn of the millennium and
is undergoing major change.
Darmstadt is located in the temperate climate zone. The average
temperature is 10.1 ° C. The warmest month is July with an average
of 19.3 ° C. The coldest month is January with an average of 0.9 °
C.
Darmstadt and the Rhine-Main area are located at the
northern end of the Upper Rhine Plain, which is climatically one of
the warmest regions in Germany. The annual mean temperature of 10.1
° C (long-term mean for the reference period 1981-2010) is higher
than that of other German metropolises (Berlin 9.0 ° C, Hamburg 9.1
° C, Munich 7.7 ° C). The sun shines the longest in July with an
average of 7.5 hours a day. In December, the sun shines the shortest
with an average of 1.2 hours a day. The overall climate is therefore
quite mild. In the period from November to January there is an
average of only one to two hours of sunshine during the day. The
average rainfall is 765 mm per year.
Snow averages about
fifteen days in winter. The snow depth is rarely more than ten
centimeters and the snow usually does not stay long. White Christmas
is on average every 10 years.
The summer is quite warm with
highs around 25 ° C (on an average of eleven days a year also over
30 ° C); It is also slightly changeable with occasional showers or
thunderstorms, but this is also the sunniest time with seven to
eight hours a day.
The extreme values are around −21 ° C in winter and around +39 °
C in summer. The highest temperature ever measured in Darmstadt was
39.5 ° C, measured on August 7, 2015. The lowest temperature ever
measured in Darmstadt was −26.9 ° C, measured on January 19, 1940.
The average annual temperature rose on average From 1981 to 2010 by
approx. 0.4 to 10.1 ° C.
The mean annual rainfall was around
600–700 mm. Most of the precipitation falls in July, the lowest in
April, averaging between 1981 and 2010. The average humidity is
approx.
The prevailing wind direction is west.