Darmstadt () is a city in the state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are ...

in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth largest city in the state of Hesse after

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, and Kassel. Darmstadt holds the official title "City of Science" (german: link=no, Wissenschaftsstadt) as it is a major centre of scientific institutions, universities, and high-technology companies. The

European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States. EUMETSAT's prima ...

(EUMETSAT) and the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) are located in Darmstadt, as well as GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research, where several chemical elements such as

bohrium Bohrium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Bh and atomic number 107. It is named after Danish physicist Niels Bohr. As a synthetic element, it can be created in a laboratory but is not found in nature. All known isotopes of bohrium ...

(1981), meitnerium (1982), hassium (1984), darmstadtium (1994), roentgenium (1994), and copernicium (1996) were discovered. The existence of the following elements were also confirmed at GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research: nihonium (2012),

flerovium Flerovium is a superheavy chemical element with symbol Fl and atomic number 114. It is an extremely radioactive synthetic element. It is named after the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dub ...

(2009), moscovium (2012), livermorium (2010), and tennessine (2012). The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) is an international accelerator facility under construction. Darmstadt is also the seat of the world's oldest pharmaceutical company, Merck, which is the city's largest employer. P2250381 Darmstadt in Frankfurt-Rhein-Main

P2250381 Darmstadt in Frankfurt-Rhein-Main

The Mathildenhöhe, including the Darmstadt artists' colony, a major centre of the Jugendstil artistic movement, referring both to the group of artists active in the city in the late 19th and early 20th century, as well as the buildings which they designed, together with the Russian Chapel in Darmstadt, was recognized as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

by UNESCO in 2021. Darmstadt was formerly the capital of a sovereign country, the

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine (german: link=no, Großherzogtum Hessen und bei Rhein) was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Grand Duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 18 ...

and its successor, the People's State of Hesse, a federal state of Germany. As the capital of an increasingly prosperous duchy, the city gained some international prominence and remains one of the wealthiest cities in Europe. In the 20th century, industry (especially chemicals), as well as large science and electronics (and later, information technology) sectors became increasingly important, and are still a major part of the city's economy. It is also home to the football club

SV Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as ''Rasen-Sp ...

. Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse), the wife of Nicholas II of Russia, as well as Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse), the wife of Alexander II of Russia, who were related, were born in this city.

History

Darmstadt in 1626 Thesaurus Philopoliticus

Origins

The name Darmstadt first appears towards the end of the 11th century, then as ''Darmundestat''. Darmstadt was chartered as a city by the Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian in 1330, at which time it belonged to the counts of Katzenelnbogen. The city, then called ''Darmstait'', became a secondary residence for the counts, with a small castle established at the site of the current, much larger edifice.Nebenresidenz Darmstadt (darmstait)
(from the 'Graf v. Katzenelnbogen' website, in German. Retrieved 5 January 2008.) When the house of Katzenelnbogen became extinct in 1479, the city was passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse, and was seat of the ruling

landgrave Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' (" margrave") ...

s (1567–1806) and thereafter (to 1918) of the grand dukes of

.Die Geschichte des Grafenhauses
(from the 'Graf v. Katzenelnbogen' website, in German. Retrieved 5 January 2008.)

Industrial age

The city grew in population during the 19th century from little over 10,000 to 72,000 inhabitants. A polytechnical school, which later became a Technical University now known as TU Darmstadt, was established in 1877. In the beginning of the 20th century, Darmstadt was an important centre for the art movement of Jugendstil, the German variant of Art Nouveau. Annual architectural competitions led to the building of many architectural treasures of this period. Also during this period, in 1912 the chemist Anton Kollisch, working for the pharmaceutical company Merck, first synthesised the chemical MDMA (ecstasy) in Darmstadt. Darmstadt's municipal area was extended in 1937 to include the neighbouring localities of Arheilgen and Eberstadt, and in 1938 the city was separated administratively from the surrounding district (''Kreis'').

Nazi Germany

Darmstadt was the first city in Germany to force Jewish shops to close in early 1933, shortly after the Nazis took power in Germany. The shops were only closed for one day, for "endangering communal order and tranquility". In 1942, over 3,000 Jews from Darmstadt were first forced into a collection camp located in the Liebigschule, and later deported to concentration campsDarmstädter Stadtgeschichte 20. Jahrhundert
(from the official city website, in German, less detailed also in English) where most eventually died. Several prominent members of the German resistance movement against the Nazis were citizens of Darmstadt, including Wilhelm Leuschner and Theodor Haubach, both executed for their opposition to Hitler's regime. Darmstadt was first bombed on 30 July 1940, and 34 other air raids would follow before the war's end. The old city centre was largely destroyed in a British bombing raid on 11 September 1944. This attack was an example of "area bombing" using high explosive and incendiary bombs, which combined in that attack to create a firestorm, a self-sustaining combustion process in which winds generated by the fire ensure it continues to burn until everything possible has been consumed. During this attack an estimated 11,000 to 12,500 of the inhabitants were killed, and 66,000 to 70,000 were left homeless. Over three-quarters of Darmstadt's inner city was destroyed. Post-war rebuilding was done in a relatively plain architectural style, although a number of the historic buildings were rebuilt to their original appearance following the city's capture on 20 March 1945 by the American 4th Armored Division.

Post–World War II

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Darmstadt became home to many technology companies and research institutes, and has been promoting itself as a "city of science" since 1997. It is well known as a high-tech centre in the vicinity of

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...

, with important activities in spacecraft operations (the European Space Operations Centre,

), chemistry, pharmacy, information technology, biotechnology, telecommunications (substantial Deutsche Telekom presence) and mechatronics. In 2000, its region also scored Rank 3 amongst 97 German regions in the '' WirtschaftsWoche'' test ranking Germany's high-tech regions. The roots of

Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences The Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (german: Hochschule Darmstadt), also known as h_da, is a University of Applied Sciences located in Darmstadt, Germany. h_da is part of the IT cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, the "Silicon Valley of German ...

goes back to 1876 along with Technische Universität Darmstadt (''the first electrical engineering chair and inventions fame''), when both these Universities were an integrated entities, a need for a separate industry based research educational institution was felt in the early 1930s, finally University of Applied sciences emerged as a separate industry based research educational institution in 1971 and is the largest University of Applied Sciences in Hesse (German: Hessen) with about 11,000 students. The TU Darmstadt is one of the important technical institutes in Germany and is well known for its research and teaching in the Electrical, Mechanical and Civil Engineering disciplines. Together with other tertiary institutions, the TU is responsible for the large student population of the city, which stood at 33,547 in 2004.

Boroughs

Darmstadt has nine official 'Stadtteile' (

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

). These are: *

Darmstadt-Arheilgen Arheilgen is a district in the north of the city of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany, incorporated in 1937. Arheilgen borders the Darmstadt district of Wixhausen to the North, to the West is the city Weiterstadt, to the East is the Darmstadt district ...

Darmstadt-Bessungen Bessungen is a district in the South of the city of Darmstadt in Hesse. History Until 1888, Bessungen was an independent municipality. The reputation as the oldest part of Darmstadt goes back to Bessungen being first mentioned in 1002. In fac ...

Darmstadt-Eberstadt Eberstadt is the southernmost borough of Darmstadt in Hessen, Germany with a population of 23,728 (as of 2019). Geography In the north Eberstadt borders to the boroughs of Bessungen and Darmstadt-West, in the east and south to the municipaliti ...

Darmstadt-Kranichstein Kranichstein is a district in the city of Darmstadt. The town started with housing construction in the 1960s and now also has a number of residential high-rises. Often referred to as Darmstadt-Kranichstein. Geographical location Kranichstein is ...

* Darmstadt-Mitte ("Central Darmstadt") * Darmstadt-Nord ("North") * Darmstadt-Ost ("East") * Darmstadt-West * Darmstadt-

Wixhausen Wixhausen is northernmost borough of the City of Darmstadt in southern Hesse, Germany. Covering an area of 23.247 km2, in 2006 it had 5,772 inhabitants and 1,310 houses. Its main claim to fame is the GSI heavy-ion research laboratory located ...

Population development

Politics

Mayor

The current mayor of Darmstadt is Jochen Partsch of

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (for ...

, who was elected in 2011 and re-elected in 2017. The most recent mayoral election was held on 19 March 2017, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Jochen Partsch , align=left,

, 25,291 , 50.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Michael Siebel , align=left,

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

, 8,364 , 16.7 , - , bgcolor=#448581, , align=left, Kerstin Lau , align=left, UFFBASSE , 6,235 , 12.4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christoph Hentzen , align=left, Free Democratic Party , 2,801 , 5.6 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Uli Franke , align=left, The Left , 2,145 , 4.3 , - , bgcolor=#A037A0, , align=left, Helmut Klett , align=left, UWiGA , 2,094 , 4.2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Hans Mohrmann , align=left,

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist * * * * * * * political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. ...

, 2,031 , 4.0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Achim Pfeffer , align=left,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

, 973 , 1.9 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Thorsten Przygoda , align=left,

, 293 , 0.6 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 50,227 ! 99.2 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 388 ! 0.8 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 50,615 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 115,316 ! 43.9 , - , colspan=5, Source
City of Darmstadt
The following is a list of mayors since 1945:

City council

The Darmstadt city council (''Stadtverordnetenversammlung'') governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 14 March 2021, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Party ! Lead candidate ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(Grüne) , align=left, Hildegard Förster-Heldmann , 1,151,498 , 27.4 , 2.3 , 20 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(SPD) , align=left, Tim Huß , 703,686 , 16.7 , 0.5 , 12 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align=left, Paul Georg Wandrey , 654,797 , 15.6 , 2.6 , 11 , 2 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , align=left, Karl-Heinz Böck , 310,074 , 7.4 , 0.6 , 5 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Volt Germany Volt Germany (, mostly known by the abbreviated name Volt) is a social-liberal pro-European, eurofederalist political party in Germany. It is the German branch of Volt Europa, a political movement that operates on a European level. Italian And ...

(Volt) , align=left, Nicolas Kämmerer , 289,023 , 6.9 , New , 5 , New , - , bgcolor=#448581, , align=left, UFFBASSE , align=left, Kerstin Lau , 269,301 , 6.4 , 1.3 , 5 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align=left, Leif Blum , 234,121 , 5.6 , 0.3 , 4 , ±0 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

(AfD) , align=left, Günter Zabel , 191,982 , 4.6 , 4.6 , 3 , 4 , - , bgcolor=#A037A0, , align=left, UWiGA , align=left, Erich Bauer , 130,867 , 3.1 , 0.6 , 2 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Die PARTEI (''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazi ...

(PARTEI) , align=left, Holger Eisenblätter , 90,254 , 2.1 , 1.8 , 2 , 2 , - , bgcolor=#556B2F, , align=left, Voters' Association of Darmstadt (WGD) , align=left, Falk Neumann , 85,320 , 2.0 , New , 1 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,

Free Voters Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...

(FW) , align=left, Harald Uhl , 79,293 , 1.9 , New , 1 , New , - , , align=left, Take Part in Darmstadt , align=left, Dorothea Mondry , 13,680 , 0.3 , New , 0 , New , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 60,815 ! 96.6 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 2,141 ! 3.4 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 62,956 ! 100.0 ! ! 71 ! ±0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 115,119 ! 54.7 ! 6.9 ! ! , - , colspan=8, Source
Statistics Hesse

Transport

Darmstadt is highly connected to all means of transportation, including the Autobahn Network, the Intercity-Express Network and a major international airport. File:HEAG 0777 am Schloss 101 2987.jpg, A tram near Schloss station. File:TU Darmstadt HaltepunktTULichtwieseMitRB65.jpg, Regional train at Darmstadt Lichtwiese station. File:Darmstadt Hbf (5946442195).jpg,

Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in the German city Darmstadt. After Frankfurt Hbf and Wiesbaden Hbf, it is the third largest station in the state of Hesse with 35,000 passengers and 220 trains per day. Built in a late art no ...

– Train hub for southern Hesse File:Hauptbahnhof Darmstadt 260-62-ftmh.jpg, Hauptbahnhof Railway Station

Roads

Darmstadt is connected to a number of major roads, including two

Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...

en (

Bundesautobahn 5 is a 445 km (277 mi) long Autobahn in Germany. Its northern end is the Hattenbach triangle intersection (with the A 7. The southern end is at the Swiss border near Basel. It runs through the German states of Hessen and Baden-W� ...

and

Bundesautobahn 67 is an autobahn in Germany. It connects the A 3 and A 6, passing cities such as Rüsselsheim and Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfu ...

). The main road passing west–east is the Bundesstraße 26, the

Bundesstraße 3 The Bundesstraße 3 (abbr. B3) is one of the longest federal highways in Germany. It begins in Buxtehude and continues through Bergen, Celle, Hanover, Alfeld, Einbeck, Göttingen, Kassel, Marburg, Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, Heidelberg, ...

runs north–south. The rural areas east of the city in the

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried'' (the northeastern section ...

are accessed by several secondary roads.

Public transport in Darmstadt

The extensive public transport system of Darmstadt is integrated in the RMV (the transportation authority of the Frankfurt Metropolitan Area). The backbone of public transport in Darmstadt is its modern tram system with 9 lines and a local bus service serving all parts of the city. Darmstadt is furthermore connected to the Frankfurt S-Bahn system and being served by regional bus lines. Furthermore, regional rail lines (R64, R65, R66) connect six secondary railway stations within the city.

Regional rail links

Darmstadt is connected to the Frankfurt rapid transit network by

S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...

line S3. Besides that, a number of regional trains connect secondary railway stations within Darmstadt and the region with

(main station), offering a net of inner city and regional train links.

National rail links

By its main railway station "

", which is located in the western part of the central city, Darmstadt is connected to the rest of Germany and Europe by the

Intercity-Express The Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE ()) is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark (ceased in 2017 but planned to resume in 2022), France, Belgium, Switzerl ...

network and other long-distance trains. Darmstadt Hauptbahnhof is a busy station with 12 platforms which serves as a

transportation hub A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...

for the southern Hesse/

region.

Airports

The historically important local airfield is closed to aviation at large, being reserved for the use of the Technische Universität Darmstadt. *

Frankfurt International Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centre ...

Darmstadt can be easily accessed from around the world via Frankfurt Airport (''Flughafen Frankfurt am Main'') which is located north of central Darmstadt and connected to it via

, several bus lines and a direct express bus-link ("''Airliner''"). The airport ranks among the

world's busiest airports by passenger traffic The world's busiest airports by passenger traffic are measured by total passengers (data from Airports Council International), defined as passengers enplaned plus passengers deplaned plus direct-transit passengers. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta ...

and is the second-busiest airport by cargo traffic in Europe. The airport also serves as the main hub for German

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hi ...

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...

. *

Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport (german: Flugplatz Frankfurt-Egelsbach) is a general aviation airport located near Egelsbach, a town in the German state of Hesse. It is located southeast of Frankfurt Airport. History The airport was opened in 1 ...

Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport (''Flugplatz Frankfurt-Egelsbach'') is a busy

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

airport located 5 km north of Darmstadt, near the town of

Egelsbach Egelsbach is a municipality of 11,000 in the Offenbach district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Egelsbach is one of 13 communities in the Offenbach district. The community lies in the Frankfurt ...

. *

Frankfurt Hahn Airport Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

Despite the name, Frankfurt Hahn Airport (''Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn'') is located far outside the Frankfurt Metro Area, approximately to the west in

Lautzenhausen Lautzenhausen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of ...

(

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

). Hahn Airport is a major base for

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings famil ...

. This airport can only be reached by car or bus.

National coach services

Darmstadt is served by several national and European bus links which connect Darmstadt with other German and European cities.

Parks, architecture, and attractions

Castles and historical buildings

Darmstadt was the capital of an independent country (the

) until 1871 and the capital of the German state of

until 1945. It is due to its past as a capital city that it has many architectural testimonies of this period. Many of its major architectural landmarks were created by

Georg Moller Georg Moller (21 January 1784 – 13 March 1852) was an architect and a town planner who worked in the South of Germany, mostly in the region today known as Hessen. Life and family background Moller was born in Diepholz, a descendant of an old ...

who was appointed the court master builder of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Due to the fact that the last ruling Grand Duke of Hesse, Ernst Ludwig was a grandson of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

and brother to Empress Alexandra of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, the architecture of Darmstadt has been influenced by British and Russian imperial architecture with many examples still existing, such as the Luisenplatz with its grand-ducal column, the old Hessian State Theatre (at Karolinenplatz) and the Russian Chapel by

Leon Benois Leon Benois (russian: Леонтий Николаевич Бенуа; 1856 in Peterhof – 1928 in Leningrad) was a Russian architect from the Benois family. Biography He was the son of architect Nicholas Benois, the brother of artists Alexandr ...

. The Russian church, St. Mary Magdalene Chapel, is named in honor of the patron saint of Tsar Nicholas' mother and was built of Russian stone on Russian soil brought to Darmstadt by train. It was used by the Russian imperial family and court during regular visits to the Tsarina's brother and family in Darmstadt. The grand-ducal palace of Darmstadt is located in the city centre. It was the residence of the counts of

Hesse-Darmstadt The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse be ...

, later as Grand Dukes of Hesse by the grace of Napoleon. The rulers of Hesse also owned

Jagdschloss Kranichstein Jagdschloss Kranichstein is a palace in Kranichstein, now part of Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. It was built north of Darmstadt from 1578 as a Jagdschloss, a hunting lodge for George I, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. It served also as a summer resi ...

, a hunting lodge in

Kranichstein Kranichstein is a district in the city of Darmstadt. The town started with housing construction in the 1960s and now also has a number of residential high-rises. Often referred to as Darmstadt-Kranichstein. Geographical location Kranichstein is ...

which is a nowadays used as a five star hotel. The most famous castle in the Darmstadt region is

Frankenstein Castle Frankenstein Castle (german: Burg Frankenstein) is a hilltop castle in the Odenwald overlooking the city of Darmstadt in Germany. This castle may have been an inspiration for Mary Shelley when she wrote her 1818 Gothic novel ''Frankenstein; or, ...

due to claims that the real castle may have had an influence on Mary Shelley's decision to choose the name

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

for her monster-creating scientist. This castle dates back to the 13th century, but it was acquired by the counts of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1662. File:Residenzschloss Darmstadt 539-Gdh.JPG, Ducal Palace and Market Square File:InnerCastle.jpg,

Modern architecture

Darmstadt has a rich tradition in modern architecture. After 1945 several ''"Meisterbauten"'' (''Masterful Architectonic Creations'') were built that set standards for modern architecture. These buildings still exist and are used for various public and private purposes. In the late 1990s the Waldspirale ('Forest Spiral') was built, a residential complex by Austrian

Friedensreich Hundertwasser Friedrich Stowasser (15 December 1928 – 19 February 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (), was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection ...

. As an almost surreal building, it is internationally famous for its almost absolute rejection of rectangular forms, down to every window having a different shape, the style being a trademark of Hundertwasser's work. Hundertwasser died before the Waldspirale was finished.

Art Nouveau

Darmstadt was a centre of the Art Nouveau movement. Surviving examples of the Jugendstil period include the Rosenhöhe, a landscaped English-style

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

garden from the 19th century, recently renovated and replanted, the UNESCO World Heritage Site

Mathildenhöhe The Darmstadt Artists’ Colony refers both to a group of Jugendstil artists as well as to the buildings in Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt in which these artists lived and worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The artists were largely fi ...

, with the ''Hochzeitsturm'' ('Wedding tower', also commonly known as the 'Five-Finger-Tower') by

Joseph Maria Olbrich Joseph Maria Olbrich (22 December 1867 – 8 August 1908) was an Austrian architect and one of the Vienna Secession founders. Early life Olbrich was born in Opava, Austrian Silesia (now Czech Republic), the third child of Edmund and Aloisia O ...

, the Russian Chapel in Darmstadt and large exhibition halls as well as many private villas built by Jugendstil architects who had settled in Darmstadt. German Art Nouveau is commonly known by its German name, Jugendstil. The name is taken from the artistic journal, Die Jugend, which was published in Munich and which espoused the new artistic movement. It was founded in 1896 by Georg Hirth (Hirth remained editor until his death in 1916, and the magazine continued to be published until 1940). The magazine was instrumental in promoting the style in Germany. As a result, its name was adopted as the most common German-language term for the style: Jugendstil ("young style"). Although, during the early 20th century, the word was applied to only two-dimensional examples of the graphic arts, especially the forms of organic typography and graphic design found in and influenced by German magazines like Jugend, Pan, and

Simplicissimus :''Simplicissimus is also a name for the 1668 novel Simplicius Simplicissimus and its protagonist.'' ''Simplicissimus'' () was a satirical German weekly magazine, headquartered in Munich, and founded by Albert Langen in April 1896. It continued ...

, it is now applied to more general manifestations of Art Nouveau visual arts in Germany, the Netherlands, the Baltic states, and Nordic countries. The two main centres for Jugendstil art in Germany were Munich and Darmstadt.

Squares

The ''Luisenplatz'', the central square of the city, forms the centre of the city and is the main public transport hub. In 1844 the ''Ludwigsäule'' (called ''Langer Lui'', meaning ''Long Ludwig''), a 33-metre (108 ft) column commemorating Ludwig I, first Grand Duke of

, was placed in the middle of the square. While the column still stands, the square is today surrounded by mostly modern buildings. Other important squares are the ''Marktplatz'' (see image) near the old city hall and the ''Sabaisplatz'' at the ''Mathildenhöhe''.

Parks

The city has a high density of parks. Among the most important parks are the English style ''Herrngarten'' in central Darmstadt. In former times it was part of the Royal Gardens used exclusively by the dukes of Darmstadt. Today it is a public park, heavily used in every season of the year. Other important parks are the French style parks ''Prinz-Georgs-Garten'' and

Orangerie An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

, the modern style ''Bürgerpark'' ("People's Park") in northern Darmstadt and the mystical ''Park Rosenhöhe'', ("Rose Heights") which also serves as the cemetery for the dukes and their immediate family, with two impressive mausoleum buildings (Altes Mausoleum and Neues Mausoleum) in its remote parts. The Botanischer Garten in eastern Darmstadt is a botanical garden maintained by the Technische Universität Darmstadt with a fine collection of rare plants and trees.

Churches

The

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

Stadtkirche Darmstadt built in 1369, is in the pedestrian zone of the downtown city center, next to the historic Hotel Bockshaut. The church has

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

elements along with

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

and

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

, it houses the

royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

crypt A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a c ...

. Hotel Bockshaut was built in 1580 for a church presbytery. The most important

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Church is ''St. Ludwig'' in central Darmstadt. The Russian Chapel in Darmstadt is a

Russian orthodox church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

which is still in use. It was built and used as a private chapel by the last

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

of Russia,

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pol ...

, whose wife

Alexandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "p ...

was born in Darmstadt. Although Russian orthodox churches also exist in other cities outside Russia, the Russian Chapel in Darmstadt was the only official Russian church used by the Tsar outside the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

. It is said that the chapel was built on Russian soil that was brought to Darmstadt exclusively for the purpose of building the Tsar's private chapel on it.

Festivals

Every year on the first weekend of July the Heinerfest festival is held in the streets surrounding the old ducal palace. It is a traditional German festival with music acts,

beer hall A beer hall () is a large pub that specializes in beer. Germany Beer halls are a traditional part of Bavarian culture, and feature prominently in Oktoberfest. Bosch notes that the beer halls of Oktoberfest, known in German as ''Festzelte'', ...

amusement ride Amusement rides, sometimes called carnival rides, are mechanical devices or structures that move people especially kids to create fun and enjoyment. Rides are often perceived by many as being scary or more dangerous than they actually are. This ...

s and booths selling trinkets and food. The similar 'Schloßgrabenfest', which is more

live music A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

-oriented, is held in the same location every year in May. These two festivals attract 700,000 and 400,000 visitors respectively.

Culture

Darmstadt Staatstheater Zuschauerraum vom Rang

Darmstadt has a rich cultural heritage. The

Staatstheater Darmstadt The Staatstheater Darmstadt (Darmstadt State Theatre) is a theatre company and building in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, presenting opera, ballet, plays and concerts. It is funded by the state of Hesse and the city of Darmstadt. Its history began in ...

(''State Theatre Darmstadt'') dates back to the year 1711. The present building has been in use since 1972 and has three halls which can be used independently. The "Grand Hall" (''Großes Haus'') provides seats for 956 people and serves as Darmstadt's opera house. The "Small Hall" (''Kleines Haus'') is mostly used for plays and dance and has 482 seats. A separate small hall (''Kammerspiele'') with 120 seats is used for

chamber play A chamber play is a play of usually three acts which can be performed with a small cast and practically no sets or costumes in a small space. The form became popular in the early 20th century, with leading exponents being Max Reinhardt and August S ...

s. Among the museums in Darmstadt the most important are the ''Hessisches Landesmuseum'' (Hessian State Museum), the ''Porcelain Museum'' (exhibition of the ducal

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

), the ''Schlossmuseum'' (exhibition of the ducal residence and possessions), the ''Kunsthalle Darmstadt'' (exhibitions of modern art), the exhibition centre ''Mathildenhöhe'' and the ''Museum Künstlerkolonie'' ( Art Nouveau museum). The Jazz-Institut Darmstadt is Germany's largest publicly accessible

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

archive. The Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, harboring one of the world's largest collections of

post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, ...

, also hosts the biennial ''

Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of th ...

'', a summer school in

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), modern forms of Post-tonal music theory, post-tonal music after th ...

founded by

Wolfgang Steinecke Wolfgang Steinecke (22 April 1910 – 23 December 1961) was a German musicologist, music critic, and cultural politician. In Darmstadt, he revived cultural life after World War II, especially by initiating the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, whi ...

. A large number of avant-garde composers have attended and given lectures there, including

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century. His m ...

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music. Biography Babbitt was born in Philadelphia to Albert E ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mo ...

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono beg ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading f ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde c ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer. Biography Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...

, and

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music. His work has been associated with "instrumental musique concrète". Life and works Lachenmann was born in Stuttgart and after the end of ...

. The

Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (in English German Academy for Language and Literature) was founded on 28 August 1949, on the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. It is seated in Darmstadt, ...

provides writers and scholars with a place to research the German language. The academy's annual

Georg Büchner Prize The Georg Büchner Prize (german: link=no, Georg-Büchner-Preis) is the most important literary prize for German language literature, along with the Goethe Prize. The award is named after dramatist and writer Georg Büchner, author of '' Woyzeck ...

, named in memory of

Georg Büchner Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büc ...

, is considered the most prestigious literary award for writers of German language.

Geography

Bergstrasse westblick bei heppenheim ds wv 11 2007

Darmstadt is located in the

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...

(German: Oberrheinische Tiefebene), a major rift, about 350 km (217 mi) long and on average 50 km (31 mi) wide, between the cities of Frankfurt in the north and Basel in the south. Darmstadt's southeastern boroughs are located in the spurs of the

, a low mountain range in Southern Hesse between the Main and Neckar rivers.

Climate

Southern Hesse is well known for its mild climate which allows

winegrowing Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ra ...

on a large scale in the region south of Darmstadt. The weather is often volatile with the summers being warm and humid with frequent thunderstorms, the winters mostly relatively mild with frequent periods of high fog. Snowfall is most likely in January and February, but mild winters without considerable snowfall can occur.

Education

Schools

The City of Darmstadt offers students a broad variety of public primary, secondary and tertiary schools. Besides them private schools exist, e.g. the catholic secondary school ''Edith-Stein-Schule'', the

Adventists Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Wil ...

' ''Schulzentrum Marienhöhe'', an

anthroposophic Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

''Waldorf School'', a ''

Comenius John Amos Comenius (; cs, Jan Amos Komenský; pl, Jan Amos Komeński; german: Johann Amos Comenius; Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considere ...

'' ''School'' and other faith based private schools.

Universities

TU Darmstadt

The

Technical University of Darmstadt Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

(German: ''Technische Universität Darmstadt''), commonly referred to as TU Darmstadt, is a prestigious research university in Germany. It was founded in 1877 and received the right to award doctorates in 1899. In 1882 it was the first university in the world to set up a chair in electrical engineering, in 1883 the first faculty for electrical engineering was founded there. The university is organized in 13 departments and 5 fields of study, which all together offer about 100 courses of studies. The fields of study offer interdisciplinary degree courses in which students take lectures in multiple departments. The university, as its title suggests, offers degree courses in the fields of electrical, mechanical and civil engineering, architecture, computer science, mathematics and the natural sciences. It also offers courses in economics, law, history, politics, sociology, psychology, sport science and linguistics. It also offers degree courses for teaching positions at German vocational schools and Gymnasiums.

Hochschule Darmstadt

The

(German: ''Hochschule Darmstadt'') has the highest number of industrial linkage programs, compared to the rest of the universities of applied sciences. The roots of University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt dates back to 1876. However, it has not emerged as a separate institution before 1971. Today (2017) it is the largest University of Applied Sciences in the State of Hesse with about 16,000 students offering courses in architecture, chemical engineering, materials science, civil engineering, computer science, design, economics, electrical engineering and information technology, mathematics and science, mechanical engineering, media (including information science and engineering), plastics engineering, social and cultural studies, and several social sciences.

EHD Darmstadt

The Protestant University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt (EHD) is an officially recognised and Church-sponsored University. The sponsors are the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, the Protestant Church of Kurhesse-Waldeck and the social welfare organisation of both Hessian Protestant Churches, the Diakonie Hesse. The EHD has approximately 1,700 students, 40 professors and 10 scientific employees and about 100 visiting lecturers every semester.

Sport

The city's main professional club is the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club

, who play at the

Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor ()The syllable that carries the primary stress in the last word is phonemically disyllabic . In normal speech, assimilates to non-syllabic (because of the preceding ) and attaches to the previous syllable, so th ...

. Other, amateur football clubs are

1. FCA Darmstadt 1. FCA Darmstadt is a German association football club in Darmstadt, Hesse. Fca Darmstadt's first-team competes in Germany's 7th-tier league, the Gruppenliga, whilst the second team plays in the 11th-tier league Kreisliga C. The club's gre ...

and

Rot-Weiß Darmstadt Rot-Weiß Darmstadt is a German association football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club's greatest success has been promotion to the Hessenliga, which it achieved for the first time in 2010. History ''Rot-Weiß'' was formed in 1954, shor ...

Darmstadt Diamonds The Darmstadt Diamonds are an American football team from Darmstadt, Germany. The club has spent six seasons in the German Football League, the GFL, from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2006 to 2008, reaching the play-offs on two occasions. The ''D ...

is the city's

american football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

team.

Institutions

Technology

Views in the Main Control Room (12052189474)

Darmstadt is home to many research institutions such as the

Fraunhofer Society The Fraunhofer Society (german: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., lit=Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) is a German research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany ...

(Fraunhofer IGD, Fraunhofer LBF, Fraunhofer SIT) and the

Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (german: GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung) is a federally and state co-funded heavy ion () research center in the Wixhausen suburb of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1969 as th ...

(GSI, "Society for

heavy ion High-energy nuclear physics studies the behavior of nuclear matter in energy regimes typical of high-energy physics. The primary focus of this field is the study of heavy-ion collisions, as compared to lighter atoms in other particle accelerator ...

Research"), which operates a

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...

in northern Darmstadt. The GSI, amongst other elements, discovered the

chemical element A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their atomic nucleus, nuclei, including the pure Chemical substance, substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements canno ...

darmstadtium (

atomic number The atomic number or nuclear charge number (symbol ''Z'') of a chemical element is the charge number of an atomic nucleus. For ordinary nuclei, this is equal to the proton number (''n''p) or the number of protons found in the nucleus of ever ...

: 110), named after the city in 2003. This makes Darmstadt one of several cities with elements named after them. Various other elements, including meitnerium (atomic number: 109) (1982), hassium (atomic number: 108) (1984), roentgenium (atomic number: 111) (1994) and copernicium (atomic number: 112) (1996) were also synthesized in the Darmstadt facility. The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) of the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

is located in Darmstadt. From here, various deep-space exploration spacecraft and Earth-orbiting satellites are operated for the purposes of scientific research, and technology development and demonstration.

EUMETSAT The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States. EUMETSAT's primary ...

, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, operates the principal European

meteorological Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

s from its headquarters, including the first and second generations of

Meteosat The Meteosat series of satellites are geostationary meteorological satellites operated by EUMETSAT under the Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP) and the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) program. The MTP program was established to ensure the ope ...

geostationary satellites, and the polar-orbiting

Metop Metop (Meteorological Operational satellite) is a series of three polar-orbiting meteorological satellites developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites ( ...

series. Darmstadt is a centre for the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, with Merck, Röhm and Schenck RoTec (part of The Dürr Group) having their main plants and centres here. Darmstadt is also a centre for the IT and telecommunications industry, with companies like

Software AG Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, and the seventh largest in Europe. Software AG is traded on t ...

, T-Systems (laboratories in Darmstadt) and Deutsche Telekom (laboratories in Darmstadt). ATHENE, formerly Center for Research in Security and Privacy (CRISP), is the national research center for

IT security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, th ...

and

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of ...

in Germany and the largest research center for

in Europe. The research center is located in Darmstadt and deals with key issues of IT security in the

digitization DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-r ...

of government, business and society. The

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (German: ''Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz'', DFKI) is one of the world's largest nonprofit contract research institutes for software technology based on artificial in ...

has a laboratory in Darmstadt. The

Hessian Centre for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI) A Hessian is an inhabitant of the German state of Hesse. Hessian may also refer to: Named from the toponym *Hessian (soldier), eighteenth-century German regiments in service with the British Empire **Hessian (boot), a style of boot **Hessian ...

has its headquarters in Darmstadt.

United States military presence

U.S. forces entered the city of Darmstadt on 25 March 1945. At the end of World War II, Darmstadt was among the 112 communities where U.S. forces were stationed. Early units stationed here included elements of the U.S. Constabulary, Air Force units and a Quartermaster School. Over the years, the U.S. military community Darmstadt – under a variety of designations – served as home for thousands of American soldiers and their families. It included six principal installations in Darmstadt and nearby Babenhausen, Griesheim and

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

, plus several housing areas, an airfield and a large number of smaller facilities as far away as

Bensheim Bensheim () is a town in the Bergstraße district in southern Hessen, Germany. Bensheim lies on the Bergstraße and at the edge of the Odenwald mountains while at the same time having an open view over the Rhine plain. With about 40,000 inhabita ...

and

Aschaffenburg Aschaffenburg (; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Aschebersch'') is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the Aschaffenburg (district), district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative sea ...

. The military newspaper European '' Stars and Stripes'' also had its headquarters there. As of 1993, the Darmstadt military community also assumed responsibility for the remaining U.S. Army facilities in the

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

area. As part of the U.S. Army's ongoing transformation in Germany, the Darmstadt military community, by then designated U.S. Army Garrison Darmstadt, inactivated on 30 September 2008. Even after the garrison inactivation, however, there is still one unit active in Darmstadt: The 66th Military Intelligence Group at the Dagger Complex on Eberstädter Weg. It draws its support from the nearby U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden. The website of the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade claims they moved out in 2008, but Google Maps and Bing satellite imagery still show a respectively full and quarter-full parking lot, and the U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden's website mentions the unit still being active in Darmstadt, and a Marine Corps company being stationed there as well. With the exception of Dagger Complex, all remaining US installations are now empty and closed to the public, pending property disposal by the German authorities.

Tourist sights in Darmstadt

Limmeuble Waldspirale (Darmstadt) (7954668126)

City

with the Art Nouveau Museum ** Wedding Tower (''Hochzeitsturm'') at Sabaisplatz ** The former private chapel of the last Tsar of Russia * State Theatre and Opera House * Waldspirale

Hundertwasser Friedrich Stowasser (15 December 1928 – 19 February 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (), was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection ...

Building * City Center with Luisenplatz, the Castle and the Market Square * Hauptbahnhof – Central Train Station (Art Nouveau style) * Parks ** Herrngarten Park **

Botanical Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

(''Botanischer Garten'') ** Vortex Garden ** Park Rosenhöhe (''Rose Heights Park'') with the Dukal Cemetery * Porcelain Museum at Schlossgartenplatz * St. Ludwig Church * State Museum (''Landesmuseum'') * State Archive/Old Theatre * Train Museum Kranichstein

Region

* Bergstrasse *

Vineyards A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

at Zwingenberg *

* Messel Pit Fossil Site *

Melibokus The Melibokus (also ''Melibocus'', ''Malchen'' or ''Malschen'') is at 517 metres (1696 feet), the highest hill in the Bergstraße region of southern Hesse, central Germany. It was also the name of a hill in Germania described by classical s ...

Notable people

Christoph Graupner Christoph Graupner (13 January 1683 – 10 May 1760) was a German composer and harpsichordist of late Baroque music who was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel. Life Born in Hartmannsd ...

(1683–1760), composer and

Hofkapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

(chapel master) at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1711 to 1754 * Johann Jacob Dillenius (1684–1747), botanist * Justus Freiherr von Liebig (1803–1873), chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and was considered the founder of organic chemistry *

Friedrich von Flotow Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow /flo:to/ (27 April 1812 – 24 January 1883) was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera ''Martha'', which was popular in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th. Life ...

(1812–1883), opera composer, died in Darmstadt. *

(1813–1837), dramatist, poet and revolutionist *

Carl Amand Mangold Carl Ludwig Amand Mangold (8 October 1813 - 4 August 1889) was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Biography Mangold was born in Darmstadt and received his initial musical education from his father. In 1831 he entered the orchestra of the ...

(1813–1889), composer and conductor * Friedrich August Kekulé (1829–1896), prominent

organic chemist Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J. ...

and the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure * Eugen Bracht (1842–1921), landscape painter *

Georg von Hertling Georg Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Hertling, from 1914 Count von Hertling, (31 August 1843 – 4 January 1919) was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party. He was foreign minister and minister president of Bavaria, then chancellor of t ...

(1843–1919), politician * Benjamin Altheimer (1850–1938), American banker and philanthropist *

Karl Muck Karl Muck (October 22, 1859 – March 3, 1940) was a German-born conductor of Classical music. He based his activities principally in Europe and mostly in opera. His American career comprised two stints at the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). M ...

(1859–1940), conductor *

Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse , spouses = , issue = , house = Hesse-Darmstadt , father =Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine , mother =Princess Alice of the United Kingdom , birth_date = , birth_place = New Palace, Darmstadt, Grand ...

(1868–1937), last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, *

Karl Wolfskehl Karl Wolfskehl (17 September 1869 – 30 June 1948) was a German Jewish author and translator. He wrote poetry, prose and drama in German, and translated from French, English, Italian, Hebrew, Latin and Old/Middle High German into German. Bi ...

(1869–1948), poet, editor and translator * Alexandra Feodorovna (1872–1918), Russian Empress, born as Alix of Hesse, married Tsar Nicholas II of Russia *

Christian Stock Christian Stock (28 August 1884, Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse – 13 April 1967 in Seeheim-Jugenheim) was a German Social Democrat politician and the first Prime Minister—'' Ministerpräsident''—of the provisional state of Greater He ...

(1884–1967), politician *

Anton Köllisch Anton Köllisch (16 March 1888 – September 1916) was a German chemist who, whilst working at Darmstadt for pharmaceutical giant Merck, first described the synthesis of the chemical MDMA. Life and work In 1911, Köllisch published his doctoral ...

(1888–1916), chemist who first synthesized MDMA (known as "ecstasy") * Beno Gutenberg (1889–1960), German-American seismologist *

Karl Plagge Karl Plagge (; 10 July 1897 – 19 June 1957) was a German Army officer who rescued Jews during the Holocaust in Lithuania by issuing work permits to non-essential workers. A partially disabled veteran of World War I, Plagge studied engi ...

(1897–1957), Wehrmacht officer, saved Lithuanian Jews from extermination during

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

, Righteous among the Nations *

Karl-Otto Koch Karl-Otto Koch (; 2 August 1897 – 5 April 1945) was a mid-ranking commander in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) of Nazi Germany who was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. From September 1941 until A ...

(1897–1945), commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...

and

Sachsenhausen Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

Josef Ganz Josef Ganz (1 July 1898 – 26 July 1967) was a Jewish-German car designer born in Budapest, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Hungary). Early years Josef Ganz was born on 1 July 1898 into a Jewish family living in Budapest, then the second-largest ...

(1898–1967), automotive engineer and pioneer, studied at the Technical University of Darmstadt *

Heinrich von Brentano Heinrich Joseph Maximilian Johann Maria von Brentano di Tremezzo (20 June 1904 – 14 November 1964), known professionally as Heinrich von Brentano, was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as Federal Minister ...

(1904–1964), Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1955 to 1961 * Hans Möser (1906–1948), Nazi SS concentration camp officer executed for war crimes * Walter Schmiele (1909–1998), author and translator *

Arno Schmidt Arno Schmidt (; 18 January 1914 – 3 June 1979) was a German author and translator. He is little known outside of German-speaking areas, in part because his works present a formidable challenge to translators. Although he is not one of the p ...

(1914–1979), author and translator * Hans Stark (1921–1991), head of the admissions detail at Auschwitz-II Birkenau of Auschwitz concentration camp * Georg Stern (1921–1980), operatic singer *

(1928–2007), leading 20th-century electronic composer *

Günter Strack Günter Strack (4 June 1929 – 18 January 1999) was a German film and television actor. Career In English language films, he played Professor Karl Manfred in the Hitchcock thriller '' Torn Curtain'' (1966) and appeared as Kunik in ''The Ode ...

(1929–1999), actor *

Maciej Łukaszczyk Maciej Łukaszczyk (11 March 1934, Warsaw – 4 June 2014, Poznań) was a Polish pianist. Life Łukaszczyk was born in the capital city of Poland, Warsaw, in March 1934. During the German occupation of Poland during the Second World War, he and ...

(1934–2014), Polish pianist at the

, founder and president of the Chopin organisation, porter of the Polish and German order * Helmut Markwort (born 1936), journalist *

Annegret Soltau Annegret Soltau (born 16 January 1946) is a German visual artist, born in Lüneburg, Germany. Her work marks a fundamental reference point in the art of the 1970s and 1980s. Photomontages of her own body and face sewn over or collaged with black ...

(born 1946), artist * Cord Meijering (born 1955), Dutch composer * Christoph Lanz (born 1959), journalist * Volker Weidermann (born 1969), writer and journalist *

Florika Fink-Hooijer Florika Fink-Hooijer is a European civil servant at the European Commission. She leads the Directorate General for the Environment, which holds large responsibilities under the European Green Deal. She joined the European Commission in 1990 an ...

(born 1962), prominent European civil servant * Markus Rühl (born 1972), bodybuilder *

Karola Obermüller Karola Obermueller (born 21 March 1977, Darmstadt) is a German composer and teacher. Life Obermueller began her training at the Akademie für Tonkunst in Darmstadt. She studied composition with of the Meistersinger-Konservatorium and t ...

(born 1977), composer * Björn Bürger (born 1985), operatic baritone *

Andrea Petkovic Andrea Petkovic (, ; born 9 September 1987) is a German former professional tennis player. Born in Tuzla, SFR Yugoslavia, to Serbian father Zoran and Bosniak mother Amira, she moved to Germany at six months old and turned professional in 2006 a ...

(born 1987), tennis player *

Nina Gerhard Nina Gerhard (born 10 December 1974), also known as Nina, is a German singer best known as the voice of Captain Hollywood Project and for her 1994 hit " The Reason Is You". Career Nina performed vocals on the Captain Hollywood Project single " ...

(born 1974), singer *

Zinaida Petrovna Ziberova Zinaida Petrovna Ziberova (born 1909) was a pianist, conductor, and composer who was born in Darmstadt, Germany, and lived most of her life in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Ziberova moved to Rostov-on-Don in 1925, where she attended music school and stud ...

(born 1909), composer Justus von Liebig NIH.jpg, Justus von Liebig around 1866 Friedrich von Flotow 1866.jpg, Friedrich von Flotow 1866 Heinrich von Angeli - Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz.jpg, Friedrich August Kekulé in 1890

Twin towns – sister cities

Darmstadt is twinned with: *

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...

, Netherlands (1958) *

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and '' comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

, Italy (1991) *

Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...

, Turkey (1971) * Chesterfield, England, UK (1959) *

Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...

, Germany (1990) *

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...

, Austria (1968) * Gstaad (Saanen), Switzerland (1991) * Gyönk, Hungary (1990) *

Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Region and the third-largest city in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an important ice-f ...

, Latvia (1993) *

Logroño Logroño () is the capital of the province of La Rioja, situated in northern Spain. Traversed in its northern part by the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of passage, such as the Camino de Santiago. Its borders were disputed b ...

, Spain (2002) *

Płock Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to th ...

, Poland (1988) *

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

, United States (2017) *

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also other alternative names) is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat of Csongrád-Csanád county. The University of Szeged is one of the m ...

, Hungary (1990) *

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, an ...

, Norway (1968) *

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near ...

, France (1958) *

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod ( uk, У́жгород, , ; ) is a city and municipality on the river Uzh in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistant from the Baltic, the Adriatic and the ...

, Ukraine (1992)

References

External links

* *
Discover Darmstadt – City Tourist Website

* {{Authority control Capitals of former nations Grand Duchy of Hesse Merck Group Odenwald Holocaust locations in Germany