Kassel district ( German: Landkreis Kassel) is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

in the north of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Neighboring districts are Northeim,

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, Werra-Meißner, Schwalm-Eder, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Höxter. The

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

is nearly completely surrounded by the district. Rotbuche Reinhardswald

Geography

The main river in the district is the

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

, which also forms part of the eastern boundary. Its headstream, the

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the city hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

, flows through the southern part of the district including the city of Kassel. In the north of the district there is the Diemel as a tributary of the Weser.

History

The area was first populated by the ancient Germanic tribe of

Chatti The Chatti (also Chatthi or Catti) were an ancient Germanic tribe whose homeland was near the upper Weser (''Visurgis'') river. They lived in central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of that river and in ...

, who later founded the state of Hesse. The present county was disputed between various principalities (Hesse, Mainz, Paderborn, Cologne and Braunschweig) in the early Middle Ages; later it became part of Hesse and Hesse-Kassel. This state was annexed by Prussia in 1866 . The modern federal state of Hesse was founded after 1945. This state reformed its districts in the 1970s. In 1972, the previous districts of Kassel, Hofgeismar and Wolfhagen, were merged to form the newly established district of Kassel.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms shows the lion of

in the top part, as Kassel was the capital of the county of Hesse until 1866, when it moved to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. In the lower part it has three oak leaves taken from the coat of arms of the Hofgeismar district, and a wolf's hook symbolizing the Wolfhagen district.

Tourism and sights

Many characters and places from the fairy tales of the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

have originated in the area around Kassel. Thus the tale of Sleeping Beauty locates at the Sababurg in Reinhardswald and that of Rapunzel on the Trendelburg. Therefore, the district of Kassel is also marketed as the ''"Land of the Brothers Grimm"''. The region is the center of the ''German Fairy Tale Route''. The district is represented in the European Garden Heritage Network with three parks: The park of the castles Schloss Wilhelmsthal (in Calden), the Escheberg-Castle and the Sababurg.

Transportation

The district is served by the motorways 7 ( Würzburg - Kassel - Hanover ), 44 (Kassel - Dortmund ) and 49 (Kassel-Borken). Other roadlinks, including the B 7, B 83 and B 251, exist. With the Airport Kassel-Waldau in 1924 there was an airport with international connections. In 1970 it was closed with the opening of the new Kassel Calden Airport. Currently this airport is completely rebuilt. The rail transport is oriented to the city of Kassel with tram and rail lines.

Economy

Some parts of the district benefit from good infrastructure. Baunatal has large Volkswagen and Lohfelden factories and also has several industrial areas on the border with the city of Kassel. Other more rural parts had experienced

population decline Population decline, also known as depopulation, is a reduction in a human population size. Throughout history, Earth's total world population, human population has estimates of historical world population, continued to grow but projections sugg ...

, though this has halted in recent years.

Towns and municipalities

Twinnings (partner regions)

* Waldviertel, Austria (federal state of Lower Austria) * Forlì-Cesena, Italy (region Emilia-Romagna) * Csepel Island, Hungary * Yaroslavl, Russia (Yaroslavl Oblast) * Bistriţa-Nasaud, Romania * Dane County, United States (Wisconsin)

References

External links

Official website
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kassel (District) Districts of Hesse Districts of Prussia Kassel (region)