Darmstadt
See also Darmstadt (disambiguation):Darmstadt is a city in the
Bundesland (federal state) of
Hessen in
Germany. As of 2005, its population was 138,500. The city is located in the southern part of the
Rhine Main Metropolitan Area.
The name Darmstadt first appears towards the end of the
11th century, then
Darmundestat; Darmstadt was chartered as a city by the
Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian in 1330. The seat of the ruling
landgraves (1567-1806) and thereafter (to 1918) to the
Grand Dukes of Hesse, 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.
Darmstadt's municipal area was extended in 1937 to include the neighbouring localities of Arheilgen [not Arheil
igen] and Eberstadt, and in 1938 the city was separated administratively from the surrounding district (
Kreis). Its old city centre was largely destroyed in a British bombing raid of
September 11 1944, which killed an estimated 12,300 inhabitants and rendered 66,000 homeless. Most of Darmstadt's 3000
Jews were killed by the
Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945.
Darmstadt is 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 the high-tech centre in the vicinity of
Frankfurt Airport, with important activities in spacecraft operations, chemistry, information technology, biotechnology, telecommunications and mechatronics. 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.
 |
Darmstadt, Market Square around 1900 |
The palace of Darmstadt is located in the city centre. It was the residence of the counts of
Hesse-Darmstadt, later as
Grand Dukes of Hesse by the grace of Napoleon. Its current look was established in the 18th century. The counts also owned a castle on the Langenberg above the city. This castle dates back to the 13th century, but it was acquired by the counts of Hessen-Darmstadt in 1662. The name of the castle is Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley probably adopted the name for her novel
Frankenstein; before writing the story she had travelled through the region and visited Eberstadt (today a borough of Darmstadt), so the castle could have given her the inspiration.
The
Luisenplatz, the largest square of the city, forms the centre of the town. Today it is surrounded by modern buildings. In 1844 the
Ludwigsäule (called
Langer Lui, meaning
Long Ludwig), a 33-meter column commemorating
Ludwig I, first Grand Duke of Hesse, was placed in the middle. The other large town square is the
Marktplatz (see image) near the town hall.
Surviving examples of the
Jugendstil period include the
http://www.darmstadt.de/en/sights/rosenhoehe/index.html Rosenhoehe, the
http://www.darmstadt.de/en/sights/mathildenhoehe/index.html Mathildenhoehe with the
Hochzeitsturm [Marriage tower], commonly known as the Five-Finger-Tower, the
Russian Chapel and large exhibition halls as well as many private villas built by Jugendstil architects who had settled in Darmstadt. The Russian Chapel was built as a private chapel for the last Tzar of Russia,
Nicholas II, whose wife
Alexandra was born in Darmstadt.
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The "Waldspirale" built by Hundertwasser |
The Hundertwasser building "Waldspirale" ("Forest Spiral") was built in Darmstadt between 1998 and 2000 by the famous Austrian architect and painter Friedensreich
Hundertwasser.
Darmstadt is the site of one of the leading German universities, the
Darmstadt University of Technology, renowned for its engineering departments. Related institutes are the
Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (see also 'Trivia', below) and the four Institutes of the
Fraunhofer Society. The European Space Operations Center (
ESOC) of the
European Space Agency is located in Darmstadt, as is
EUMETSAT, which operates
meteorological satellites. 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.
The
Jazz-Institut Darmstadt is Germany's largest publicly accessible
Jazz archive.
The
Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, harboring one of the world's largest collections of
post-war sheet music, also hosts the biannual
Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, a summer school in
contemporary classical music founded by
Wolfgang Steinecke. A large number of avant-garde
composers have attended and given lectures there, including
Olivier Messiaen,
Luciano Berio,
Milton Babbitt,
Pierre Boulez,
John Cage,
György Ligeti,
Iannis Xenakis,
Karlheinz Stockhausen and
Mauricio Kagel.
The
Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (German Academy for Language and Poetry) provides writers and scholars with a place to research the German language. The Academy's annual
Georg-Büchner-Preis, named in memory of
Georg Büchner, is considered the most renowned literary award for writers of German language.
There are still
U.S. army personnel stationed in Darmstadt. Just outside the Darmstadt centrum is the U.S. Army Garrison Darmstadt on Cambrai-Fritsch Kaserne. The kaserne was originally built in the 1930s as two separate German Army kasernes (Cambrai Kaserne and Freiherr von Fritsch Kaserne). It is possible to listen to the military entertainment radio for the American troops in the region. The station is called
AFN Europe and broadcasts from Frankfurt.The base is to close around 2008-2010, and AFN Europe will be moved to Mannheim.
Literally translated, the German name "Darmstadt" means "City of the intestine". But that is just a coincidence, as the name derives from the medieval name "darmundestat", meaning "Place at the mouth of the Darmbach." The Darm(bach) is a small creek running through the city and flowing into the
Modau, a small confluence of the river
Rhine.
The
chemical element Darmstadtium (
atomic number: 110), first discovered at the
Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung was named after the city in 2003, making Darmstadt only the fourth city with an element named after it (the other three are
Ytterby,
Sweden,
Berkeley, California, and
Dubna,
Russia).
Meitnerium (
atomic number: 109) (1982),
Hassium (
atomic number: 108) (1984) and
Roentgenium (
atomic number: 111) (1994) and
Ununbium (
atomic number: 112) (1996) were also synthesized in this facility.
Darmstadt also happens to be one of the small number of cities worldwide which do not lie close to a river or coast.
Darmstadt is
twinned with:
*
Alkmaar,
Netherlands*
Brescia,
Italy*
Bursa,
Turkey*
Chesterfield,
UK*
Graz,
Austria*
Liepaja,
Latvia*
Logroño,
Spain*
Plock,
Poland*
Szeged,
Hungary*
Trondheim,
Norway*
Troyes,
France*
Uzhgorod,
Ukraine*
Official site of the city of Darmstadt (German, English)
*
Darmstadt on
Wikitravel*
Mathildenhoehe*
Details of Trams and Buses used in Darmstadt*
Public Transport in Darmstadt - Maps, Timetables, Fares*
War memorials in Darmstadt*
Darmstadt.us Forums*
Webpage of the U.S. army in DarmstadtNotable institutions
*
Darmstadt University of Technology*
University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt*
Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics*
Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology*
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Publication and Information Systems*
Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability*
Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung*
Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung*
European Space Operations Centre (ESOC)
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