Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt, city, Hessen Land (state), south-central Germany. It is situated on a gently sloping plain between the Odenwald (a forested plateau) and the Rhine River, south of Frankfurt am Main and southeast of Mainz. First mentioned in the 11th century, Darmstadt was by the 14th century a small village held by the counts of Katzenelnbogen. Chartered in 1330, it was deeded to the landgraves of Hesse in 1479. In 1567 it became the residence of the Hesse-Darmstadt line (a grand duchy from 1806), and from 1919 until 1945 it was the capital of the state of Hesse. It flourished during the period of the landgrave Ludwig X (1790–1830), the first grand duke as Ludwig I, under whom the new town was built. Industrialization, especially the development of chemicals, brought rapid expansion in the 19th century.

Darmstadt formerly consisted of an old and a new town, and, although the city was badly damaged in World War II, many historic buildings survived, and it was rebuilt. Darmstadt is a highly diversified industrial centre. Its principal manufactures are chemicals and machinery. Notable landmarks include a 108-foot (33-metre) statue of Ludwig X; the ducal castle (1568–95); the Kranichstein hunting lodge, now a museum and game park; and the Russian Church (1898–99), commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II in honour of Tsarina Alexandra, a native of Darmstadt. In the Mathildenhöhe, east of the city, is the artist’s colony established in 1899 by the grand duke Ernst Ludwig. To the west, on Kuhkopf Island in the Rhine, is a nature reserve with rare waterfowl. Darmstadt is the site of the Landesmuseum and library, schools of engineering, art, and music, and a porcelain museum. The city is the seat of a technical university (founded 1836) and has a high concentration of public and private scientific research institutions. The noted chemist Justus von Liebig was born there in 1803. Pop. (2003 est.) 139,698.