Map of Hessen
Hessen is a first-level division of Germany. Its largest mapped city is Frankfurt, with about 2.90 million people in the metropolitan area. The interactive map below is centred on Hessen, and the tables list its 4 mapped cities along with the World Heritage Sites nearest to them.
- Cities Mapped
- 4
- Largest City
- Frankfurt
- Country
- Germany
Interactive Map of Hessen
About Hessen
Hesse or Hessen (German pronunciation: [ˈhɛsn̩]), officially the State of Hesse (German: Land Hessen), is a landlocked state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt am Main, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major historic cities are Darmstadt and Kassel. With an area of 21,114.73 square kilometers and a population of over six million, it ranks seventh and fifth, respectively, among the sixteen German states. Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Germany's second-largest metropolitan area (after Rhine-Ruhr), is mainly located in Hesse.
As a cultural region, Hesse also includes the area known as Rhenish Hesse (Rheinhessen) in the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia: Hesse (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Hessen in Depth
History
The territory of Hesse was delineated only in 1945, as Greater Hesse, under American occupation. It corresponds loosely to the medieval Landgraviate of Hesse.
In the 19th century, prior to the unification of Germany, the territory of what is now Hesse comprised the territories of Grand Duchy of Hesse (also known as Hesse-Darmstadt), the Duchy of Nassau, the free city of Frankfurt, the Electorate of Hesse (also known as Hesse-Kassel), the Principality of Waldeck and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg.
The Central Hessian region was inhabited in the Upper Paleolithic. Finds of tools in southern Hesse in Rüsselsheim suggest the presence of Pleistocene hunters about 13,000 years ago.
Geography
The only state to straddle west and central portions of Germany where the eight ordinal directions (compass points) and the centre is considered, Hesse borders six other states. These are, from north, clockwise: Lower Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and North Rhine-Westphalia.
The most populous towns and cities of Hesse are in the southwest, the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region namely Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Offenbach, Hanau, Giessen, Wetzlar, and Rüsselsheim am Main. Outside, but very near the south-west corner of Hesse are four populous, highly technologised, places: Worms, Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, and Heidelberg.
Economy
With Hesse's largest city Frankfurt am Main being home of the European Central Bank (ECB), the German Bundesbank and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Hesse is home to the financial capital of mainland Europe. Furthermore, Hesse has always been one of the largest and healthiest economies in Germany. Its GDP in 2013 exceeded €236 billion (about US$316 billion). This makes Hesse itself one of the largest economies in Europe and the 38th largest in the world. According to GDP-per-capita figures, Hesse is the wealthiest state (after the city-states Hamburg and Bremen) in Germany with approx. US$52,500.
Frankfurt is crucial as a financial center, with both the European Central Bank and the Deutsche Bundesbank's headquarters located there.
Demographics
Hesse has a population of over 6 million, nearly 4 million of which is concentrated in the Rhein-Main region (German: Rhein-Main Gebiet) in the south of the state, an area that includes the most populous city, Frankfurt am Main, the capital Wiesbaden, and Darmstadt and Offenbach. The population of Hesse is predicted to shrink by 4.3% by 2030, with the biggest falls in the north of the state, especially in the area around the city of Kassel. Frankfurt is the fastest growing city with a predicted rise in population of 4.8% by 2030.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Hesse (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Hessen: Key Facts
| Population | 6,207,278 (2022) |
|---|---|
| Area | 21,100 km² |
| Capital | Wiesbaden |
| Head of government | Boris Rhein |
| Highest point | Wasserkuppe |
| Established | 1 December 1946 |
Facts from Wikidata Q1199 (CC0).
History of Hessen: Empires and States
The atlas records 30 polities whose mapped territory included part of Hessen, from The Roman Empire in 1 CE to 2024 CE. They are listed in the order they first appear.
Historical Maps of Hessen
Hessen on the world map in each year one of these states held it:
Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.
Visiting Hessen
Hesse (German: Hessen) is a state in west-central Germany with a population of approximately 6.4 million people. It is defined by the sharp contrast between the heavily urbanised Rhine-Main region in the southwest - a major European financial and transport hub - and the rest of the state, which is largely rural and hilly. With 40 per cent of its silver-fir, beech, and oak forests, Hesse is one of Germany's most densely wooded states. Outside the main metropolitan areas like Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, the landscape is dotted with volcanic massifs like the Vogelsberg and numerous medieval half-timbered towns that characterize the region's architecture.
Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Hesse (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Largest Cities in Hessen
4 cities mapped. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.
| # | Name | Population | Region | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frankfurt | 2.90 million | Hessen | Populated place |
| 2 | Wiesbaden | 617,126 | Hessen | Admin-1 capital |
| 3 | Kassel | 289,924 | Hessen | Populated place |
| 4 | Gießen | 82,358 | Hessen | Populated place |
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Hessen
4 World Heritage Sites mapped. Listed by year of inscription, earliest first. Sites shared with another country appear under each. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.
| # | Name | Inscribed | Type | Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Messel pit | 1995 | Natural | (viii) |
| 2 | Rhine Gorge | 2002 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) (v) |
| 3 | Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe | 2013 | Cultural | (iii) (iv) |
| 4 | Artists' Colony in Darmstadt | 2021 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) |
Hessen: Quick Answers
- Where is Hessen?
- Hessen is a first-level division of Germany, in Europe. Its mapped cities centre on 50.5160° N, 8.7688° E.
- What is the largest city in Hessen?
- Frankfurt is the largest city mapped in Hessen, with a metropolitan population of about 2.90 million.
- How many cities are in Hessen?
- YearMaps maps 4 cities and towns in Hessen, with a combined metropolitan population of about 3.88 million. This counts mapped settlements, not every municipality.