The settlement appears to have been abandoned by the Romans after the devastating Battle of the Teutoburg Forest failed in the year AD 9. The governor of Germania, at least temporarily, likely had resided here. Presumably, the provincial government for the occupied territories of the right bank of Germania was planned at this location. The ancient Romans had a military camp in Dorlar, and in Waldgirmes directly on the eastern outskirts of Wetzlar was a civil settlement under construction. The region was later settled by the Germanic Chatti tribe around the 1st century BC, and the name Hesse is a continuation of that tribal name. 3000 BC, it belongs to the Late Neolithic Wartberg culture.Īn early Celtic presence in what is now Hesse is indicated by a mid-5th-century BC La Tène-style burial uncovered at Glauberg. Classified as a gallery grave or a Hessian-Westphalian stone cist ( hessisch-westfälische Steinkiste), it is one of the most important megalithic monuments in Central Europe. The Züschen tomb (German: Steinkammergrab von Züschen, sometimes also Lohne-Züschen) is a prehistoric burial monument, located between Lohne and Züschen, near Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany. A fossil hominid skull that was found in northern Hesse, just outside the village of Rhünda, has been dated at 12,000 years ago. The Central Hessian region was inhabited in the Upper Paleolithic.įinds of tools in southern Hesse in Rüsselsheim suggest the presence of Pleistocene hunters about 13,000 years ago. History įurther information: Chatti and Austrasia The synthetic element hassium, number 108 on the periodic table, was named after the state of Hesse in 1997, following a proposal of 1992. The European Commission uses the German form Hessen, even in English-language contexts, due to the policy of leaving regional names untranslated. The English form Hesse was in common use by the 18th century, first in the hyphenated names of the states of Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Darmstadt, but the latinate form Hessia remained in common English usage well into the 19th century. The American English term 'Hessian' for 18th-century British auxiliary troops originates with Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel hiring out regular army units to the government of Great Britain to fight in the American Revolutionary War. Īn inhabitant of Hesse is called a 'Hessian' (German: Hesse (masculine), plural Hessen, or Hessin (feminine), plural Hessinnen). The ancient name Chatti by the 7th century is recorded as Chassi, and from the 8th century as Hassi or Hessi. The name of the Hessians ultimately continues the tribal name of the Chatti.

The Old High German form of the name is recorded as Hessun (dative plural of Hessi) in Middle Latin it appears as Hassonia, Hassia, Hessia. The geographical name represents a short equivalent of the older compound name Hessenland ('land of the Hessians'). The German name Hessen, like the names of other German regions ( Schwaben 'Swabia', Franken 'Franconia', Bayern 'Bavaria', Sachsen 'Saxony'), derives from the dative plural form of the name of the inhabitants or eponymous tribe, the Hessians ( Hessen, singular Hesse).

Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Germany's second-largest metropolitan area (after Rhine-Ruhr), is mainly located in Hesse.Īs a cultural region, Hesse also includes the area known as Rhenish Hesse (Rheinhessen) in the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

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. Two other major historic cities are Darmstadt and Kassel. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Hesse ( / h ɛ s/, US also / ˈ h ɛ s ə, ˈ h ɛ s i/, Hessian dialect: ) or Hessia ( UK: / ˈ h ɛ s i ə/, US: / ˈ h ɛ ʃ ə/ German: Hessen ( listen)), officially the State of Hesse (German: Land Hessen), is a state in Germany.

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