Greater Hesse
| Greater Hesse Groß-Hessen |
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| Subdivision of US-administered Germany | |||||
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| Capital | Wiesbaden | ||||
| Government | Military occupation | ||||
| Commissioner | Col. James R. Newman | ||||
| Minister-President | |||||
| • | September–October 1945 | Ludwig Bergsträsser | |||
| • | October 1945 – December 1946 | Karl Geiler | |||
| Historical era | World War II | ||||
| • | Established | 19 September 1945 | |||
| • | Disestablished | 1 December 1946 | |||
Greater Hesse (German: Groß-Hessen) was the provisional name given for a section of German territory created by the US military administration in at the end of World War II. It was formed by the Allied Control Council on 19 September 1945 and became the modern German state of Hesse on 1 December 1946.
Greater Hesse was formed from parts of two German states that were dissolved in the aftermath of World War II:
The remaining Hessian province of Rhenish Hesse (Rheinhessen, capital: Mainz) and the western part of the province of Nassau (containing the Westerwald, part of the Taunus range and the Rhine end of the Lahn river) became part of the French occupation zone and eventually part of the modern state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The separation of Rhenish Hesse from Greater Hesse caused Mainz to lose its six districts that lay east of the Rhine, even though they are still named today as being part of Mainz – such as Mainz-Kastel, now a district of Wiesbaden.
A number of smaller territorial changes also took place. The enclave of Bad Wimpfen, which previously belonged to the Hessian province of Starkenburg, became part of American-administered Württemberg-Baden. A small part of the Prussian province of Hesse, containing the town of Schmalkalden, lay in the Soviet zone and became part of the state of Thuringia.
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