History of Hesse

This article is about the history of Hesse.

In the Paleolithic Era, the Central Hessian region around Wetzlar was settled. Extensive excavations along the Lahn in Wetzlar-Dalheim recently uncovered a 7000-year-old settlement from the Linear Pottery culture. Bell Beaker shards found in Rüsselsheim, Offenbach, Griesheim and Wiesbaden suggest settlement in southern Hesse 4,500 years ago.

In 1568 with the death of Philip of Hesse, the Landgraviate of Hesse (German: Landgrafschaft Hessen), a German Principality of the Holy Roman Empire, was divided between his sons. One portion was granted to George, the youngest of the four sons of Landgrave Philip I of Hesse. With the extinction of the Hesse-Marburg and Hesse-Rheinfels lines by 1604, Hesse-Darmstadt, along with Hesse-Kassel, became one of the two Hessian states. While Hesse-Kassel converted to Calvinism and became one of the most zealous exponents of the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War, Landgrave George II remained a strict Lutheran and maintained a close alliance with Saxony, which led to a pro-Habsburg policy after 1642.

Hesse-Darmstadt gained a great deal of territory from the secularization and modifications authorized by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803. The acquisition of the Duchy of Westphalia, formerly owned by the Archbishop of Cologne, was significant, as were the acquisition of territories from the Archbishop of Mainz and the Bishop of Worms. In 1806, upon the dissolution of the Reich and the dispossession of his cousin, the Elector of Hesse-Kassel, the Landgrave took the title of Grand Duke of Hesse.

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