HESSE-DARMSTADT, Grand-Duchy of, the actual Hesse of the present day, is a state of Germany situated on the Rhine and Main, between Prussia on the north and Biden on the south. It consists of two large and several small detached portions of territory. The more northerly of the large portions forms the province of Oberhessen, and is completely surrounded by Prussia. The other, divided by the Rhine into the provinces of Starkenburg and Rheinhessen, is bounded on the N. by Hesse-Nassau, on the W. by the Rhine Palatinate and Rhenish Prussia, on the S. by Baden, and on the E. by Baden and Bavaria. The extent of the duchy is about 2965 square miles. Oberhessen is mountainous, having the Vogelsberg in the east with Taufstein (2579 feet) as the highest summit in the country, and the Hausberg, a branch of the Taunus, in the south-west. In the south-east of Starkenburg is the Odenwald. Rheinhessen is occupied by fertile hills. The chief rivers are the Rhine, Main, Neckar, Lahn, and Fulda, with their tributaries. There are no lakes, but mineral springs abound in all the provinces. The climate is pleasant and mild in the river valleys and plains, but severe on the heights, especially in Oberhessen. Besides the usual domestic animals, deer of various kinds, wild swine, foxes, martens, and otters are found. Agriculture, including the breeding of horses and cattle, is actively encouraged by Government, and is the principal industry of the people. Forestry and vine-growing are also important, the latter being practised almost exclusively in Rheinhessen. The principal crops are millet, buckwheat, oats, and potatoes; but rape (for oil), hemp, flax, tobacco, and fruit are also cultivated. The manufactures embrace leather (enamelled and coloured), tobacco, cigars, shoes, furniture, ...pocket-books and similar goods, chemicals, matches, machinery, and various textile fabrics. Mining is carried on chiefly in Oberhessen. Iron, copper, manganese, graphite, lignite, salt, marble, and clay are the principal minerals, which are worked for home consumption. In 1878 there were produced in Hesse 45,300 tons of lignite, 91,724 tons of iron ore, and 13,200 tons of salt, representing in value about £62,100. Trade is tolerably important in Hesse. The following numbers of persons engaged in the various industries are taken from the industrial census of 1875 :—Horticulturists, 292; fishermen, 65; miners, 1553; workers in stone, clay, glass, 4715; in metals, 8266; in machines, instruments, &c., 7202; in chemical industries, 2153; in lighting materials, soap, resins, &c., 1190; in textile industries, 8274; in paper and leather, 7600; in wood, 11,142; in food and drink, 19,923; in dress and washing, 21,629; in building, 1291; iu polygraphic industries, 1291; in artistic industries, 412; in mercantile business, 17,593; in conveyance, 2273; in lodging and boarding, 6016— total, 134,383. The people are well educated; of the recruits in 1878-79 only ’ 21 per cent, were unable either to read or write. There is a university at Giessen, and the schools, ordinary, technical, and theological, throughout the country are very numerous. The Protestant religion predominates, though the Roman Catholic faith is also recognized by the state. Darmstadt is the capital; Offenbach is the chief manufacturing town; Mainz has perhaps the most active trade. The other chief towns are Alsfeld, Lauterbach, Friedberg, Bingen, Bensheim, and Worms. The population in 1875 was 884,218. The government since 1820 has been a constitutional hereditary monarchy, assisted by two chambers, modified iu 1856—the one of life members, mostly from among the nobility, the other of popular representatives, elected indirectly. The chambers must meet at least once every three years. The ministry of three is responsible to the nation. Hesse is represented in the imperial federal council by 3 votes, and in the reichstag by 9. The annual revenue for the finance-period 1876-78 was £872,375, and the expenditure £872,481. The estimated annual revenue for the period 1879-82 is £1,011,762, and the estimated expenditure £857,124. The public debt in 1879 was £2,041,397, chiefly incurred for railways. For additional statistics see Germany.
George I., youngest son of Philip the Magnanimous, received on his father’s death in 1567 the upper countship of Katzenelnbogen, and, selecting Darmstadt as his residence, became the founder of the Hesse-Darmstadt line. Additions to the territory were made both in his reign and in that of his son, Louis V. The landgraviate, as it was at first styled, suffered severely from war and its attendant famines and plagues. The Thirty Years’ War, a war of succession with Hesse-Cassel, and the Seven Years’ War dealt heavy blows at its prosperity. Louis X, who succeeded his father in 1790, involved it in further contests. Joining at first the allies against France, he was compelled in 1793 by the latter power to sign a treaty of neutrality. By the treaty of Lunéville he gave up his possessions on the left bank of the Rhine, receiving as compensation a very much larger district on the right bank. From 1805 till 1813 he was compelled to supply Napoleon with a contingent of troops against the other Germans. In 1806, as member of the Confederation of the Rhine, he assumed the title of grand-duke Louis I. of Hesse. After the battle of Leipsic in 1813, when Napoleon was defeated, Louis again joined the allies. By the decision of the Vienna congress in 1815 considerable change in his dominions was made; but though he was forced to recognize the independence of Hesse-Homburg, which since the beginning of the century had been incorporated with Hesse-Darmstadt, his title of grand-duke was confirmed. Within his country a growing desire for political liberty had been making itself apparent, and in 1820 the grand-duke promulgated a new constitution. This was rejected by the people, and attempts were made in vain by successive diets to frame a constitution pleasing alike to the ruler and the ruled. Louis II.
succeeded his father in 1830. His policy in no degree lessened the popular discontent. His son Louis III., who succeeded in 1848, alarmed by the events in Paris of that year, and by commotions in his own country, gave way a little, but under the reaction of 1850 he again restored matters to their old state. Since that time, although no radical change has been effected, the liberal party in the state has been steadily gaining ground. In 1866 Hesse-Darmstadt supported Austria against Prussia, with the result that it had to pay a heavy indemnity and cede certain provinces, including the lately acquired Hesse-Homburg, to Prussia. In 1867 it entered the North German Confederation, and in 1870 the German Confederation. Louis IV. succeeded his uncle in 1877.
A list of works on Hesse is to be found in Walther’s Literarisches Handbuch für Geschichte und Landeskunde von Hessen, 1841. See also Steiner, Geschichte des Grossherzogthums Hessen, 5 vols., 1833—4; Türckheim, Histoire généalogique de la maison de Hesse, 1819-20; Heber, Geschichte des Grossherzogthums Hessen, 1837; Dieffenbach, Das Grossherzogthum Hessen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, 1875; Voltz, Uebersicht der geologischen Verhältnisse des Grossherzogthums Hessen, 1852; and works under Hesse.
[1,206 words — estimated reading time: 7 minutes]