Facts about Darmstadt
Darmstadt is an important city in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hesse in Germany. It is located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Metropolitan Area. The settlement in this area is known to have been as early as the late 11th century. The element Darmstadtium (atomic number 110) is named after Darmstadt, having been synthetisized in a research facility nearby. Darmstadt has 9 official 'Stadtteile' (boroughs). The name Darmstadt first appears towards the end of the 11th century, then Darmundestat; Literally translated, the current German name Darmstadt means "Intestine City". Darmstadt was chartered as a city by the Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian in 1330, belonging to the counts of Katzenelnbogen. The city, in 1330 called Darmstait, became a secondary residence for the counts, with a small castle being established at the site of the current, much larger edfice. When the house of Katzenelnbogen became extinct in 1479, the city was passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse, and was seat of the ruling landgraves (1567-1806) and thereafter (to 1918) of the Grand Dukes of Hesse. In the beginning of the 20th century Darmstadt was an important centre for the art movement of Jugendstil, the German variant of Art Nouveau. Darmstadt's municipal area was extended in 1937 to include the neighbouring localities of Arheilgen and Eberstadt. In 1938 the city was separated administratively from the surrounding district (Kreis). Darmstadt was the first city in Germany to force Jewish shops to close in early 1933, shortly after the Nazis took power in Germany (during this first incident, shops were only closed for a day, for "endanger[ing] communal order and tranquility"). In 1942, over 3,000 Jews from Darmstadt were first gathered in a collection camp in the Liebigschule, and then deported to concentration camps where most were killed. Darmstadt's old city centre was largely destroyed in a British bombing raid on Darmstadt on September 11, 1944. Darmstadt was first raided on July 30, 1940. 34 more attacks followed. During this worst attack of September 11, 1944 an estimated 11,000-12,500 inhabitants died, and 66,000-70,000 were rendered homeless. Over three quarters of Darmstadt's inner city area was destroyed in the September 11 raid, leading to a relatively architecturally plain style of post-war rebuilding. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Darmstadt became home to many technology companies and research institutes, and has been promoting itself as a "city of science" since 1997. There are still U.S. Army personnel stationed in the Darmstadt area. Just outside the Darmstadt centre is the U.S. Army Garrison Darmstadt on Cambrai-Fritsch Kaserne. The barracks was originally built in the 1930s as two separate German Army barracks (Cambrai Kaserne and Freiherr von Fritsch Kaserne).[19] In July 2007, the US Department of Defense announced that the facility will be closed by March 2009 and returned to the control of the German government. Georg Büchner, a famous poet, belong to Darmstadt. |
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