Hessen

Volksstaat Hessen
People's State of Hesse

Conventional short name:
Local:	Hessen
English:	Hesse
National motto: THE MOTTO!
Area:	AREA
Cities:
Capital:	CAPITAL CITY
Largest:	LARGEST CITY
Other:	OTHER CITIES
Currency:	CURRENCY
Established:	YEAR, DECREE OR REASON
Languages:
Official:	OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Others:	OTHER LANGUAGES
Population:	POPULATION ADJECTIVE
RULER:	NAME
Organizations:	Holy Roman Empire

PEOPLE'S STATE OF HESSE

Originally a fief to the dukes of Franconia, and later attached to the Thuringian court, Hesse came into its own as a landgraviate in 1247 under a branch of the Brabant house. Landgrave Philip of Hesse, or Philip the Magnanimous, later brought the territories of Hesse together following a long series of border disputes with neighboring states.

In 1567, upon Philip’s death, Hesse was partitioned among his four sons, who established capitals in Kassel, Marburg, Darmstadt and Rheinfels. Rheinfels and Marburg both fell during the following century, and were restored to the remaining lines, producing Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1814 and 1815, large territorial awards were granted by the Congress of Vienna, greatly increasing the size of Hesse. In 1868, Hesse, Frankfurt and Nassau were merged and Kassel was named the capital.

Hesse was heavily battered during the Second Great War and the Battenberg family was driven from the country. Though the name may be misleading, the People’s State of Hesse is not a Communist country. It is led by a president and is an active member of the Holy Roman Empire. Since the capitulation of the Bavarian government to the Communist Party, Hesse has continued to grow in its economic position in the HRE, passing Bayern more substantially each year.

Hesse’s industry is, in large part, focused on chemicals and pharmaceutical production, as well as mechanical and electrical engineering. The Adam Opel AG car factory in Ruesselsheim, one of the largest in the world, brings Hesse to the forefront in foreign capital investment in the HRE.

There is also a large service economy. Legal, accounting and IT services promise growth since the launch of the first artificial satellite in space in 2001.