Tradition
and Progress of a Town: Over 1000 Years Kassel
is an old town: science and art have been at home here
for a long time as is evidenced by the numerous museums, art
galleries and archives. But Kassel is also a young town,
inhabited by modern man who feels indebted to tradition and
progress simultaneously.
On
18 Feb 913 Konrad I, King of the Franks, signed two documents.
These two are the oldest surviving documents mentioning
the present city of Kassel. The town grew in importance when
Count Heinrich of Hesse made it his official residence in
1277. Ca. 5000
people lived within its walls in the
16th
cent. At the
beginning of the 18th it was still only 18,000. After a brief
French occupation (1807;1813, part of the Kingdom of
Westphalia, ruled by Jerome, Napoleon's brother who resided in
the Wilhelmshoehe (a castle)) and the return of the Elector,
Kassel came under Prussian rule in 1866.
That time was also the start of the industrialization
of Kassel. The
town became the centre of the railway and defense industry.
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