Kassel, the cultural, economic and administrative center of northern Hesse, is delightfully situated at the foot of the Habichtswald in a basin in the Fulda valley. Numerous cultural establishments (including a Gesamthochschule, or comprehensive higher educational establishment) and official agencies (Federal Labor Court, Federal Social Court) are based here. In the artistic field Kassel is noted for its avant-garde "documenta" exhibitions. Within the city limits is Wilhelmshöhe, a popular health resort (Kneipp cure).
Behind the Landesmuseum in Kassel, to the southeast, can be found the Hessian Provincial Library, which counts among its treasures a manuscript of the medieval "Hildebrandslied", written in Fulda monastery about 800.
On the south side of Kassel's Brüder-Grimm-Platz are the Hessian Provincial Museum (medieval tapestries, applied and decorative art, etc.) and the German Wallpaper Museum (Tapetenmuseum).
To the south of the Theater in Kassel, on the banks of the Fulda, lies the Karlsaue, a beautiful wooded park (area 160 hectares/400 acres) in which are the Orangery (1701-11; used for part of the "documenta" exhibitions), the Marble Baths, a sumptuous structure built in 1720 to the design of the sculptor Pierre Etienne Monot, and the flower-covered island of Siebenbergen. To the east extends Fulda-Aue, a popular recreation area (bathing and wind-surfing; regatta course).
A little way east east of the Provincial Library in Kassel, at Schöne Aussicht 2, stands the Palais Bellevue, with a museum devoted to the Grimm brothers (working copies of the fairy tales, scholarly works, letters, translations of the tales into many languages). Facing it, to the southwest, is the Neue Galerie (painting and sculpture since 1750).
On the northeast side of Friedrichsplatz in Kassel is the Museum Fridericianum, a neo-classical building (by Simon Louis du Ry, 1769-79) which since 1955 has housed the "documenta" exhibition of modern art, held every few years.
On the southeast side of the square stands the Staatstheater (1958-59; opera, ballet, drama).
Address: Museum Fridericianum, Friedrichsplatz 18, D-34117 Kassel, Germany
The main shopping and business street of Kassel is the Obere Königsstrasse (pedestrian zone), which runs southwest from Königsplatz, past Friedrichsplatz, to Brüder-Grimm-Platz. Near the southwest end of the street is the Town Hall (Rathaus; 1905-09).
In Oberkaufungen, 11km/7mi east of Kassel, can be seen a church which belonged to a Benedictine convent founded in 1017 by the Empress Kunigunde, wife of Henry II.
From the Town Hall in Kassel, Friedrichstrasse (pedestrian zone) runs northwest to the long narrow Ständeplatz, with the Municipal Museum (Stadtmuseum) and a number of modern high-rise blocks.
In Kassel's Brüder-Grimm-Platz, at the end of the Obere Königsstrasse, is the Torwache (now used for exhibitions), the home from 1814 to 1822 of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, world-famed for their collection of folk tales and fairy tales and for their great German dictionary (completed only in 1971).
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Oberkaufungen, Germany
