Hessen is the land in which our conception of the fairy tale was born. The secluded forests and small villages make it easy to travel back in time to the age of the Brothers Grimm. Though most of what you see dates to the 18th and 19th-century rule of the Hessen-Kassel Dynasty, remarkable glimpses remain of the ancient medieval Empire.
In many ways, the rolling hills of the Hessian landscape represent our shared cultural image of fairy-tale Europe. Hessen is a land of towns and villages forgotten by time. Every hill has its castle and a half-timbered village surrounding it. Walk through many of these towns, and you will find they end abruptly into fields or forests rather than suburban or industrial sprawl. It’s easy to imagine the Grimm Brothers traveling the countryside that brought their ancient legends and tales to life.
Hessen sits at the center of the German watershed. Water in the western and southern part flows into the Rhine, and in the North and East, it flows into the Weser. The ancient capital of Marburg towers above the river Lahn, and its trade with the Rhineland. The Imperial Abbots of Fulda sat astride the Via Regia, carrying goods from the East to the markets of Frankfurt. From Kassel, goods could be ported to the Ruhr or shipped off to the Hanseatic port of Bremen.
In the early ages of Hessen, this trade blossomed into a center of power and wealth. The Dukes of Thuringia made Marburg their capital and the Counts of Hessen soon after. The region was likewise at the center of religious conflict, first as part of the Christianization of Europe, then later as a leading voice in the Reformation. Traces of these ancient conflicts abound, from the ruins of Hersfeld Abbey to the dark monastery church of Fritzlar.
Despite these ancient trade routes, the land only partially witnessed the industrial revolution. Its rugged landscape and lack of natural resources made such endeavors unreasonable. The lack of industrial heritage has preserved its historical geography, and we can thank this underdevelopment for one of the most beautiful regions in Germany.
