Dublex Saunaclub Kassel (D)

Kassel

Name origin

Chassalla [meaning disputed; castellum (Lat., = fortification); or: kas- (Germanic, = basin) -sella (from sali, Germanic, = building)] --> Cassel

First documented mention

913 AD

Population

204,000

Area

106.78 km²

Federal state

Hessen

Administrative region

Kassel

Vehicle registration

KS

River

Fulda

The Club Dublex Saunaclub is located in Kassel-Forstfeld.

Kassel - that name sounds suspiciously either like a Hessian mountain province, a local cured-meat speciality, or a French actor. But you can easily be mistaken there - Kassel is a city whose former absolutist splendour still shines through in many places and which can easily hold its own alongside the other big Hessian cities. As for the cured meat - that's not actually a Kassel speciality, it was named after the Berlin butcher Cassel, whose name is spelled exactly like that of the French actor.

What is true is that Kassel lies almost at the geographical centre of Germany, nestled in a basin valley that is scenically framed by the low mountain ranges of the Habichtswald to the west, the southern foothills of the Reinhardswald to the northeast, the Kaufunger Wald to the east and the Söhre to the south. The view from the so-called Herkules over the city, whose landmark it is and which sits west of Kassel on the Wilhelmshöhe, is, to put it mildly, uplifting.

That already names some of Kassel's greatest attractions. The Kasseler Wilhelmshöhe is a landscape park of world renown and a UNESCO World Heritage Site; it is the largest hillside park in Europe and is home to the Herkules with its water features and cascades, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe and the artificial ruin Löwenburg. The Herkules is a copper statue of the Greek demigod Herakles and stands on the sight axis with Schloss Wilhelmshöhe at 515 m elevation. The palace is a mighty Neoclassical building completed shortly after the French Revolution. The builders of the initially Baroque park grounds, later refined with elements of an English landscape garden, were chiefly Landgraves Karl and Wilhelm IX.

Another grand Baroque park, the Hessian state park Karlsaue, is located in Kassel's southern district and houses the Orangerie with the Museum for Astronomy and the History of Technology, the Marmorbad, and the flower island Siebenbergen. On the opposite bank of the Fulda lies a third large park, the Fuldaaue, which was laid out for the 1981 Bundesgartenschau.

As in so many German cities, Kassel's old town was irretrievably destroyed in the Second World War; nevertheless, impressive buildings and sights can still be found, including the Ottoneum - Germany's first purpose-built theatre building - as a representative structure of the Baroque residential city of Kassel, as well as the Fridericianum, the Marstall, the Ständehaus, the Rathaus, and a rich museum landscape. On the final series of the 1000-DM banknotes, alongside the portrait of the Brothers Grimm, who came from Hanau but worked significantly in Kassel, several of the aforementioned buildings can be seen. They bear witness to a proud past.

Around 1189, the settlement - already almost 300 years old - at the site of today's Kassel was granted town rights. In 1277 Kassel became the main residence of Heinrich I, the first Landgrave of the newly created Landgraviate of Hesse, which embodied the sovereign order in Kassel for the centuries to follow. Only under Napoleonic occupation in 1813 did Kassel become the capital of the newly founded Kingdom of Westphalia, ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme. After the Bonapartes withdrew, Kassel returned to Kurhessen, until it finally came under Prussian dominion after the lost German War of 1866. In view of the city's charming location, the Kaiser's family thereafter spent the summer months in Kassel.

Kassel's exposed location on the former inner-German border also made the city a candidate for the new capital of the Federal Republic of Germany after the Second World War. After the fall of the Wall, the regained central geographic position at the heart of a reunified Germany came into focus for transport planning; the three motorways A7, A44 and A49 intersect near Kassel, and for rail traffic the newly built station Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe opened in 1991, which is a central hub for ICE long-distance rail traffic.

Numerous major industrial companies have established branches in Kassel. Originally from Kassel are the oil company Wintershall, the natural gas supplier Wingas, the potash and salt producer K+S, and SMA Solar Technology AG. Kassel is home to the Federal Social Court, the University of Kassel, and the documenta, the world's most significant series of exhibitions for contemporary art.

Among Kassel's well-known sons and daughters, alongside numerous offspring of Hessian noble families, are Philip Scheidemann, Elisabeth Selbert, Paul Julius Reuter, Ludwig Mond, Ulrike Folkerts, Hans Eichel, Arnold Bode, Holger Börner and Brigitte Zypries.