Kassel

Kassel, also Cassel, city in west central Germany, in Hesse on the Fulda River. Products of this industrial centre include rail equipment, machinery, motor vehicles, textiles, and scientific instruments. The city, which has a university, is also known for its Documenta, an international exhibition of contemporary art. Museums in Kassel include the Hesse Museum, with important sections on astronomy, physics, and the decorative arts; the New Gallery, featuring German painting; the Natural History Museum; a museum devoted to the lives and work of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (see Grimm Brothers), the collectors of folk tales, who worked as librarians from 1805 to 1830 in Kassel; and galleries of painting in Wilhelmshöhe Castle.

Originally a Roman colony, Kassel was incorporated into Thuringia in the 12th century, and was acquired by the landgraves of Hesse in the 13th century. Many French Huguenots settled here in the late 17th century. The city was the capital (1807-1813) of the kingdom of Westphalia, ruled by Jérôme Bonaparte, and became the capital of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau in 1866. Kassel was the site of a large locomotive and tank factory during World War II, and bombing reduced much of the city to rubble. Population (1990 estimate) 193,400.