Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hessen in Germany. As of 2003, its population was 137,900. The city is located to the south of the metropolitan areas of Frankfurt and Wiesbaden.
In the begin of the 20th Century Darmstadt was an important centre for the art movement of Jugendstil, the German variant of Art Nouveau. Annual architectural competitions led to the building of many architectural treasures of this period. Surviving examples include the Rosenhöhe, the Mathildenhöhe with the Hochzeitsturm [Marriage tower], commonly known as the Five-Finger-Tower, the Russian Chapel and large exhibition halls as well as many private villas built by Jugendstil architects who had settled in Darmstadt. The Russian Chapel was built as a private chapel for the last Tzar of Russia.
Darmstadt's municipal area was extended in 1937 to include the neighbouring localities of Arheilgen [not Arheiligen] and Eberstadt, and in 1938 the city was separated administratively from the surrounding district (Kreis). Its old city centre was largely destroyed in a British bombing raid of September 11th 1944, which killed an estimated 12,300 inhabitants and rendered 66,000 homeless. Most of Darmstadt's 3000 Jews were killed by the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945.
In more modern times, Darmstadt is notable for its summer courses in contemporary classical Music. These courses were founded as the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik by Wolfgang Steinecke, and ran first annually, then bi-anually. A large number of avant-garde composers have given lectures there, including Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, John Cage, György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel.
Darmstadt is home to a large technology institute, and promotes itself as a "city of science". It is well known as the high-tech centre in the vicinity of Frankfurt Airport, with important activities in spacecraft operations, chemistry, information technology, biotechnology and mechatronics.
TU Darmstadt is one of the important technical institutes in Hessen region and is well known for its researchs in Electrical and Mechanical engineering disciplines.
The Luisenplatz, the largest square of the city, forms the centre of the town. Today it is surrounded by modern buildings. In 1844 the Ludwigsäule (called Langer Lui, meaning Long Ludwig), a 33-meter column commemorating Ludwig I, first Grand Duke of Hessen, was placed in the middle. The other large town square is the Marktplatz (see image) near the town hall; it was restored in 1996 to regain the look that it had before World War II.
In 1997 Darmstadt was officially awarded the designation Wissenschaftsstadt ("city of sciences").
The Chemical element Darmstadtium (Atomic number: 110), first discovered at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung was named after the city in 2003, making Darmstadt only the fourth city with an element named after it (the other three are Ytterby, Sweden, Berkeley, California, and Dubna, Russia). Meitnerium (Atomic number: 109) was also synthesized in this facility in 1982.
The Jazz-Institut Darmstadt is Germany's largest publicly accessible Jazz archive.
The Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, harboring one of the world's largest collections of Post-war Sheet music, also hosts the biannual summer school Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik.
The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (German Academy for Language and Poetry) provides writers and scholars with a place to research the German language. The Academy's annual Georg-Büchner-Preis, named in memory of Georg Büchner, is considered the most renowned literary award for writers of German language.
Literally translated, the German name "Darmstadt" means "City of the intestine". But that is just an unfortunate coincidence, as the name derives from the medieval name "darmundestat", meaning "Place at the mouth of the Darmbach." The Darmbach is a small creek running through the city and flowing into the Modau, a small confluence of the river Rhine.