Political Unity Since 1945 : Hesse in Germany

. The region has a turbulent his-tory In 1848 anci 1 849 the Nationai Assembly, the first democratic German parliament, convened in St. Paul’s Church (which is now a national monument) in Frankfurt am Main. This democratic beginning failed, however, as a result of the power wielded by Germany’s ruling princes. Prior to Bismarck’s wars of unification, the territory which is now Hesse - like many other regions at that time - resembled a patchwork quilt, encompassing four principalities and duchies, an earldom and the free city of Frankfurt.

After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Prussia absorbed all of this territory except the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. With the “Proclamation No. 2″ of 19September 1945, issued in the IG Farben complex in Frankfurt am Main, the American military government merged Hesse-Darmstadt and most of what had formerly been Prussian territory to form the state of Hesse.