KASSEL 
History

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The history of Kassel and the Wilhelmshöhe park.
(Information copyright by Wilhelmshöhe - Kassel : www.wilhelmshoehe.com )

Kassel goes back to the 10th century. There was a Frank royal court (curtis), whose situation was not defined correctly. The name Kassel comes from Chassella or Chassalla. It is logical then that it must have been a fortified house, may be even castle like in layout. The name comes from the Latin castellum. Until Bavaria or Thuringia this name did not come, there these castles were named "Burg".

Documentation of Kassel was mentioned in February 913 by King Konrad I. After the year 1000 the people talked about the civitas Kassel. When King Heinrich II gave Kassel as a present to his wife Kunigunde, there after the court of Kassel became more and more important. In 1143 the monastery Weißenstein was built, there castle Wilhelmshöhe still stands. Female Augustine nuns had given the name to the monastery in 1143. The Weißenstein is a big rock of white quartz. 
Heinrich Raspe II, a son of Ludwig and Hedwig, was the owner of all the county parts in Hessia. Because of the reformation in 1527, the monastery had to be closed. In 1606 the monastery was changed into a hunting and sommer residence by Moritz the scholar (1592-1627). He named it Mauritiolum Leucopetraeum or Moritzheim. There was a wonderful view of the valley of Kassel. At the same time a garden was created. Lakes and ponds and pathes drew the axis of the park. Prince Moritz let a grotto be built at the end of the park. There is the Pluto grotto at the devil´s bridge today. This was the first attempt of creating a wonderful castle park.

Wilhelm IX (Prince Wilhelm Ist 1785-1821) was completely against everything that had been produced in France, but he had inherited the desire to build. He reconstructed the old Weißenstein to the new Wilhelmshöhe. The French touch in the park was replaced by the English one. Devil´s bridge and Steinhöfer`s waterfalls are typical British waterart. Also the castle Wilhelmshöhe was strongly influenced by English gardenart.

The castle Wilhelmshöhe was started after some plans had been worked out in 1786. Simon Louis du Ry was the builder who wrote the plans. Actually the wings were seperated from the main building and just huge terrasses connected the buildings. Between 1786-1790 the south wing was constructed, and between 1787-1792 the north wing was built. The old castle Weißenstein was completely destroyed in 1790. King Jerome sometimes called it Napoleonshöhe. In 1829 the gaps between the buildings were filled out by two-floors houses. In World War II 1943-1945 the middle building was completely destroyed except some parts of the walls outside. The ensemble of the different buildings that belong to the castle are:

the dancing hall 1808-1809
the greenhouse (early 19th century)
the royal stables 1791
the sentry 1824-1826
Queen Luise of Prussia and her husband were the first visitors in Wilhelmshöhe. From that moment Wilhelmshöhe and the Karlsaue attracted many scholars and travellers like Hölderlin, Campe, Kleist, Jean Paul, Brentano, and Arnim. As mentioned before, the connecting buildings had been criticized - Jerome let them built only one floor high.

During World War II the castle was destroyed, and the reconstruction was finished in 1974. Today the famous national art collection is situated there: the painting gallery with works of old German, Dutch, and Flamish painters and also works of the Italien, Spanish, and French art, the antique collection and the copperplate cabinet with more than 30.000 leaves. In the Weißenstein wing is the castle museum with originally furnished rooms of the 18th and 19th century.