The satisfaction was great, but also the surprise when Kassel was named the happiest city in Germany for the second time in June. Frankfurt, on the other hand, landed only 35 of 40 German metropolises. Surprisingly, Kassel’s freestyle is the happiest big city because it contradicts the cliché of the Murish Northern Hesse. The Kasselers are less well known than born, but rather as a rough journeyman. The north Hessian dialect sounds rugged and gnarled, very different from the soft southern Hessian idiom, which flatters the listener. In Kassel, the phrase “I will help you” there is not a friendly offer, but a warning to the neighboring children to keep their fingers off the cherries, or to the notorious long -term parkers around the Wilhelmshöher train station, to remove their cars during the long -distance trip at another doorstep. Such tones can hardly be heard in the diplomatically moved Frankfurt. However, some tips are hidden from the linguistic cotton ball of the Frankfurt, but also like against the more earth -tied Kasselers. With their sharp hissing and croaks, the northern Hesse linguistically draw a clear border between themselves and the world. But what you say is concrete and reliable. And it also applies the next morning when the cider vapor of a summer evening has already moved again at the main. Kassel in the north, Frankfurt in the south – not only geographically contrast. While the financial metropolis on the Main is negotiating the big deals and constructing complicated capital market instruments, Kassel maintains rather down -to -earth industrial culture. The armaments manufacturer Rheinmetall builds bicycle and chain vehicles armored in the former Kasseler Henschelweren or if the raw material giant K+s K+S is valuable for artificial fertilizers from the ground. Above all, the Volkswagenwerk in neighboring Baunatal gives many Kasselern and people from the region a solid workplace. Still, however, one has to say, after all, the Volkswagen Group decided in December 2024 a historical job cuts from which the VW location Kassel/Baunatal was largely spared. However, the concern of temporary workers and temporary VW employees has also remained about their workplace, despite the announced investment of 800 million euros in the production of components for electric cars in Baunatal. Because even in Kassel, no cog would turn without a financial lubricant, while the banking city of Frankfurt is also deeply anchored with its Rhein-Main airport or the industrial park Höchst. But there is a certain contrast. It also becomes clear in the ranking that Kassel shows as a Mecca of the satisfied. The lucky atlas created by the public Lotto provider SKL with the University of Freiburg not only takes into account hard data, but also how satisfied the approximately 23,000 personally interviewed city-city people feel detached from the objective criteria. Kassel is in first place in SKL-gücksatlas, although the city is only slightly above average with a view to infrastructure, education, culture or healthcare. In terms of labor market and income, it is even below the average. The majority of the Kasselers feel more cozy than the main metropolitanism, which also applies to residents with little money. Bubbling cities like Frankfurt, on the other hand, offer more highly paid jobs or top restaurants, but the dark cities of many Frankfurters are drawing down: noise through traffic and construction sites, expensive rents, high prices, contrasts between poor and rich as well as crime. The two such opposing Hessian cities of Kassel and Frankfurt see themselves as competitors. This is because Frankfurt plays in a completely different league as a Kassel, which does not only apply to football. Because of the lack of eye level, Kassel is rarely perceived from Frankfurt, while the Kasselers are at most a little jealous of Frankfurt from time to time when the main metropolis is talking about, as after the victory of Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League 2022 or when a new skyscraper is opened again.
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Kassel does not have to be so modest, as the city looks back on a long tradition of scientific, technological and cultural premieres and superlatives, from which it can still draw today. A look back in the time -lapse: The era of inventions and discoveries in Kassel began in 1560 when Landgrave Wilhelm “the wise” had the first permanent observatory of Central Europe set up on the balconies of his Kassel Castle. The measurement of the space from Kassel made an important contribution to the revolutionation of the worldview and ensured technical progress because the star observation not only required razor -sharp telescopes, but also precisely minute -precise time knife. Clockwork ticked and constructed magnificent and precisely mechanical sky and star cards. Wilhelm’s son and successor, Landgrave Moritz “the scholar”, made Kassel the big stage when he had the first festival playhouse in Germany built in the residence city in 1604 based on the model of the English theater of the Shakespeare era. The Kassel State Theater can therefore rely on the longest tradition of German stage houses. This also applies to the Kassel orchestra, one of the oldest orchestras, whose past dates back to 1502. The list of Kassel premieres became longer and longer: In 1706, the inventor Denis Papin, a Huguenot faith from France, was held by Landgrave Karl, a kind of mother of all machines in Kassel. Before he came to Kassel, he had already invented the pressure cooker. He was the first to get the idea of driving machines with the huge power of the water vapor. Papin had a lot of other ideas in stock and even tested a diving boat in Fulda. In 1779 the Fridericianum opened its goals for the public in Kassel. The builder and namesake, Landgrave Friedrich, brought his art treasures to light from the shadow of the palace walls. Today, the Fridericianum serves as one of the exhibition locations for the Documenta, which in 1955, which was launched by the Kasseler Arnold Bode in 1955, takes place every five years. Place of premieres: The Fridericianum and the State Theater (right) look back on the longest tradition of German museums and stages. Only the legendary landgraves brought Kassel forward. In 1831, the freedom -minded citizens of Kassel defied a liberal model constitution to their sovereign, one of the most modern in Europe at the time. That was 17 years before the first German parliament met in Frankfurt in 1848. The lust locks and the observatory of such highlights are rarely heard when there is talk of Kassel in Hesse or the world. Instead, building sins, raccoon plagues and Documenta scandals shape the image of the city. One who works for a more complete look is Jürgen Fischer, chairman of the Kassel history association. “Kassel has repeatedly emerged as a city of innovations and was an attraction for some of the greatest scientific and technological talents of their time,” says Fischer. At the beginning of July, he organized an event in the Palais Bellevue under the motto “Baroque meets Innovation”, on which with lectures and demonstrations by the Kassel inventor and the cultural wealth of the city. The Palais Bellevue on the beautiful view with a view of the park on the outer of the Fulda fit perfectly to the motto of the event. Because the property used as an event location served its client, Landgrave Karl, not only as a city and pleasure locks, but also housed a small observatory. The baroque prince Karl consciously linked the astronomical pioneering role of Kassel, which was based on his ancestor Wilhelm IV, as the scientist Karsten Gaulke explained in his lecture. The astronomical-technical point of time of the time of Wilhelm was unable to hold the wise and Bürgi, but Kassel stepped forward in other disciplines, for example with the family business in Henschel, which in the 19th century Rising to a large European railway manufacturer. It was Karl’s protégé Papin who had laid important foundations for the railway age and industrialization with his steam research. Location for science and technology after Henschel had lost its independence in the 20th century, the Kassel railway construction still brought innovations on the track – such as the super -fast suspension Transrapid, which did not go through in Germany at the beginning of the two thousand years was delivered. In addition, Kassel was far ahead with technologies around renewable energies before sustainability established itself as a major social and economic theme. The engineer Werner Klein was more of a topic as a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Kassel. The company, based in Niestetal at the gates of Kassel, went to the stock exchange in Frankfurt in 2008 and listed in the TEC-DAX technology index. SMA has experienced many ups and downs of the capital market and globalization and despite all the turbulence, made an important contribution to making renewable energies suitable for everyday use and affordable. The Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Industry and Energy System Technology in Kassel also stands for the approach to tackle the problem of scarce resources instead of ideological. But the awareness of these roots is only weak or not at all in many Kasselers. Other explanations are therefore used for the amazing top position of the Kasseler in the lucky ranking. “It is Kassel’s variety that convinces,” said Mayor Sven Schoeller (the Greens) in a press release. What is this diversity? Urban life in natural sewing Schoeller combines Kassel nature and culture, tradition and innovation, people and opportunities. He praises Kassel as a city of short distances with a rich cultural offer from State Theater to the Indie Club, from old masters to the young art scene. Also, the way into the countryside is never far. The Habichtswald and the Fulda are located on the doorstep, and near Laden Reinhardswald, Meissner, Dörnberg, Edersee and the Diemel for relaxation. They played in a wide variety of disciplines such as science, technology, economy and art. The formally separate subjects were apparently able to enrich each other, which is an important location factor. With this awareness it becomes clear why the international art exhibition Documenta is so in good hands in Kassel: art is a connection between different spheres and combines it. Sounds plenty of abstract, but was specifically successful in Kassel. Fortunately. Mark Fehr is the business editor of the F.A.Z. His book “Genioces from Kassel” has been published by the Frankfurter Allgemei Book. 176 pages, 20 euros. ISBN: 978-3-96251-211-8
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