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Herkules at Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe

Kassel is the regional "capital" of North Hesse in Germany, has a population of about 200 000 and is also international known for the documenta exhibitions of contemporary art every five years. The "Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe" with its waterworks received the title "UNESCO-World Heritage Site" in 2013.

Understand

picture of the Brothers Grimm on a old 1000 Deutsche Mark note

History

Canopy of the train station Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe

Kassel has been first mentioned around 900 AD. Since then it has always been a provincial capital for the realms of North Hesse or Kur-Hesse.

During the 30 years war Kassels Landgraf Philipp declared for the Protestants. This had an effect as later numerous Huguenots emigrated from France and brought with them their trade and skills. The impact of the Huguenots can still be witnessed in the centre of Kassel where streets are named after Huguenots.

Kassel became a considerable industrial and scientific city as can still be seen in the Orangerie museum where loads of scientific kit from the enlightenment period is on show. Noticeably the first steam pot producing a fountain was constructed in Kassel by Papin and rumours have it that he left Kassel in his steam boat a few years before James Watt got his prototype into shape.

Kassel was already a heavy industries site by WW2, where trains, tanks and planes were constructed. In the later years of the war Kassel was thoroughly bombed as a military target by English and American planes.

Kassel was home to the famous Brothers Grimm who wrote a lot of the fairy tales Disney uses today. A less well known but perhaps more important piece of their work was an attempt at a "complete" dictionary of the German language, that was only completed after their death. The house that they lived in was made into a museum with a lot of interesting artifacts.

The Centre of Kassel itself was thoroughly destroyed during the Second World War and therefore rebuilt in the incredibly bland 1950s style (which in fairness was partially due to budget constraints and admitted to be ugly even back then). Hence, the inner city is mainly dominated by bank and mall buildings of the modern sort.

Tourist Information

Get in

Hauptbahnhof with documenta-artwork "Man walking to the sky"
Terminal of the Kassel Airport

By car

Motorways (Hannover-Würzburg), (Kassel-Dortmund) and (Kassel-Marburg) leads to Kassel.

By train

Kassel is an important hub in the ICE network and was one of the cities on the first purpose built German high speed rail line connecting Würzburg and Hanover. The best way to reach Kassel is by train since most of the Inter-City Express (ICE) trains and plenty of local trains stop at the 1 Fernbahnhof Kassel-Wilhemshöhe, about 4 kilometres west of the city centre. Kassel's historic 2 Hauptbahnhof (main station), also known as the Kulturbahnhof since it was redeveloped in the 1990s, is very near the city center. Trains run between the two stations. It is much easier to see the downtown area if you take a train to the Hauptbahnhof and begin your exploring from there.

By bus

The 3 Busbahnhof Kassel Wilhelmshöhe (intercity bus station), also known as the ZOB, adjoins the Kassel-Wilhemshöhe Bahnhof. There is another intercity bus station at 4 Kaufungen-Papierfabrik, only a few meters behind the city boundary of Kassel at the motorway. The tramlines 4 and 8 are running from the Papierfabrik in the city centre.

By plane

While there is the 5 Kassel Airport (KSF  IATA) in Calden, just 10 km out of town, which serves Kassel, chances are, you won't be arriving there. Between the Kassel Airport ( Terminal), the city centre and the train stations Hauptbahnhof and Wilhelmshöhe runs the busline 100. The next major airports are in Hanover (HAJ IATA) and of course Frankfurt airport (FRA IATA). As they are both excellently connected to the German railway network (Frankfurt airport even has an high speed ICE stop) and Kassel is a major hub, you can get from the airport to town in no more than two hours. You can even buy combined tickets for flight and train.

Get around

Map
51°18′47″N 9°29′31″E
Map of Kassel
Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe: View towards Kassel. The Baroque water features are operate.

From the Station, trams leave towards the town centre and one can easily walk to the Bergpark which is visible from where the trams leave. If you are staying a few days in Kassel buy a public transport Wochenkarte. Ride as much as you like on the streetcars and buses for a full week from date of issue. Current price (02.06.2014) was €21.

  • Local public transport is the KVG (only in German), see also the website of the transport association NVV (only in German) for north hesse.

See

Parks

Lion's Castle in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
Palace Wilhelmshöhe in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
  • 1 Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. since 2013 on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Worth visiting is the "Bergpark" (Mountainpark) which is supposedly the largest in Europe and second largest park on a mountain slope in the world. The park contains the Herkules statue at its top end which is towering over the city and has become its symbol. Further the park contains loads of smaller features which are mainly fake Greek temples, fake medieval castles, fake quarries - you see where we are getting ... Not fake though are the Rembrandts and Rubens paintings in the Schloss in the park - an entrance fee is charged. The Park also features during summer months the Wasserspiele (watergames) every Wednesday and Sunday starting from 2:30PM. Various of the features such as the Cascades (below the Herkules statue), the fake waterfall and the fake Roman Aqueduct have their water supplies opened for half an hour or so each and the crowd of tourists will move from feature to feature starting on the higher parts moving down slope. Löwenburg and Schloss Wilhelmshöhe (palace Wilhelmshöhe) with its old masterpieces of art. 
  • 2 Karlsaue State Park (Staatspark Karlsaue). Karlsaue, another, French style park with some old buildings containing all sort of museums (tapstries to astrology). That area is also the usual place for the Documenta art exhibition to happen every five years (next summer 2017). Siebenbergen flower island (Blumeninsel Siebenbergen). Orangerie. Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics with planetarium (Astronomisch Physikalisches Kabinett mit Planetarium). Marble Baths (Marmorbad) 

Museums

Neue Gallerie (New Gallery)
Orangerie in Karlsaue, south of downtown
Ottoneum (Museum of Natural Science)
Friedericianum at the Friedrichsplatz
Spohr Museum in the south wing of the main station
Inside the Technik-Museum
  • 3 Löwenburg (Lion's Castle), Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, ☏ +49 0561 31680244, fax: +49 0561 31680222, . 1. March-15. November: Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, Wed: 10:00-20:00; 16. November-29. February: Fri-Sun: 10:00-16:00. The Löwenburg was built between 1793 and 1801. Although it seems on the first view as a romantic knight’s castle from the Middle Ages, it is a pleasure palace for Landgrave Wilhelm IX of Hesse-Cassel. The castle is one of the first significant buildings of the Gothic Revival architecture in Germany. Visitors can inspect armours, weapons and baroque rooms.
    Waldorfschule (Line 3)     
  • 4 Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe (Museum Palace Wilhelmshöhe), Schlosspark 1, ☏ +49 0561 316800, . Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, Wed: 10:00-20:00. with Collection of Antiques and Old Masters Picture Gallery. The Schloss Wilhelmshöhe was built in a Neoclassical style between 1786 and 1798 for Landgrave Wilhelm (William) IX of Hesse. Emperor Wilhelm II use the palace as a summer residence and personal retreat. Today visitors find in the palace a antiquities collection, the famous Gallery of the Old Masters (which includes one of the world's largest Rembrandt collections, based on the collection of William VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel) and a Graphic Arts Collection.
    Wilhelmshöhe (Park) (Lines 1 and 23)     
  • 5 Weißensteinflügel (Weissenstein Wing), Schlosspark 3, ☏ +49 0561 31680208, fax: +49 0561 31680255, . 1. March-15. November: Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, Wed: 10:00-20:00; 16. November-29. February: Fri-Sun: 10:00-16:00. The Weißensteinflügel is the south wing of Schloss Wilhelmshöhe and was built from 1786 to 1790. In contrast to Schloss Wilhelmshöhe it was not destroyed during the Second World War. Originally the Weißensteinflügel accommodated the landgrave’s living quarters and representative rooms. Today visitors can walk trough 23 of the historic palace rooms.
    Wilhelmshöhe (Park) (Lines 1 and 23)     
  • 6 Grimmwelt Kassel, Weinbergstraße 21, ☏ +49 561 5986190, . Tue-Sun: 10:00-18:00, Fri: 10:00-20:00. The Grimmwelt is a museum dedicated to the Brothers Grimm, who spent most of their lives in Kassel. The museum focuses on the brothers work in linguistics and on the brothers’ significant contribution to folklore, as the authors of a lot different famous fairy tales. The british newspaper The Guardian listed the Grimmwelt on their list of the 10 best new museums 2015.
    Rathaus and Rathaus/Fünffensterstraße     
  • 7 Museum für Sepulkralkultur, Weinbergstraße 25-27, ☏ +49 561 918930, fax: +49 561 9189310, . Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, Wed: 10:00-20:00. The Museum für Sepulkralkultur shows a lot of different exhibits about the topics death and dead remembrance. 1992 opened, the museum is until today the sole museum about this selection of topics in Germany. Visitors can see among other things burial gown, caskets, dolour costumes and tombstones. If the museum spark your interest, visit also the Künstlernekropole in the Habichtswald, a spezial cemetery for artists.
    Rathaus and Rathaus/Fünffensterstraße     
  • 8 Neue Galerie (New Gallery), Schöne Aussicht 1, ☏ +49 561 31680400, fax: +49 561 31680444, . Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, Wed: 10:00-20:00. The Neue Galerie is an art museum, built between 1871 and 1877. In the Second World War the building was damaged and burned out in 1943, so that large parts of the collection were lost. In 1976 the museum opened again and included today a large collection of German Expressionists and an additional collection of contemporary art works from the 19th and 20th centuries with Romantic and Impressionist paintings.
    Rathaus and Rathaus/Fünffensterstraße     
  • 9 Marmorbad (Marble Bath), An der Karlsaue 20, ☏ +49 561 316800, fax: +49 561 31680626, . Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, open from 1. April to 3. October. The Marmorbad is located next to the Orangerie and was built from 1722 to 1728. It is Germany's last intact and prominent bath from the Late Baroque and is one of the most famous works of Roman profane sculpture of the early 18th century. Visitors can find in the Marmorbad among other things marble sculptures and wall reliefs portraying the Metamorphosis of Ovid, created by Pierre Etienne Monnot (1657–1733).
    Orangerie (Line 16)     
  • 10 Orangerie, An der Karlsaue 20c, ☏ +49 561 31680500, fax: +49 561 31680555, . Tue-Sun: 10:00-17:00, Wed: 10:00-20:00. with Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics and Planetarium. The Orangerie was built from 1701 to 1710 and is located in the northern corner of the Karlsaue. The Orangerie was also damaged during the Second World War and the ruins were used for the Bundesgartenschau 1955 and the documenta 1. In the 1970s the Orangerie was restored, so that today it is in the condition from 1872, except that the interior is to a new design.
    Orangerie (Line 16)     
  • 11 Kasseler Bademuseum – Kurbad Jungborn, Sternstraße 20, ☏ +49 561 65785, fax: +49 561 9532222, . with Kollektiv Café Kurbad. The Kurbad Jungborn is the last one from the many river baths on the Fulda in the last century, but is not working any more too. Rather, today it house a museum about the swimming baths in Kassel and urban hinterland as well as a nice cafe in a historic style direct on the large river Fulda.
    Unterneustädter Kirchplatz     
  • 12 Naturkundemuseum im Ottoneum (Museum of Natural Science), Steinweg 2, ☏ +49 561 7874066, fax: +49 0561 7874058, . Tue-Sat: 10:00-17:00, Wed: 10:00-20:00, Sun: 10:00-18:00. The Ottoneum, since 1888 a museum of natural history, was the first theater building in Germany and built between 1603 and 1606. During World War II more than half of the collection was lost. Objects of interest are the Goethe Elephant Skeleton, the Schildbach Wooden Library and the Ratzenberger Herbarium. However, there are alternate exhibitions and permanent exhibitions.
    Staatstheater (Line 16)     
  • 13 Fridericianum, Friedrichsplatz 18, ☏ +49 561 7072720, fax: +49 561 7072775, . Tue-Sun: 11:00-18:00. The Fridericianum was built from 1769 to 1779 by the architect Simon Louis du Ry for Landgrave Friedrich II and is one of the oldest public museums in Europe. The museum is located on the Friedrichsplatz, one of the major inner-city squares in Germany. Every five years the Fridericianum is the central point of the documenta. Next to the Fridericianum stands the Zwehrenturm, who was built in 1330 and a part of the town fortification of Kassel.
    Steinweg (Line 16) and Friedrichsplatz     
  • 14 documenta Archiv, Untere Karlsstraße 4, ☏ +49 561 7874022, fax: +49 561 7874028, . Tue-Fri: 10:00-14:00; Thu: 10:00-17:00. The documenta Archiv goes back to an idea of Arnold Bode (1900-1977), the founder of the documenta. It is a special library for modern art since 1945, artist literature, exhibition catalogues and grey literature. Core tasks of the archiv are the supply of the documenta with diverse material and the support for academic work from students, abstractors and scientists.
    Königsplatz     
  • 15 Caricatura – Galerie für Komische Kunst, Rainer-Dierichs-Platz 1, ☏ +49 561 776499, fax: +49 561 15687, . Tue-Sat: 12:00-19:00; Sun: 10:00-19:00. The institution Caricatura was founded in 1984. Since 1995 it operates the Galerie für Komische Kunst in the main station of Kassel, called KulturBahnhof, as well as since 2008 the Museum für Komische Kunst in Frankfurt. On the gallery associated is a little shop, where you can buy for example post cards with motives from pictures from the exhibition and a cafébar, which is opened Thu-Sat from 7 pm.
    Hauptbahnhof     
  • 16 Spohr Museum, Franz-Ulrich-Straße 6, ☏ +49 561 7662528, . Sat-Mon: 10:00-16:00. The Spohr Museum is dedicated to Louis Spohr, a German composer, violinist and conductor who lived from 1784 to 1859. He was considered one of the greatest violinists of his day, and he was also very famous and influential as a Romantic composer. While Spohr was living in Kassel between 1822 and 1859, he directed both the local orchestra and a violin school that attracted students from throughout Europe.
    Hauptbahnhof     
  • 17 Henschel Museum + Sammlung, Wolfhager Straße 109, ☏ +49 561 8017250, fax: +49 561 8017251, . Sat-Sun: 14:00-17:00 (only every first weekend in month). The Henschel Museum + Sammlung is dedicated to the German company Henschel & Sohn, who was located in Kassel. Henschel & Sohn, founded in 1810, was the largest locomotive manufacturer in Germany by the 20th century, but produces also locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, armoured fighting vehicles and weapons (World War II).
    Siemensstraße (Lines 18/19)     
  • 18 Technik-Museum Kassel, Wolfhager Straße 109, ☏ +49 561 86190400, fax: +49 561 86190444, . Wed-Fri: 14:00-17:00; Sat-Sun: 11:00-17:00. The Technik-Museum Kassel shows visitors an extensive collection of technical objects, precision tools, models, as well as machines and motor vehicles. Highlights are the Transrapid 05, the old rescue helicopter of Kassel Christoph 7 (typ Bölkow Bo 105), the steam locomotive 44 481, a 1:1 wood pattern of the first Henschel locomotive Drache and many old trams of Kassel.
    Brandaustraße (Lines 18/19)     
  • 19 Straßenbahnmuseum Kassel, Sandershäuser Straße 23, ☏ +49 561 36229, fax: +49 561 36229, . Sat: 10:30-16:30 (only every first Saturday in month). KVG-Betriebshof (Lines 30 and 32) 
  • 20 Museumsverein Fuldaschifffahrt, Am Hafen 15, ☏ +49 561 9707466, . Sat: 13:00-17:00 (only every first Saturday in month); Sun: 13:00-17:00 (only every third Sunday in month). Hafen (Line 10) 

Churches

documenta-artworks

Do

Entrance of the Kurhessen-Therme
Main entrance of the Staatstheater Kassel
In the Staatstheater Kassel

Swimming baths

Theatres

Action

Go next

  • Getting a little bit out of the city can be a good thing. Around Kassel there are beautiful forests and ponds that have really good trails like the Habichtswald in the west or the Reinhardswald in the north. You can travel with buses direct into them (Bus 22 or 190).

Kassel-Marathon

  • The Kassel-Marathon is one of the biggest and fastest marathons in Germany. In the programm are a children run, called Mini-Marathon, with a length of 4,2 kilometers, a half marathon, a marathon and a marathon ekiden. Start and end is in the Auestadion in the south of Kassel. (www.kassel-marathon.de)

Buy

Old market hall Kassel

Shopping can be somewhat difficult in Kassel compared to the United States, but most of the good shopping is located close to the Königsplatz so if you get off the Straßenbahn (Tram) around there you can do most of your shopping with the usual big retail chains and many smaller shops.

A lot of local shops you can find in the old market hall:

Eat

Goethestern in the district "Vorderer Westen"
Rondell with beer garden on the top (left)
In the Habichtswald you can find a lot of excursion restaurants

There are great bakeries on every corner and throughout the city. Another great place to eat is any of the little stands located in the City Point or Kürfürsten Galerie (city centre).

Restaurants

Cafés

Beer gardens

Drink

Clubs and discos

Sleep

Go next

Sababurg in the Reinhardswald
  • Deutsche Märchenstraße (German Fairytale Road)
This city travel guide to Kassel is a usable article. It has information on how to get there and on restaurants and hotels. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page.
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