What is "hesse"

Hesse or Hessia ( , Hessian dialect: Hesse ) is a federal state (Land) of the Federal Republic of Germany, with just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden; the largest city is Frankfurt am Main. Until the formation of the German Reich in 1871, Hesse was an independent country ruled by a Grand Duke ( Grand Duchy of Hesse). Due to divisions after World War II, the modern federal state does not cover the entire cultural region of Hesse which includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse (Rheinhessen) in the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The English name "Hesse" originates in the Hessian dialects. The variant "Hessia" comes from the medieval Latin Hassia. The German term Hessen is used by the European Commission because their policy is to leave regional names untranslated (paragraphs 1.31 & 1.35). The term "Hesse" ultimately derives from a Germanic tribe called the Chatti, who settled in the region in the first century B.C. An inhabitant of Hesse is called a Hessian (German: Hesse (masculine) or Hessin (feminine)). The synthetic element hassium, number 108 on the periodic table, is named after the state of Hesse.

Hesse is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.

Hesse may also refer to:

• Hesse (surname)
• Greater Hesse, a German territory created by the US military administration in at the end of World War II (1945–46)
• Landgraviate of Hesse (1264–1567)
• Grand Duchy of Hesse (1806–1918)
• People's State of Hesse (1918–45)
• Hesse, Moselle, a place in Lorraine, France
• Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
• Hesse District, Upper Canada or Western District
• Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel
• Electorate of Hesse
• Province of Kurhessen

Hesse is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Adolf Friedrich Hesse (1809–1863), German composer
• Eva Hesse (sculptor) (1936–70), painter and sculptor
• Eva Hesse (writer) (born 1925), writer and translator
• Hermann Hesse (1877–1962), German-born poet, novelist, and painter, Nobel Prize in Literature 1946
• Karen Hesse (born 1952), US writer
• Konrad Hesse (1919–2005), German jurist
• Mary Hesse (born 1924), US philosopher
• Otto Hesse (1811–74), German mathematician, known for the Hessian matrix
• Richard Hesse (1868–1944), German zoologist
• Walther Hesse (1846–1911), German microbiologist

Hesse is a historic plantation house located near Blakes, Mathews County, Virginia. It was built about 1725, and is a five-bay, two-story Georgian style brick dwelling. It has a single-pile plan and is topped by a gable roof. A modern five-bay flanking south wing was built in 1952.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.