Darmstadt

City in the Land (administrative region) of Hesse, Germany, 29 km/18 mi south of Frankfurt-am-Main; population (2005 est) 140,600. Industries include iron founding, the manufacture of chemicals and plastics, electronics, and publishing. It is a centre of the European space industry. It has a ducal palace and a Technical University (1836).

Darmstadt was the former capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. It lies at the upper end of the middle Rhine plain on the edge of the Odenwald.

Darmstadt became a city in 1330 but, although famous as a cultural centre and an imperial residence, it remained small; at the beginning of the 19th century its population was only 8,000. The rapid growth of the city in the 19th century was due to the development of its chemical industry. The chemist and educator Baron Justus von Liebig (1803–73) was born here. The city is the site of the International Music Institute, founded in 1946, which hosts internationally renowned programmes of instruction in contemporary music.