North Hessen in the 1700's

The 1700's are a busy time for baroque builders.  The disastrous results of the Thirty Years War have finally been overcome  The absolutist dukes are building beautiful palaces everywhere following the model set by Versailles.  Culture and science once again gaining a foothold in society.  The philosophy and literature of the Enlightenment make well-known such names as Lessing, Voltaire and Kant. But there is war too.  The Seven Years War hit Hessen harder than had previous aarguments between Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great.  One of the last battles of the war (1756-1763), in which the powerful interests of England and France were also involved, took place near Wilhelmsthal outside of Kassel.  Hessen-Kassel was able to recover more quickly from the damages of war than was Hessen-Darmstadt.  The royal coffers filled again with money - but in a manner and fashion that brought disrepute upon the Landgrave: through the granting of industrial and trade monopolies, and the renting out of soldiers to foreign powers.  The business in fighting men did not line up too well with ideas about human rights, ideas which were just beginning to be born and proclaimed in the United States, exactly where Hessian soldiers were being sent to fight in the service of England.

This entire historical period is contemporary to perhaps to one of the most significant natural monuments in Hessen - the Wilhelmshöhe Hill Park - upon whose grounds evidence of styles and enthusiasms from the late 1600's until the early 1800's are united.  The French Revolution of 1789, the results of which are also evident in Hessen-- Kassel, brings a close to this era.