The Sights

Ralph Euler

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung, responsible for the Rhein-Main section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Florian Balke

Culture editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The fact that Kassel was the residence of landgraves and electors can unfortunately only be guessed at today.

During the Second World War, almost the entire old town was destroyed and then rebuilt as a "car-friendly city".

Anyone who dares to take the train to the former main station (today Kulturbahnhof) should have a soft spot for the architecture of the 1950s.

After all, the "Treppenstrasse" branching off from the main shopping street, the Königsstrasse, is considered by the locals to be the first pedestrian zone in Germany.

But the really beautiful is not far away.

Equipped with the "Kassel on foot" route guide published by the Frankfurt Societäts-Verlag, you go across Friedrichsplatz, past the Museum Fridericianum, one of the first public museums on the continent, down to the Karlsaue, a green gem on the Fulda.

The originally baroque park was redesigned into an English landscape garden with an orangery and artificially created ponds and ditches.

Then take the tram included in the 9-euro ticket along the four-and-a-half kilometer long Wilhelmshöher Allee to Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe.

From here the view sweeps across to the Löwenburg and up to the Herkules.

Those who come on Sundays, Wednesdays or on a holiday can experience the world's incomparable water features (2.30 p.m. to 4 p.m.) before devoting themselves to the painting collection in Wilhelmshöhe Palace, famous for its numerous Rembrandts.

The souvenir

Only someone who was born in Kassel can call themselves a Kassel native, Kassel natives are those whose parents were born here.

Kasseler, on the other hand, can be any newcomer.

However, it is only really naturalized when it visibly enjoys “Ahle Wurscht”, a seasoned and air-cured pork sausage.

So what would be better suited as a souvenir than a well-hung example of the North Hessian national sausage?

Available as a “stracke” or “round” for seven to twelve euros from any decent butcher in town.

The Travel Reading

With Christine Brückner, you can also travel to Pomerania on the trip to Kassel, which the writer, who was born near Bad Arolsen in 1921, brought to life so skilfully in "Jauche und Levkojen" as if she had owned the Poenichen estate herself.

"If you had talked, Desdemona" is another bestseller by the author, who lived in Kassel from 1960 until her death in 1996.

The book, published in 1983 and a long-seller, is still available from Hoffmann & Campe for 18 euros.

It bears the beautiful subtitle "Indignant speeches of indignant women" and certainly always had more readers than readers.

But it is also something for men who know what is good.

And also perfectly portioned for a trip on the regional train.

One station, one speech.

From Christiane Vulpius to Othello's wife and Katharina von Bora to Effi Briest and Klytämnestra.

All no Kassel women.

But still from Kassel.