Hesse is a grand duchy forming a state of the German empire. It was known till 1866 as Hesse Darmstadt, the the past of which is precise under a separate heading below. It consists of two most important parts, separated from each other by a narrow strip of Prussian territory. The northern part is the province of Oberhessen; the southern consists of the neighboring regions of Starkenburg and Rheinhessen. There are in addition eleven very tiny exclaves, mostly grouped about Homburg to the south-west of Oberhessen; but the greatest is Wimpfen on the north-west area of Wurttemberg.

Hesse is a state of Germany. Situated in west-central Germany, Hesse borders on the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The name of the state is Hessen in German and Hesse in English; the English name for the state was taken from French. Like other components of Germany throughout the 9th century Hesse sensed the nonattendance of a powerful centered power, and, before the time of the emperor Otto the Great, some enumerations, amidst who were Giso and Werner, had made themselves virtually independent; but after the accession of Otto in 936 the land quietly accepted the yoke of the medieval emperors.