Kassel: A green city in the center of Germany

Located smack bang in the middle of Germany, Kassel is a city with 200,000 inhabitants situated in the north of Hessen. The city was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War, so you will struggle to find many historic buildings However, Kassel more than makes up for it with its numerous public parks and woods which make it one of the greenest cities in Germany.

Kassel introduced

Kassel, Photo: kassel-tourist GmbH Today Kassel is famous for its hosting of the Documenta, one of the most important modern and contemporary art exhibitions in the world. Every 5 years world renowned artists display their work throughout the city in an event that lasts 100 days and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors throughout the world. Some of the former Documenta exhibits have even become permanent features in the city, most notably the 7.000 oaks by German artist Joseph Beuys, the first of which were planted at the Documenta 7 in 1982. When you stroll through the city you can recognize the trees, as they have basalt blocks placed next to the trunk.
Kassel is also an excellent city for transportation. Whilst many students bike around the small city, it also boasts an extensive and modern transportation network for those rainy days. Also, it is also linked into the German rail’s high speed train (ICE) network, making traveling to other parts of Germany quick and easy.

Overview of the universities

University of Kassel
Mensa Kassel, Photo: Universität Kassel Located close to the city center on the former site of the company Henschel, the main campus is an inviting place, with red brick buildings and a spacious cafeteria located just off a spacious square. Kassel, which has about 18,000 students, offers a wide rage of courses and is a university that is international in its outlook, boasting more than 180 departmental cooperation agreements and 16 active university partnerships with higher education and research institutions from all over the world.
Kassel is also fast gaining a reputation for its courses at the Graduate Center for Environmental Studies, where students can take Master’s courses related to sustainability and environment

School of Art and Design Kassel
The School of Art and Design Kassel enjoys the advantages that its location in the city that hosts the Documenta brings. Several distinguished artists, such as Johann Tischbein the Elder and Arnold Bode, the founder of the documenta, have been employed as teachers at the school and it has a significant influence on the curricula of other art schools in Germany. It’s a top address and students from Kassel regularly win prizes, twice winning the student Oscar for their short films even.

What Kassel is like

Slav Valchev, 25, from Bulgaria studies Renewable Energies in Kassel and moved there because Kassel was one of the few universities that offered the course. He explains that when researching courses in the field he had heard that the course was good and decided to apply.
Although Slav says that he primarily looked at the course whilst applying he says, “The city is very nice. It was very important to me that the city has a bit of life and that there are a lot of students there and that it has plenty of leisure activities. The university has a lot of international students [12 percent] and the atmosphere is good, especially in the summer. The campus is pretty green and everyone sits outside to revise or just drink coffee.”
Kassel is quite a cheap place to live too, with rent considerably cheaper than in some of the larger German cities. “It is pretty easy to get university accommodation here too,” he says “I’ve been in a lot of student dorms and they are all really good.”
Slav identifies the famous Wilhelmshöhe Park as his favorite place. “You can relax there well and read. There’s a really beautiful view of the city and the surrounding area from up there. And you can see lot of what I study from up there – wind parks.”
According to Slav, there are plenty of places to go in the evening and a number of bars. His favorite club is New York. “They have all kinds of music there except rock.” The university organizes a lot of parties too. “You’ll never be bored, there’s always something going on.”

Did you know?

The city's name is derived from the ancient Castellum Cattorum, a castle of the Chatti, a German tribe that has lived in the area since Roman times.
Kassel is the centerpiece of Germany’s Fairy Tale Road, a romantic tourist route stretching from Hanau to Bremen. Brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm lived and worked in Kassel and it was here that in the years 1812-1815 that they compiled most of their world famous collection of fairy tales. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Little Red Riding Hood are tales that children know around the world.

Things to check out

In the Museum of the Brothers Grimm you can learn about the lives of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm – the brothers that penned so many famous fairytales and influenced German and European storytelling culture.

Also not to be missed is the Wilhelmshöhe, Europe’s largest hillside park, crowned by the city’s landmark, the statue of "Herkules". It is undoubtedly the city’s main attraction, with the park’s lush lawns and collection of botanical treasures, you can spend many hours wondering around. Not to be missed are the fountains in the palace lake, which send up jets of water high into the sky.