Tradition and Progress of a Town: Over 1000 Years Kassel  is an old town: science and art have been at home here for a long time as is evidenced by the numerous museums, art galleries and archives. But Kassel is also a young town, inhabited by modern man who feels indebted to tradition and progress simultaneously.

On 18 Feb 913 Konrad I, King of the Franks, signed two documents.  These two are the oldest surviving documents mentioning the present city of Kassel. The town grew in importance when Count Heinrich of Hesse made it his official residence in 1277.  Ca. 5000 people lived within its walls in the

16th cent.  At the beginning of the 18th it was still only 18,000. After a brief French occupation (1807;1813, part of the Kingdom of Westphalia, ruled by Jerome, Napoleon's brother who resided in the Wilhelmshoehe (a castle)) and the return of the Elector, Kassel came under Prussian rule in 1866.  That time was also the start of the industrialization of Kassel.  The town became the centre of the railway and defense industry.   

The population of Kassel rose to 100,000 by 1900. The Second World War brought death and destruction to Kassel. During the night of 22;23 October 1943 allied bombers transformed the old inner city (with half-timbered buildings) to rubble and ashes. A flood of refugees roamed through the town ; the years after 1945 are marked with a continuing struggle with a lack of housing. Because of that some of the sins of the city planners in rebuilding the town may have to  be forgiven. The Federal Garden Exhibition in 1955 gave new impulses. They counted 3 million visitors. In the same year a documentary about a series of modern art competitions in Kassel leaves the other cities   envious. A historical change for Kassel in 1989: at last Kassel is again in the center of Germany.

In 1991 the Intercity (IC) railroad station Wilhelmshoehe is christened. A comprehensive history of the town was shown in the city museum. When the French emperor Napoleon III was transported  as a prisoner to the castle Wilhelmshoehe in 1870, the people in Aachen had called out to him: Off  to Kassel. This slogan of victory spread throughout Germany.