# Upper Hesse > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Upper_Hesse > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Upper_Hesse.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Hesse > Source revision: 1331124634 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) The term '''Upper Hesse''' ({{langx|de|Provinz Oberhessen}}) originally referred to the southern possessions of the [Landgraviate of Hesse](/source/Landgraviate_of_Hesse), which were initially geographically separated from the more northerly [Lower Hesse](/source/Lower_Hesse) by the {{ill|County of Ziegenhain|de|Grafschaft Ziegenhain}}. Later, it became the name of one of the three provinces in the [Grand Duchy of Hesse](/source/Grand_Duchy_of_Hesse) (and the [People's State of Hesse](/source/People's_State_of_Hesse) after World War I), which was located within the historical region; the other two were [Starkenburg](/source/Starkenburg) (capital: [Darmstadt](/source/Darmstadt)) and [Rhenish Hesse](/source/Rhenish_Hesse) (capital: [Mainz](/source/Mainz)). Its territory covered the area of land north of the River [Main](/source/Main_(river)). The provincial capital and largest town of the rural provinces was the university town of [Gießen](/source/Gie%C3%9Fen). == Geography == Upper Hesse lies in the German state of [Hesse](/source/Hesse). It is bounded in the south by the [Wetterau](/source/Wetterau) and [Rhine-Main Region](/source/Rhine-Main_Region), in the east by the [Vogelsberg](/source/Vogelsberg), and the [Knüll](/source/Kn%C3%BCll), in the north by the [Kellerwald](/source/Kellerwald) and in the west by the [Gladenbach Uplands](/source/Gladenbach_Uplands). The landscape is characterised by [low mountains](/source/Mittelgebirge). Today the [nature park](/source/nature_park)s of the Lahn-Dill Uplands and the [High Vogelsberg](/source/High_Vogelsberg_Nature_Park) as well as the regions of [Marburg](/source/Marburg) and [Giessen](/source/Giessen) belong to the Upper Hesse.[http://www.ich-geh-wandern.de/oberhessen Oberhessen in ''Wanderatlas Deutschland''] (retrieved 28 August 2023). == History == Due to the practice of [partible inheritance](/source/partible_inheritance), the lands of Upper and Lower Hesse were partitioned into separate states several times. All of the rulers of the partitions were considered to be [Landgrave](/source/Landgrave)s. The first was between the sons of [Henry I "the Child"](/source/Henry_I%2C_Landgrave_of_Hesse) in 1308, when Henry's older son [Otto I](/source/Otto_I%2C_Landgrave_of_Hesse) received Upper Hesse, or the "Land on the [Lahn](/source/Lahn)"; his younger sibling [John](/source/John%2C_Landgrave_of_Lower_Hesse) received Lower Hesse. The two partitions were reunited three years later when John died without an heir. The second partition occurred in 1458 following the death of [Louis I of Hesse](/source/Louis_I_of_Hesse): his first son, [Louis II](/source/Louis_II%2C_Landgrave_of_Lower_Hesse), received Lower Hesse, while his second son, [Henry III](/source/Henry_III%2C_Landgrave_of_Upper_Hesse), received Upper Hesse. The partitions remained separate until the death of [William III](/source/William_III%2C_Landgrave_of_Hesse) of Upper Hesse in 1500, when it was inherited by [William II](/source/William_II%2C_Landgrave_of_Hesse) of Lower Hesse. The third partition took place after the death of [Philip I](/source/Philip_I%2C_Landgrave_of_Hesse) in 1567. This time, rather than being divided in two, Hesse was divided into four: [Hesse-Kassel](/source/Landgraviate_of_Hesse-Kassel), [Hesse-Rheinfels](/source/Hesse-Rheinfels), [Hesse-Marburg](/source/Hesse-Marburg) and [Hesse-Darmstadt](/source/Hesse-Darmstadt). On the eve of the French Revolution (1789), most of historic Upper Hesse lay within northern Hesse-Darmstadt, except for the area around Marburg, which was part of Hesse-Kassel. During the course of the [German mediatization](/source/German_mediatization) and [Napoleonic Wars](/source/Napoleonic_Wars), Hesse-Darmstadt gained territory from several former states contiguous with Upper Hesse, primarily from [Solms-Laubach](/source/Solms-Laubach) and the [Principality of Isenburg](/source/Principality_of_Isenburg). These territories were reorganised into the Province of Upper Hesse. Also during this period Hesse-Darmstadt became the [Grand Duchy of Hesse](/source/Grand_Duchy_of_Hesse). The provinces of the Grand Duchy were dissolved on 31 July 1848 and replaced by administrative regions (''[Regierungsbezirk](/source/Regierungsbezirk)e''); this was reversed on 12 May 1852. Following the [Austro-Prussian War](/source/Austro-Prussian_War) in 1866, [Prussia](/source/Kingdom_of_Prussia) annexed all of the [Electorate of Hesse](/source/Electorate_of_Hesse) (the former Hesse-Kassel), which included some Upper-Hessian areas such as Marburg, as well as all of Lower Hesse. They also annexed the Grand Duchy's north-western [panhandle](/source/Salient_(geography)) around [Biedenkopf](/source/Biedenkopf). These territories, along with those gained from the [Duchy of Nassau](/source/Duchy_of_Nassau) and the [Free City of Frankfurt](/source/Free_City_of_Frankfurt), become the Prussian province of [Hesse-Nassau](/source/Hesse-Nassau) in 1868. However, the bulk of Upper Hesse remained with the Grand Duchy, which became a member state of the [German Empire](/source/German_Empire) when it was created in 1871. At the end of [World War I](/source/World_War_I), the Grand Duchy fell during the [German revolution of 1918–1919](/source/German_revolution_of_1918%E2%80%931919), and the new [People's State of Hesse](/source/People's_State_of_Hesse), with Upper Hesse as one of its three provinces, became a state of the [Weimar Republic](/source/Weimar_Republic). After [World War II](/source/World_War_II), Upper Hesse was part of the territory that was combined with Hesse-Nassau to create today's [State of Hesse](/source/State_of_Hesse). {{gallery |title=Evolution of Upper Hesse |width=220 |align=center |footer= |File:Gft. Solms Lgft. Hessen Gft. Ziegenhain.png |Medieval division of Hesse (sky blue), {{circa|1400}}. Upper Hesse is the more southerly territory. |File:Oberhessen.png |Province of Upper Hesse, 1905 |File:Hessen1930.png |Upper Hesse (top right) as one of the provinces of the [People's State of Hesse](/source/People's_State_of_Hesse) in 1930. }} == References == {{Reflist}} == External links == * Literature about Upper Hesse in the GND Index in ''[Hessische Bibliographie](/source/Hessische_Bibliographie)'' * [http://www.oberhessen.de/ Internet presence of the current Upper Hesse Region (''Region Oberhessen'')] * Erwin Knauß: [http://www.ohg-giessen.de/oberhessen.html ''Oberhessen – Landschaft oder Provinz?''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161210033602/http://www.ohg-giessen.de/oberhessen.html |date=2016-12-10 }}, Upper Hesse History Society. {{coord missing|Hesse}} {{Authority control}} Category:Grand Duchy of Hesse Category:Former states and territories of Hesse {{Germany-geo-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Upper Hesse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Hesse) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Hesse?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.