Darmstadt

Geschichte

Darmstadt is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has a population around 150,000 (2013). The Darmstadt Larger Urban Zone has 430,993 inhabitants.Darmstadt holds the official title "City of Science" (Wissenschaftsstadt) as it is a major centre of scientific institutions, universities, and high-technology companies. The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) is located in Darmstadt, as well as GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research, where several chemical elements such as bohrium (1981), meitnerium (1982), hassium (1984), darmstadtium (1994), roentgenium (1994), and copernicium (1996) were discovered. The existence of the following elements were also confirmed at GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research: nihonium (2012), flerovium (2009), moscovium (2012), livermorium (2010), and tennessine (2012). Darmstadt is also the seat of the world's oldest pharmaceutical company, Merck, which is the city's largest employer.