Trying to answer my questions about the differences in all the Hesse-Hessen's. This is what Webster (dictionary) says about Hesse - Hessen: (What does 'am Main' mean after Frankfurt?) Hesse, variant or German, Hessen 1 region W central Germany N of Baden-Württemberg, divided into Hesse-Darmstadt (in the S) & Hesse-Cassel (in the N), the latter being united with Prussia in 1866 as part of the province of Hesse-Nassau along with the duchy of Nassau & the city of Frankfurt am Main ((am Main??)) 2 state of the Weimar Republic, equivalent to Hesse-Darmstadt 3 state of Germany & formerly of West Germany including larger part of Hesse-Darmstadt & part of Hesse-Nassau capital Wiesbaden area 8151 square miles (21,111 square kilometers), population 5,763,300 So when one says Hesse (or Hessen) what do they mean - Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Nassau (#1) (since Hesse-Cassel is now part of Hesse-Nassau)? or Hesse-Darmstadt (#2) or Hesse-Darmstadt and part of Hesse-Nassau (#3)? ...or any of the above? I guess what it amounts to is that I don't understand how Germany is divided. Is it all states now? (like our country is in states). Next I'll have to delve into kingdom, duchy, grand duchy, Principality, county, state, province, electorate, republic - most of those must be obsolete? I looked up duchy - the territory of a duke or duchess; special domain. And grand duchy - the territory of dominion of a grand duke or grand duchess. I suppose these days we can call it all special domains or something else?? H E L P!! Betty FL

Am Main means on the Main River. Barbara Dooley At 08:52 PM 9/11/2006, you wrote: > >Trying to answer my questions about the differences in all the >Hesse-Hessen's. This is what Webster (dictionary) says about Hesse - >Hessen: >(What does 'am Main' mean after Frankfurt?) >Hesse, variant or German, Hessen >1 region W central Germany N of Baden-Württemberg, divided into >Hesse-Darmstadt (in the S) & Hesse-Cassel (in the N), the latter being >united with