page_title: Darmstadt
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Darmstadt / Culture
caption_attribution_description: Staatstheater Darmstadt, Zuschauerraum des Großen Hauses, fotografiert vom Rang
context_page_description: Darmstadt is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area. Darmstadt had a population of around 157,437 at the end of 2016. The Darmstadt Larger Urban Zone has 430,993 inhabitants.
  Darmstadt holds the official title "City of Science" as it is a major centre of scientific institutions, universities, and high-technology companies. The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and the European Space Operations Centre are located in Darmstadt, as well as GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research, where several chemical elements such as bohrium, meitnerium, hassium, darmstadtium, roentgenium, and copernicium were discovered. The existence of the following elements were also confirmed at GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research: nihonium, flerovium, moscovium, livermorium, and tennessine. The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research is an international accelerator facility under construction. Darmstadt is also the seat of the world's oldest pharmaceutical company, Merck, which is the city's largest employer.
context_section_description: Darmstadt has a rich cultural heritage. The Staatstheater Darmstadt (State Theatre Darmstadt) dates back to the year 1711. The present building has been in use since 1972 and has three halls which can be used independently. The "Grand Hall" (Großes Haus) provides seats for 956 people and serves as Darmstadt's opera house. The "Small Hall" (Kleines Haus) is mostly used for plays and dance and has 482 seats. A separate small hall (Kammerspiele) with 120 seats is used for chamber plays.
  Among the museums in Darmstadt the most important are the Hessisches Landesmuseum (Hessian State Museum), the Porcelain Museum (exhibition of the ducal porcelain), the Schlossmuseum (exhibition of the ducal residence and possessions), the Kunsthalle Darmstadt (exhibitions of modern art), the exhibition centre Mathildenhöhe and the Museum Künstlerkolonie (Art Nouveau museum).
  The Jazz-Institut Darmstadt is Germany's largest publicly accessible jazz archive.
  The Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, harboring one of the world's largest collections of post-war sheet music, also hosts the biennial Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, a summer school in contemporary classical music founded by Wolfgang Steinecke. A large number of avant-garde composers have attended and given lectures there, including Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, John Cage, György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel, and Helmut Lachenmann.
  The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung provides writers and scholars with a place to research the German language. The Academy's annual Georg Büchner Prize, named in memory of Georg Büchner, is considered the most prestigious literary award for writers of German language.
caption: State Theater Darmstadt – Grand Hall
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