Industry

he ICT sector in Hessen with its 9,915 enterprises generated a turnover of 32.2 BEUR in 2006. The number of enterprises increased by 6.3% compared to 2004, turnover increased by 9.3%.

The ICT sector is thus the strongest sector in Hessen (90,000 employees), e. g. compared to the machinery (64,000 employees), chemistry (64,000 employees) or automotive sector (50,000 employees). Hessen is the home base of

• 8 of the Top25 standard software enterprises in Germany
• 8 of the Top25 IT service enterprises in Germany
• 2 of the Top3 providers of business intelligence standard software in Germany
• 3 of the Top5 IT consulting and system integration enterprises in Germany
• 2 of the Top5 business innovation/transformation partners in Germany
• most of the Top25 standard software enterprises with international origin in Germany
  (Source: Lünendonk, 2007)

Research

Hessen has roughly 30 universities, half of them offer ICT-related study courses and/or carry out ICT-oriented research.

Universities in Hessen (ranked by number of ICT professors)
1. Technische Universität Darmstadt
2. University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt
3. University of Applied Sciences Gießen-Friedberg
4. University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden
5. Goethe-University Frankfurt
6. University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt
7. University of Applied Sciences Fulda

In total, there are over 350 full professors active in the field of ICT, over 150 of them in Darmstadt and over 50 in Frankfurt. More than half of all professors are strongly networked internationally.

Hessen is home to six nobel laureates as well as to key inventors like Johann Philipp Reis (telephone), Karl Ferdinand Braun (electron tube), Konrad Zuse (computer). There is a long list of award-winning researchers in Hessen, among them

• Leibniz-laureates Prof. Claus-Peter Schnorr (Frankfurt) and Prof. Johannes Buchmann (Darmstadt) or the
• winners of the Konrad-Zuse-medal (highest prize of German Society of Informatics)
  Prof. José Encarnação and Prof. Robert Piloty (both Darmstadt).

TU Darmstadt is among the top-scoring German universities in respect to third-party funding, publications and dissertations (CHE-Ranking, 2007, Domain: Electrical Engineering and Informa-tion Technology). Recently, it was awarded with cluster of excellence in “Smart Interfaces” and a graduate school in “Computational Engineering”.

Fraunhofer Institutes in Hessen

• Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD), Darmstadt
• Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT), Darmstadt
• Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability (LBF), Darmstadt

Infrastructure

• World largest internet exchange DE-CIX in Frankfurt
• European second largest Data Center Market in Frankfurt
• International Network Management Center of DTAG in Frankfurt
• German hub to pan-European Research Network Géant2 in Frankfurt
• Frankfurt/RhineMain is the traffic hub no. 1 in Europe:
  cargo airport no. 1, passenger airport no. 3
  railway station no. 1, highway intersection no.1
  

Hessen is not only the location for high-tech research, leading enterprises and
world-class infrastructure. It is also the place

• to develop and sell your products,
• to meet European partners in an easy-for-all setting,
• to accommodate and integrate your family in an educated and culturally rich environment as well as the place
• for you to enjoy your precious leisure time.

Customers

General

• After UK Germany is the other most significant European Investment location (Oxford Intelligence, 2007)
• Germany is the most attractive HQ location in Europe (Ernst&Young, 2006)
• Hessen, to be exact the little town of Gelnhausen next to Frankfurt, is the geographic center of the European Union (EU-27).
• About one quarter of all direct foreign investments to Germany go to Hessen.

Economic sectors

• Frankfurt in Hessen is Germany’s financial center and the most important financial center on the continent (European Central Bank, Germany´s top Stock Exchange, EUREX, over 300 banks.
• In addition, further important service industries are insurances, transport and communication as well as business service industries (consulting, advertising).
• Major manufacturing industries in Hessen are: chemicals and pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, electrical engineering, machinery.
• 10% of German goods are produced in FrankfurtRhineMain.
• Hessen as one of Europe's high-tech regions. Research institutions: roughly 30 universities, 5 Max Planck Institutes, 32 Technology and Start-up Centers, >100 scientific research institutions
• Hessen is a location for trade and expos with a long tradition. With more than 53 trade fairs and up to 2.5 million visitors each year, Messe Frankfurt is both the oldest and the largest trade fair center on the continent.

Consumers

• In a radius of 150 miles around Frankfurt you can reach 45 million consumers.
• Hessen is no 1 of the German non-city states – with a GDP per employee of 67,000 € Hessen ranked top in Germany in 2006. Only Hamburg has a higher productivity.
• Purchasing power in the FrankfurtRhineMain Region: 18% above German average with a GDP per capita in 2006 of more than 33,000 EUR

International community

• People from 195 different countries feel at home in Hessen
• Roughly 100 Consulates in FrankfurtRhineMain
• 180 foreign business- and culture-clubs
• Cosmopolitan atmosphere with centuries-long tradition
• 11 international schools and more than 20 international kindergartens.
• Wide variety of international service providers (lawyers, tax consultants, doctors, …) with excellent language skills
• International theatres and cinemas
• Internationally recognized medical centers
• Welcome festivals for foreign guests
  

Culture

Discover the home to
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born 1710), Matthias Claudius (1740), Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742), Adolf Freiherr von Knigge (1752), Friedrich Hölderlin (1770), Clemens Brentano (1778), Bettina von Arnim (1785), the brothers Grimm (1785, 1786), Arthur Schopenhauer (1788), Heinrich Hoffmann (1809), Fjodor Dostojewski (1821), Johann Philipp Reis (1834), Ernst Leitz (1843), Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850), Emil von Behring (1854), Paul Ehrlich (1854), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875), Otto Hahn (1879), Paul Hindemith (1895), Ludwig Erhard (1897), Theodor W. Adorno (1903), Oskar Schindler (1908), Alexander (1908) und Margarete Mitscherlich (1917), Konrad Zuse (1910), Elvis Presley (1935), Volker Schlöndorff (1939), Joschka Fischer (1948), Hartmut Michel (1948), Horst Ludwig Störmer (1949), John McEnroe (1959), Timo Boll (1981), Nico Rosberg (1985) and so many other writers and composers, athletes and actors, artists and directors, philosophers and politicians, entrepreneurs and scientists that were born or lived in Hessen.

Relax

… by exercising or watching sports

• 37% forest in FrankfurtRhineMain
• Outdoor-Sports: canoeing, trekking, biking,…
• More than 40 golf clubs, 6 water parks and a variety of spas and wellness-centers
• Premier league teams e.g. in soccer, handball, basketball, volleyball, american football, hockey, ice hockey
• Sports events like the Iron Man Germany, Frankfurt Marathon, World Cup Ski Jumping Tournament in Willingen, the horse-riding tournament “Pfingstreitturnier” in Wiesbaden

…by visiting museums, operas and theatres

• Science museums like Liebig-Museum (Chemistry) and Mathematikum in Gießen, Explora museum, Museum of communication and Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt or Cybernarium in Darmstadt
• Art museums like Museum for Applied Arts, Museum of Modern Art, Städel Art Museum, Schirn Art Hall in Frankfurt, Museum Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt,
• Cultural museums like Brothers-Grimm-Museum and Lions Castle in Kassel, Saalburg Roman fort (The limes) close to Bad Homburg, Jewish Museum, Museum of World Cultures, Goethemuseum, German Architectural Museum, Porcelain Museum and German Film Museum in Frankfurt
• Operas and theatres like the state theatres in Darmstadt, Kassel and Wiesbaden, the Opera Frankfurt or the opera festival in Bad Hersfeld as well as the English theatre and the Forsythe Company in the Alte Oper Frankfurt

Enjoy

• Drinks like the world-famous Rheingau Riesling wine or the wide-spread regional specialty Applewoi (apple wine) as well as various regional liquor specialties
• Food like cutlet with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes (“Rippsche mit Kraut”), sausages like Frankfurter or “Ahle Wurscht”, “Green sauce” – or of course top-level international cuisine
• Cultural events like Documenta (Modern art, Kassel), Night of the Museums (Frankfurt/Offenbach), Luminale (Lighting event throughout RhineMain), Rheingau Music Festival or so many other wine and folk festivals
• International Film Festivals like goEast (East European films), Africa Alive (Pan-African Festival), Nippon Connection (Japanese films), Verso Sud (Italian films), Turkish Filmfestival Frankfurt, Festival del Cine Cubano, Festival de Cine Venezolano, Cinelatino (Latinamerican films)

Fact Sheet ICT Location Hessen: Industry, Research, Infrastructure (PDF)
Fact Sheet ICT Location Hessen: Customers, Diversity, Culture (PDF)