An attractive location for businesses and professionals

The region excels because of its outstanding transport infrastructure, which enables rapid intercommunication with the whole world. Ideal and quick connections are guaranteed by the international air-traffic hub in Frankfurt as well as by Frankfurt’s position at the crossroads of the main motorway intersections in Germany and Europe. Efficient transport of persons and goods is ensured by the confluence of waterways on the Rhine, Main and Neckar as well as by the best railway connections.

The region is outstandingly established in the sectors of automation, logistics, chemistry, pharmacy, biotechnology, automotive, renewable energies and IT. It is well known worldwide for Europe‘s aerospace industry: the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt controls all of the European satellites. EUMETSAT is located nearby and it operates the weather satellites which take the photographs that are used as the basis for European weather forecasts. Many large and famous business enterprises like Opel, Merck, Pirelli, Software AG, Suzuki International Europe, Langnese and Deutsche Telekom are located in the region. Numerous small-sized and medium-sized business enterprises are based here too. There is also a whole range of ‘hidden champions’ among them, which are often relatively unknown business enterprises that nevertheless are among the world’s market leaders in their quite special sectors. The Darmstadt Rhine Main.

The special competences that the Darmstadt Rhine Main Neckar region possesses in the engineering sector are also reflected in its polytechnic colleges and research institutes. Darmstadt Technical University, Darmstadt’s University of Applied Sciences and the Rhine-Main University of Applied Sciences in Rüsselsheim specialize in courses to study engineering and science. Darmstadt Technical University is traditional and it is among the largest technical universities in Germany. The offer is supplemented by further universities in Frankfurt, Mainz, Mannheim and Heidelberg, as well as by polytechnic colleges in the surroundings: all of them cater for the trainees in the Darmstadt Rhine Main Neckar region. Companies benefit from excellent skilled workers, academics as well as tailor-made talents. Thus, the recruiting potential is outstanding.

Numerous research institutes have their head offices in the region: the list of these facilities includes the Fraunhofer Institutes, the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung with its particle-accelerator machine for ions that is unique worldwide, as well as the developmental centres of Kia, Hyundai, Opel and Honda. They do research on important subjects like IT security among other things, as well as on the safe materials that are typically used in the motorcar industry. The spectrum of research is extended by the Max-Planck Institutes in Frankfurt, Mainz, Bad Nauheim and Heidelberg.

The study entitled ‘The innovative location of Darmstadt Rhine Main Neckar: research and development as factors for growth’ established that the Darmstadt Rhine Main Neckar region is strong in research and above average when compared with the rest of Germany. The regional innovative system functions perfectly thanks to the statefinanced basic research, highly qualified skilled workers – a high proportion of whom are employed in research and development – and close integration between science and commerce, as well as an economic structure that is orientated to the scientifically intensive branches of industry!

The fact that Plexiglas® was invented in Darmstadt is well known. However, did you know already for example that the idea of the dry razor came from the region? Max Braun registered the patent for it in Darmstadt in 1949. The pioneer of surfaces for kidneyshaped tables and modern residential design with Resopal® originated in the conurbation around it in 1930.

It is proven that business enterprises as well as the centres of research and commerce cooperate successfully in the region.The business enterprises take ‘cluster initiatives‘, exchange information reciprocally and enter into cooperative agreements among themselves and with the polytechnic colleges. The Automotive Cluster Rhein-Main-Neckar, the Automatisierungsregion Rhein-Main-Neckar and the IT FOR WORK initiative are successful examples of that.

The Darmstadt Rhine Main Neckar region is located in the middle of a significant economic zone in a central position with outstanding means of public transport and motorways: it also offers proximity to nature as well as to cultural places and sites.The region’s cultural offer ranges from castles, chateaux and the UNESCO word cultural heritage site of Lorsch Cloister and the Darmstadt Artists' Colony on Mathildenhöhe, as well as museums, theatres and festivals, to the town of Darmstadt as the centre of Art Nouveau. Gourmets are well catered for too: they can taste fresh asparagus from the reeds, as well as lamb and cooked cheese from the Odenwald with a little glass of wine from Bergstrasse.

Many leading international companies are already benefiting from this progressive atmosphere. What inspires them here on a daily basis-Future-oriented cooperations, highly qualified workforce and easy access to the rest of the world - or in a nutshell: our region's ideal prerequisites to successfully developing and producing new and marketable concepts.

Here and now is where our future starts.