Keeping Watch

... in front of Regierungspräsidium (=region authority headquarters) in central Darmstadt: the lion (Hessian heraldic animal) was installed to celebrate 70 years of (modern) Hesse in 2016.

The recent federal state was formed after WW2 and is made up from parts of Hesse-Nassau (with its capital Wiesbaden, now having become capital of all Hesse), Landgraviat H. (with its capital Kassel), the Grandduchy (with its capital Darmstadt), Waldeck (a small princedom near Kassel), Frankfurt (a formerly independent city), the nearby (very small princedom) Homburg (now the richest German city), and a couple of even smaller principalities.