Hanau am Main, Germany

In 1597 Count Philipp Ludwig II attracted French Protestant (Huguenots) refugees, who had been admitted to Frankfurt but had only very limited accommodation, to found their own settlement south of Hanau. This happened under the direction of the guardian of the Hanau count, Johann VI von Nassau-Dillenburg, who hoped for significant economic and cultural advances from the settlement of the 'Réfugiés' from south-west France. In return for the assurance of free exercise of their religion, the refugees undertook to become economically active in Hanau. Out of this tradition, goldsmiths are still trained in Hanau. Hanau also was the site of the first workshop to produce faïence (tin-glazed pottery) within Germany. These new citizens were granted privileges and formed their own community, church and administration for the "new town of Hanau" (Neustadt Hanau) wholly separate from the existing community. A stark contrast to the Catholic Church, but also to the Lutheran Church of the time, was the participation of laypeople in church-governing functions, as well as the design of the church, especially the decalogues (boards displaying the Ten Commandments). Each congregation was led by a Consistoire, elected by congregation members for life, which is roughly comparable to today's church council. The descendants of the French Reformed religious refugees have assimilated in Hanau over time.

In contrast to the Huguenots, Walloon and Dutch Calvinist refugees came from an area of what is now the Netherlands, Belgium, and the French Département Nord at the time of Spanish rule, the Spanish Netherlands. With the arrival of the Huguenots, Walloons and Dutch, Hanau's rise to an important business location began. Until 1821, the new town had its own independent community, independent of the old town. The Reformed Walloon-Dutch community still exists today.

Philipp Ludwig II also allowed Jews to settle in Hanau. From 1604 there was a Jewish community again.

It took more than 200 years to amalgamate both. The new town, larger than the old one, was protected by a then very modern fortification in Baroque style, which proved a big asset only a few years later in the Thirty Years' War. The town survived a siege in 1637 with only minor damage.

The new citizens formed the major economic and political power within the County of Hanau and in 1642 played a leading role in the succession of Count Fredrik Casimir of Hanau Lichtenberg into the County of Hanau-Münzenberg, of which Hanau was the capital.

During the Thirty Years' War Hanau was taken by the Swedes in 1631. In 1636 it was besieged by imperial troops but was relieved on the 13 June by William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, on account of which the inhabitants commemorate that day.

Johann Reinhard III of Hanau-Lichtenberg, the last of the Counts of Hanau, died in 1736. Those parts of his county belonging to the County of Hanau-Münzenberg, which included Hanau, were inherited by the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. Due to dynastic troubles within his family, the County of Hesse-Hanau was created a separate state from the Landgraviate until 1786. So Hanau remained the capital for another 50 years. Even after that it became the second-most important town in Hesse-Kassel, after Kassel.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon I ordered the fortifications of Hanau destroyed. This created a chance for both parts of the town to expand across their former limits. In 1813, the Battle of Hanau took place near the city between French troops and Austro-Bavarian forces; the former won. During the 1820s the administrations of both towns of Hanau merged. The first common mayor, who became lord mayor (Oberbürgermeister), was Bernhard Eberhard. He became prime minister and minister of the interior of the Electorate of Hesse after the Revolution of 1848.

With its preindustrial workshops, Hanau became a nucleus of a heavy industrialisation during the 19th century from within the city (e.g., Heraeus) as well as from outside (e.g., Degussa and Dunlop). This was heavily supported by its development as an important railway interchange of six railway lines, most of them main lines:

1848 Hanau was a centre of the German democratic movement and contributed significantly both in 1830 and in the Revolution of 1848. As part of this movement the German Gymnastic League (Deutscher Turnerbund) was founded here in 1848. Like all of Hesse-Kassel, Hanau was annexed to Prussia in 1866 after its prince-elector took the Austrian side in the Austro-Prussian War. It remained part of Prussia until 1945.

In the late 19th century Hanau became a major garrison town. Due to its interchange of railway lines a large detachment of military railway-engineers as well as other military units were stationed here.