 The French accent had apparently been added to the name by Kekulé's father during the Napoleonic occupation of Hesse by France, to ensure that French-speaking people pronounced the third syllable.The son of a civil servant, Kekulé was born in Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse.After graduating from secondary school (the Grand Ducal Gymnasium in Darmstadt), in the fall of 1847 he entered the University of Giessen, with the intention of studying architecture.