Kranichstein is a district in the German city of Darmstadt. Housing construction in the area started in the 1960s and it now also has a number of residential high-rises. The district is often referred to as Darmstadt-Kranichstein.

Kranichstein is located in the northeast of Darmstadt. It borders Darmstadt-Wixhausen in the north, Darmstadt-Ost in the southeast, Darmstadt-Nord in the southwest and Darmstadt-Arheilgen in the west.

Due to the close geographic location to Arheilgen, the prehistoric history is certainly to be regarded as the same.

On May 6, 1399, the first mention of the Einsiedel-Rod on Messeler Weg appeared, which was later named Kranich-Rod or Kranich-Rotth, after its owner Henne Cranich zu Dirmstein , derived from the German word for clearing "Rodung". Kranichstein is also the name of Jagdschloss Kranichstein. It was originally built in 1578 for Landgrave Georg I of Hesse-Darmstadt. The palace is one of the few preserved baroque hunters' courtyards in Germany. Today the facility houses a hunting museum and a hotel with restaurant. Landgrave Ernst Ludwig (1667–1739) and Louis VIII (1691–1768) also made use of the Kranichstein hunting lodge.

In May 1968, the “Neu-Kranichstein” urban development project, which was relatively large for Darmstadt, was started; the designs came from Ernst May. The design provided for a city expansion for 18,000 residents in the form of a forest satellite. Of the four planned construction phases, only the smallest was initially implemented. It is named after the nearby hunting lodge, the former summer residence of the Darmstadt landgraves and grand dukes. From the beginning, the overall planning included the construction of the Bürgerpark with artificial hills and several ponds that were created in the former clay pits, as well as Lake Brentano. Kranichstein is known for its passive houses, (Passivhaus in German) this refers to the voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, reducing its ecological footprint

Kranichstein is served by lines 4 and 5 of the Darmstadt tram network, linking the district to central Darmstadt. Bus lines H and U also run to central Darmstadt and bus line A connects Kranichstein to Arheilgen

Darmstadt-Kranichstein railway station is on the Rhine-Main Railway and has services to Darmstadt main station, Wiesbaden Hauptbahnhof and Mainz Hauptbahnhof on regional train line RB75

RB 15703, RB 15707, RB 15708, RB 15712, and STR 5 also serve the Kranichstein rail stop, with Busline A Darmstadt. Bus line H and U serve the town.

Darmstadt-Kranichstein Railway Museum is a large railway museum with some operational historical steam locomotives.

Darmstadt has 9 official 'Stadtteile' (boroughs). These are, alphabetically:

• Official website of the city of Darmstadt (German and parts in English)
• Map of the City of Darmstadt-Arheilgen, with bus and tram stops
• First Passive House Kranichstein