Bad Nauheim

Bad Nauheim is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany.

This article is about the spa town in the Wetteraukreis. For the community in Groß-Gerau district, see Nauheim.
Bad Nauheim
Aerial view
Coat of arms
Location of Bad Nauheim within Wetteraukreis district
FriedbergReichelsheimReichelsheimNiddaAltenstadtOrtenberg
Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim
Coordinates: 50°22′N 8°45′E
CountryGermany
StateHesse
Admin. regionDarmstadt
DistrictWetteraukreis
Subdivisions6 districts
Government
 • MayorKlaus Kreß (Ind.)
Area
 • Total32.55 km2 (12.57 sq mi)
Elevation
148 m (486 ft)
Population
 (2019-12-31)[1]
 • Total32,447
 • Density1,000/km2 (2,600/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
61231
Dialling codes06032
Vehicle registrationFB
Websitewww.bad-nauheim.de

Generalities

As of 2012, Bad Nauheim has a population of 30,788. The town is approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a world-famous resort, noted for its salt springs, which are used to treat heart and nerve diseases. A Nauheim or "effervescent" bath, named after Bad Nauheim,[2] is a type of spa bath through which carbon dioxide is bubbled.[2][3] This bath was one of several types of hydrotherapy used at Battle Creek Sanitarium[4] and it was also used at Maurice bathhouse, in Bathhouse Row in the early 1900s, during the heyday of hydrotherapy.[5] The Konitzky Foundation, a charitable foundation and hospital for those without means, was founded in 1896 and its building occupies a central place next to the Kurpark.

History

On September 29, 1945 General Dwight D. Eisenhower reassigned General Patton from his beloved 3rd Army, the army he successfully led from the Battle of Normandy, to Czechoslovakia as Eisenhower could no longer keep General Patton in position as the Military Governor of Bavaria. General Patton was assigned to command the Fifteenth Army, actually a group of historians given status as an Army, with its headquarters in Bad Nauheim. On December 9, 1945, General Patton left Bad Nauheim for a hunting trip near Mannheim; he died after a car crash during the trip.

The Grand Hotel in Bad Nauheim was also the location of the Gestapo-led internment of around 115 Americans who were working in the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, December 1941. The group would leave Bad Nauheim on May 12, 1942.[6]

In addition, during World War II Adolf Hitler had a command complex in nearby Langenhain-Ziegenberg called Adlerhorst, "the Eagle's Nest" (not to be confused with Kehlsteinhaus of Obersalzberg, which was never referred to as "the Eagle's Nest" by the Nazis).

Bad Nauheim was used as a residential area for American occupation forces after World War II. Despite its proximity to Frankfurt am Main and Hitler's command complex, Bad Nauheim was totally spared from Allied bombing. American occupants from that time were told that President Roosevelt had loved the town so much from his days there that he ordered it spared.

The novel The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (published 1915) is set in part at Bad Nauheim.

Mayors
  • 1945–1948: Adolf Bräutigam (SPD)
  • 1948–1954: Krafft-Helmut Voss (independent)[7]
  • 1954–1960: Fritz Geißler (FDP)
  • 1960–1981: Herbert Schäfer (SPD)
  • 1981–1993: Bernd Rohde (CDU)
  • 1993–1999: Peter Keller (SPD)
  • 2000–2005: Bernd Rohde (CDU)
  • 2005–2011: Bernd Witzel (UWG)
  • 2011-2017: Armin Häuser (CDU)
  • since September 2017: Klaus Kreß (independent)

Elvis Presley and others
Goethestrasse 14, the home of Elvis Presley in Bad Nauheim

In the old town center of Friedberg, town next to Bad Nauheim, is the barn at the gate to the castle. The gate, the 'Burgpforte', was used by Elvis Presley as the motif of a record cover for his 1959 #1 hit record 'A Big Hunk o' Love'. Presley lived in Bad Nauheim itself during his time with the United States Army in Friedberg. There is an annual Elvis festival in the city, starting in 2002.[8]

Other famous people who have stayed in the town include Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata – founder of Tata Group of Companies (he died in Bad Nauheim on 19 May 1904 aged 65), the Irish novelist and man of letters Patrick Augustine Sheehan holidayed at the Hotel Augusta Victoria in Bad Nauheim 6–23 September 1904,[9] Franklin Delano Roosevelt (as a boy, FDR had been taken for several extended visits to Bad Nauheim where his father underwent the water cure for his heart condition), the Saudi Arabian football team during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, General George S. Patton, who celebrated his sixtieth birthday in the grand ballroom of the Grand Hotel and Albert Kesselring, Nazi General who died there in 1960.

Sons and daughters of the town

The Holocaust

Before the Holocaust there was an on-and-off Jewish presence in Bad Nauheim since around 1303. Before the Holocaust nearly 400 Jews lived in the town, making up nearly 3% of the population. On Kristallnacht the schoolhouse was desecrated and ransacked as well as Jewish stores, businesses and the synagogue. Many Jews were taken that night to concentration camps. Some were let out. Of those let out many were rearrested. By the end of the Holocaust there were just three Jews remaining in Bad Nauheim. For the most part those who were not murdered had left the country.[10]

The Sprudelhof

This complex is recognized as the largest center of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil in German) in Germany.

  • A wing of the Sprudelhof
  • The Art nouveau Spa house
  • The Sprudelhof courtyard
  • The Sprudelhof
  • Fountain in the Sprudelhof
  • Fountain Modern style sculptures
  • Typical "Jugenstil" decoration

Education
  • Freie Waldorfschule Wetterau
  • Ernst-Ludwig-Schule (Gymnasium)
  • St. Lioba Gymnasium (Gymnasium)
  • Stadtschule an der Wilhelmskirche (Grund- und Hauptschule)
  • Stadtschule Am Solgraben (Haupt- und Realschule)

Twin towns – sister cities
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Bad Nauheim is twinned with:[11]

See also

References
  1. "Bevölkerungsstand am 31.12.2019". Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt (in German). July 2020.
  2. Glanze, W.D.; Anderson, K.N.; Anderson, L.E., eds. (1990). Mosby's Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary (3rd ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: The C.V. Mosby Co. ISBN 0-8016-3227-7. p.797
  3. Kellogg, J.H., M.D., Superintendent (1908). The Battle Creek Sanitarium System. History, Organisation, Methods. Michigan: Battle Creek. pp. 79, 81, 83, 170, 175, 187. Retrieved 2009-10-30. Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
  4. Kellogg, J.H. (1908) pp.79,81,83,170,175,187
  5. Bathhouse Row Adaptive Use Program / The Maurice Bathhouse: Technical Report 4. National Park Service. June 1985.
  6. "The American Internee Experience in Nazi Germany". Archived from the original on 30 April 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  7. Krafft-Helmut Voss, in: Johannes Hürter (Red.):Biographisches Handbuch des deutschen Auswärtigen Dienstes 1871–1945. 5. T–Z, Nachträge. Herausgegeben vom Auswärtigen Amt, Historischer Dienst. Band 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0, S. 146
  8. "Elvis Festival celebrates 14th year in Bad Nauheim, Germany". Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  9. His arrival was gazetted in the Koelnische Volkszeitung 6 September 1904
  10. "Bad Nauheim". Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  11. "Die Bad Nauheimer Städtepartnerschaften". bad-nauheim.de (in German). Bad Nauheim. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
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