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
Town
Aerial view
Aerial view
Coat of arms of Bad Nauheim
Coat of arms
Location of Bad Nauheim within Wetteraukreis district
Bad Nauheim is located in Germany
Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim is located in Hesse
Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim
Coordinates: 50°22′N 8°45′E
CountryGermany
StateHesse
Admin. regionDarmstadt
DistrictWetteraukreis
Founded900
Subdivisions6 districts
Government
 • Mayor (2017–23) Klaus Kreß[1] (Ind.)
Area
 • Total32.55 km2 (12.57 sq mi)
Elevation
148 m (486 ft)
Population
 (2022-12-31)[2]
 • Total33,445
 • Density1,000/km2 (2,700/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
61231
Dialling codes06032
Vehicle registrationFB
Websitewww.bad-nauheim.de

As of 2020, Bad Nauheim has a population of 32,493. 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,[3] is a type of spa bath through which carbon dioxide is bubbled.[3][4] This bath was one of several types of hydrotherapy used at Battle Creek Sanitarium[5] and it was also used at Maurice bathhouse, in Bathhouse Row in the early 1900s, during the heyday of hydrotherapy.[6] 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

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.[7]

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.[8]

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).

On March 29, 1945, Bad Nauheim was occupied by troops from the Third Army. It 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.

Elvis Presley at Ray Barracks, 1958
Main article: Military career of Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley lived in Bad Nauheim from 1958 to 1960 while in the U.S. Army. At the time, he was assigned to the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32d Armor, 3d Armored Division, at Ray Barracks near Friedberg. Since 2002, Bad Nauheim has hosted an annual Elvis festival.[9]

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 82), the Irish novelist and man of letters Patrick Sheehan holidayed at the Hotel Augusta Victoria in Bad Nauheim 6–23 September 1904,[10] Franklin D. 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.

Churches
  • Dankeskirche, Protestant church near the spa facilities, completed in 1906

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)

Mayors
  • 1945–1948: Adolf Bräutigam (SPD)
  • 1948–1954: Krafft-Helmut Voss (independent)[11]
  • 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)

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

The internment of American journalists at the Grand Hotel in 1942 is depicted in a section of the novel The War Begins in Paris (published in 2023).

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

Bad Nauheim is twinned with:[12]

The Sprudelhof

The Sprudelhof is recognized as the largest center of Jugendstil within Germany.

Notable residents

See also

References
  1. "Ergebnisse der letzten Direktwahl aller hessischen Landkreise und Gemeinden" (XLS) (in German). Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt. 5 September 2022. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  2. "Bevölkerung in Hessen am 31.12.2022 nach Gemeinden" (XLS) (in German). Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt. June 2023.
  3. 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
  4. 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org)
  5. Kellogg, J.H. (1908) pp.79,81,83,170,175,187
  6. Bathhouse Row Adaptive Use Program / The Maurice Bathhouse: Technical Report 4. National Park Service. June 1985.
  7. "Bad Nauheim". Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  8. "The American Internee Experience in Nazi Germany". Archived from the original on 30 April 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  9. "Elvis Festival celebrates 14th year in Bad Nauheim, Germany". 2 July 2015. Archived from the original on 16 August 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  10. His arrival was gazetted in the Koelnische Volkszeitung 6 September 1904
  11. 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
  12. "Die Bad Nauheimer Städtepartnerschaften". bad-nauheim.de (in German). Bad Nauheim. Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
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