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Bad Nauheim

Coordinates: 50°22′N 8°45′E / 50.367°N 8.750°E / 50.367; 8.750
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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
ButzbachMünzenbergRockenbergOber-MörlenBad NauheimFriedbergRosbach vor der HöheWöllstadtKarbenBad VilbelWölfersheimReichelsheimNiddatalFlorstadtEchzellReichelsheimNiddaHirzenhainGedernRanstadtGlauburgAltenstadtLimeshainOrtenbergKefenrodBüdingenLahn-Dill-KreisGießen (district)VogelsbergkreisHochtaunuskreisFrankfurtMain-Kinzig-Kreis
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 / 50.367°N 8.750°E / 50.367; 8.750
CountryGermany
StateHesse
Admin. regionDarmstadt
DistrictWetteraukreis
Founded900
Subdivisions6 districts
Government
 • Mayor (2023–29) Klaus Kreß[1] (Ind.)
Area
 • Total
32.55 km2 (12.57 sq mi)
Elevation
148 m (486 ft)
Population
 (2022-12-31)[2]
 • Total
33,445
 • 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

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

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 the Battle Creek Sanitarium[5] and it was also used at the 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 economic means, was founded in 1896 and its building occupies a central place next to the Kurpark.

History

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Before the Holocaust, there had been an on-and-off Jewish presence in Bad Nauheim since around 1303. At that time, 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]

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 as well as American journalists in Berlin in December 1941. During their five month internment at the Grand Hotel they published the Bad Nauheim Pudding, a locally created newspaper, until it was censored by the Germans. They also formed what they called Badheim University, which allowed the internees education in areas such as languages, phonetics, bible study, and travelogs. The group would leave Bad Nauheim on 12 May 1942 after their five month internment in Jeschke's Grand Hotel. [8] [9]

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 29 March 1945 Bad Nauheim was occupied by troops from the US Third Army. It was occupied by troops of the Fifteenth United States Army, which was a small group tasked with gathering historical information of Allied operations and documenting tactical methods of war from the Allied troops. 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 serving 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.[10]

Other famous people who have stayed in the town include Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata Group conglomerate company (he died in Bad Nauheim on 19 May 1904 at the age of 82),[citation needed] Irish novelist and Catholic priest Patrick Sheehan (who holidayed at the Hotel Augusta Victoria in Bad Nauheim from 6–23 September 1904),[11] Franklin D. Roosevelt (as a boy, FDR had been taken for several extended visits to Bad Nauheim where his father underwent a water cure for his heart condition), the Saudi Arabian football team during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, George S. Patton (who celebrated his sixtieth birthday in the grand ballroom of the Grand Hotel), and Albert Kesselring, a Nazi general who died there in 1960.

Churches

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

Education

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  • 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

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  • 1945–1948: Adolf Bräutigam (SPD)
  • 1948–1954: Krafft-Helmut Voss (independent)[12]
  • 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)
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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

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

Bad Nauheim is twinned with:[13]

The Sprudelhof

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

Notable residents

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Ergebnisse der jeweils letzten Direktwahl von Landrätinnen und Landräte sowie (Ober-)Bürgermeisterinnen und (Ober-)Bürgermeister in Hessen" (XLS) (in German). Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt. 21 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Bevölkerung in Hessen am 31.12.2022 nach Gemeinden" (XLS) (in German). Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt. June 2023.
  3. ^ a b 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. (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)
  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. ^ Burdick, Charles Burton. An American Island in Hitler's Reich: The Bad Nauheim Internment. Menlo Park, CA, Markgraft Publication Group, 1987.
  10. ^ "Elvis Festival celebrates 14th year in Bad Nauheim, Germany". 2 July 2015. Archived from the original on 16 August 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  11. ^ His arrival was gazetted in the Koelnische Volkszeitung 6 September 1904
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ "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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