Baden-Baden


Baden-Baden is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres east of the Rhine, the border with France, and forty kilometres north-east of Strasbourg, France.
In 2021, the town became part of the transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name "Great Spa Towns of Europe", because of its famous spas and architecture that exemplifies the popularity of spa towns in Europe in the 18th through 20th centuries.

Name

The springs at Baden-Baden were known to the Romans as "Aquae" and "Aurelia Aquensis" after M. Aurelius Severus Alexander Augustus.
In modern German, "" is a noun meaning "bathing", but "Baden", the original name of the town, derives from an earlier plural form of . As with the English placename "Bath", other Badens are at hot springs throughout Central Europe. The current doubled name arose to distinguish it from the others, particularly Baden near Vienna in Austria and Baden near Zurich in Switzerland. The original Margraviate of Baden split into several territories, including Baden-Baden and Baden-Durlach. The name "Baden-Baden" distinguished the Margraviate of Baden-Baden, from the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach. "Baden-Baden" thus means the town of Baden in the territory of Baden, whereas the name of the Margraviate of Baden-Baden meant "the Margraviate of Baden with its princely seat at Baden". Baden-Baden formally got its current name in 1931.

Geography

Baden-Baden lies in a valley of the Northern Black Forest in southwestern Germany. The western districts lie within the Upper [Rhine Plain]. The highest mountain of Baden-Baden is the Badener Höhe, which is part of the Black Forest National Park. The old town lies on the side of a hill on the right bank of the Oos. Since the 19th century, the principal resorts have been located on the other side of the river. There are 29 natural springs in the area, varying in temperature from. The water is rich in salt and flows from artesian wells under Florentine Hill at a rate of 341 litres per minute and is conveyed through pipes to the town's baths.

History

Roman settlement at Baden-Baden has been dated as far back as the emperor Hadrian, but on dubious authority. The known ruins of the Roman bath were rediscovered just below the New Castle in 1847 and date to the reign of Caracalla, who visited the area to relieve his arthritic aches. The facilities were used by the Roman garrison in Strasbourg.
The town fell into ruin but its church was first constructed in the 7th century. By 1112, it was the seat of the Margraviate of Baden. The Lichtenthal Convent was founded in 1254. The margraves initially used Hohenbaden Castle, whose ruins still occupy the summit above the town, but they completed and moved to the New Castle in 1479. The Margraviate was divided in 1535, with Baden-Baden becoming the capital of the Margraviate of Baden-Baden, while the other portion became the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach. The Baden-Baden witch trials, an investigating encompassing the entire territory and resulting in hundreds of verdicts, took place in 1627–1631. Baden suffered severely during the Thirty Years' War, particularly at the hands of the French, who plundered it in 1643. They returned to occupy the city in 1688 at the onset of the Nine Years' War, burning it to the ground the next year. The margravine Sibylla rebuilt the New Castle in 1697, but the margrave Louis William removed his seat to Rastatt in 1706. The Stiftskirche was rebuilt in 1753 and houses the tombs of several of the margraves.
The town began its recovery in the late 18th century, serving as a refuge for French revolution|émigrés] from the French Revolution. The town was frequented during the Second Congress of Rastatt in 1797–99 and became popular after the visit of the Prussian queen in the early 19th century. She came for medicinal reasons, as the waters were recommended for gout, rheumatism, paralysis, neuralgia, skin disorders, and stones. The Ducal government subsequently subsidized the resort's development. The town became a meeting place for the nobility and prosperous upper middle classes, who visited the hot springs and the town's other amenities: luxury hotels, the Spielbank Casino, horse races, and the gardens of the Lichtentaler Allee. Guests included Queen Victoria, Wilhelm I, and Berlioz. The pumproom was completed in 1842. The Grand [Duchy of Baden State Railway|Grand Duchy's railway]'s mainline reached Baden in 1845. Reaching its zenith under Napoleon III in the 1850s and '60s, Baden became "Europe's summer capital". With a population of around, the town's size could quadruple during the tourist season, with the French, United [Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British], Russians, and Americans all well represented.
The theater was completed in 1861 and a Greek church with a gilt dome was erected on the Michaelsberg in 1863 to serve as the tomb of the teenage son of the prince of Moldavia Mihail Sturdza after he died during a family vacation. A Russian Orthodox church was also subsequently erected. The casino was closed for a time in the 1870s.
Just before the First World War, the town was receiving visitors each year.
During the Second World War, 3.1% of the houses in Baden-Baden were completely destroyed by bombs and 125 civilians were killed. 5.8% of the houses were heavily damaged by bombs. Lichtenthal, a residential area in the southwest of the town, was hit by bombs and Saint Bonifatius Church was severely damaged on 11 March 1943. Balg, a residential area in the northeast of Baden-Baden, was hit by bombs on 17 December 1944. On 30 December 1944 one third of the buildings of Oos, a residential area in the north of the town, was destroyed or heavily damaged by bombs and Saint Dionysius Church was severely damaged as well. On 2 January 1945 the railway station of Oos and various barracks on Schwarzwald Road were heavily damaged by bombs.
After World War II, Baden-Baden became the headquarters of the French occupation forces in Germany as well as of the Südwestfunk, one of Germany's large public broadcasting stations, which is now part of Südwestrundfunk. From 23–28 September 1981, the 11th Olympic Congress took place in Baden-Baden's Kurhaus. The town was later awarded the designation Olympic town. The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Germany's largest opera and concert house, opened in 1998.
CFB Baden-Soellingen, a military airfield built in the 1950s in the Upper Rhine Plain, west of downtown Baden-Baden, was converted into a civil airport in the 1990s. Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport, or Baden Airpark is now the second-largest airport in Baden-Württemberg by number of passengers.

Climate

The climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is precipitation year round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Cfb".
The Baden-Baden weather station has recorded the following extreme values:
  • Highest Temperature on 25 July 2019.
  • Lowest Temperature on 10 February 1956.
  • Wettest Year in 1965.
  • Driest Year in 1959.
  • Highest Daily Precipitation: on 28 October 1998.
  • Earliest Snowfall: 28 October 2012.
  • Latest Snowfall: 28 April 1981.

    Lord Mayors

  • 1907–1929: Reinhard Fieser
  • 1929–1934: Hermann Elfner
  • 1934–1945: Hans Schwedhelm
  • April 1945 – May 1945: Ludwig Schmitt
  • May 1945 – January 1946: Karl Beck
  • January 1946 – September 1946: Eddy Schacht
  • 1946–1969: Ernst Schlapper
  • 1969–1990: Walter Carlein
  • 1990–1998: Ulrich Wendt
  • 1998–2006: Sigrun Lang
  • 2006–2014: Wolfgang Gerstner,
  • 2014–2022: Margret Mergen,
  • 2022–present: Dietmar Späth

    Tourism

Baden-Baden is a German spa town. The city offers many options for sports enthusiasts; golf and tennis are both popular in the area. Horse races take place each May, August and October at nearby Iffezheim. The countryside is ideal for hiking and mountain climbing. In the winter Baden-Baden is a skiing destination. There is an 18-hole golf course in Fremersberg.
Sights include:

Road

The main road link is autobahn A5 between Basel and Frankfurt via Freiburg, Karlsruhe and Mannheim, which is 10 km away from the inner city.
There are two stations providing intercity bus services: one next to the main railway station and one at the airport.

Railway

Baden-Baden has three stations, Baden-Baden station being the most important of them.

Air

is an airport located near Baden-Baden that also serves the city of Karlsruhe. It is Baden-Württemberg's second-largest airport after Stuttgart Airport, and the 18th-largest in Germany with 1,110,500 passengers as of 2016 and mostly serves low-cost and leisure flights.

Image gallery

Twin towns – sister cities

Baden-Baden is twinned with:
Baden featured in Turgenev's Smoke. Dostoyevsky wrote The Gambler while compulsively gambling at the town's casino.
The novel Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin is inspired by Dostoyevsky's visit to this resort.
The 1975 film The Romantic Englishwoman was filmed on location in Baden-Baden, featuring the Brenner's Park Hotel particularly prominently. The 1997 Bollywood movie Dil To Pagal Hai was also shot in the town.
Baden-Baden is the subject of a pop song by Finnish songwriter Chisu of how the economic woes of Finland could be solved by selling bottled tears to Europe.

Notable people

Public service and commerce