Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim | |
---|---|
Location of Bad Dürkheim within Bad Dürkheim district | |
Coordinates: 49°27′34″N 08°10′05″E / 49.45944°N 8.16806°E | |
Country | Germany |
State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
District | Bad Dürkheim |
Government | |
• Mayor (2015–23) | Christoph Glogger[1] (SPD) |
Area | |
• Total | 102.67 km2 (39.64 sq mi) |
Elevation | 132 m (433 ft) |
Population (2021-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 18,576 |
• Density | 180/km2 (470/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
Postal codes | 67098 |
Dialling codes | 06322 |
Vehicle registration | DÜW |
Website | www.bad-duerkheim.de |
Bad Dürkheim (German pronunciation: [ˌbaːt ˈdʏʁkhaɪm])[3] is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration. It is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and the site of the discovery of the element caesium, in 1860.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Wine Route some 30 km east of Kaiserslautern and just under 20 km west of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Roughly 15 km to the south lies Neustadt an der Weinstraße. In Bad Dürkheim, Bundesstraßen 37 and 271 cross each other. From west to east through the town flows the river Isenach.
Constituent communities
Bad Dürkheim's
Climate
Bad Dürkheim has a
History
Between 1200 and 500 BC, the area around the eastern end of the Isenach valley was settled by Celts, who also built the Heidenmauer ("Heathen Wall"), a Celtic ring wall.
The earliest documented appearance of the name of the town is in the
Town rights were granted on 1 January 1360, but were withdrawn again in 1471 after Elector
In 1689, the town was almost completely destroyed when
In the late 18th century, as the
In 1860, Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff discovered the metallic element caesium in the mineral water from the Durkheim springs.
For its seven
.In 1935, Grethen, Hausen and Seebach were amalgamated.
After 1933 the number of Jews in Bad Dürkheim reduced drastically, due to the economic boycott, constantly increasing repression and dehumanization (1933: 184, 1937: 98, 1938: 40). During the
On 18 March 1945, Bad Dürkheim was badly hit by an Allied air raid in which more than 300 people died.
In Rhineland-Palatinate's administrative reform, Hardenburg and Leistadt were amalgamated with Bad Dürkheim on 7 June 1969, as was Ungstein along with its outlying hamlet of Pfeffingen on 22 April 1972. Moreover, the town, having belonged to the old district of Neustadt an der Weinstraße, became the district seat of the newly formed district of Bad Dürkheim and also lay in the likewise newly formed Regierungsbezirk of Rheinhessen-Pfalz, which was later abolished in 2000.[citation needed]
In September 2023, 73.7 percent voted against renaming street names whose namesakes had a close connection and ideological proximity to National Socialism.[5]
Demographics
Religion
In 2007, 52.8% of the inhabitants were
Politics
Town council
The council is made up of 32 honorary members, who were most recently elected at the municipal election held on 25 May 2014, and the full-time mayor as chairman.
The municipal election held on 25 May 2014 yielded the following results:[7]
SPD | CDU | FDP | Greens |
The Left | REP | FWG | Total | |
2014 | 9 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 1 | – | 3 | 32 seats |
2009 | 9 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 32 seats |
2004 | 9 | 14 | 2 | 2 | – | 2 | 3 | 32 seats |
On the town council, the
Mayor
Wolfgang Lutz (CDU) was the Mayor of Bad Dürkheim from 2000 to 2015; he was re-elected on 6 May 2007 for a further eight years with 75.3% of the vote. His successor is Christoph Glogger (SPD), who was elected in July 2015 with 52.83% of the votes.
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In Silber ein schwarzer Maueranker (Türangel). This might be rendered in English as: Argent, a wall brace (hinge) sable.
The arms go back to a court seal from 1405, which itself was a reference to the arms borne by the Lords of Dürkheim.[8]
Between 1540 and 1776, the arms featured a cross and a crozier above the escutcheon, indicating Limburg Abbey's ownership of the town.[9]
Town partnerships
- Paray-le-Monial, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France
- Wells, Somerset, England, United Kingdom
- Kluczbork, Opole Voivodeship, Poland
- Kempten im Allgäu, Bavaria
- Bad Berka, Thuringia (sponsorship)
- Michelstadt, Hesse (town friendship)
- Emmaus, Pennsylvania, USA (town friendship)
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
Limburg Abbey and Hardenburg
At the edge of the
Above the like-named constituent community are spread the
Hunting lodges
In the town’s woodlands, nobles built the hunting lodges (Jagdschlösser)
Churches
The Protestant Castle Church (Schlosskirche) – formerly Saint John's Church (Kirche St. Johannis) – was built in the late 13th century. Its tower, with a height of 70 m, is the Further (or “Anterior”, that is, East) Palatinate's third tallest churchtower.
The Castle Church (Burgkirche) was built in the 18th century, destroyed in 1945 and thereafter built once again. Today it serves as a Protestant community centre. In its tower hangs a 317 kg
Ancient sites
The Heidenmauer (“Heathen Wall”) is the remnants of a great Celtic settlement with a 2.5 km-long ringwall, which was built about 500 BC.
The Roman quarry, Kriemhildenstuhl, was in use in the 4th century.
Modern sites
On the western edge of the Wurstmarkt grounds stands the
The Kurhaus (“spa house”) holds not only catering rooms and lounges but also the Dürkheim casino.
The graduation tower, known locally as Saline, is part of Bad Dürkheim's spa facilities. With a length of some 330 m, it is one of the biggest of its kind in Germany. In the wake of a fire on 7 April 2007, in which great parts of the facility were destroyed, the outdoor inhalatorium has reopened as of June 2011. The opportunity is also being taken to modify the spa park.
Natural monuments
The foremost outing and hiking destinations in the Palatinate Forest are the Isenachweiher (a small reservoir) and the Drachenfels (despite its name, a hill), but especially, near the ruins of the Weilach estate, the Teufelsstein ("Devil’s Rock" – another hill) and the Heidenfels ("Heathen Crag"), as well as the Kupferfelsen ("Copper Crags") near the former forester's house Lindemannsruhe.
Regular events
Wurstmarkt
Above all, Bad Dürkheim is well known for the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt, whose name literally means “sausage market”, although it is in fact the world's biggest wine festival, drawing more than 600,000 visitors each year.
Literature prize
The town of Bad Dürkheim awards the Limburg-Preis for literature, named after the Abbey, every three years.
Giant roulette
Every year in August, the Riesenroulette – “Giant Roulette Wheel” – is set up in the spa park as part of the Kurparkgala. It is the world's biggest roulette wheel and uses a ball the size of a
Stadtgeläute
The “Town Bellringing” is heard once a year at 17:00 on the first Saturday in Advent, and is performed by ringers at the town's three churches, the Burgkirche, the Schlosskirche and the Ludwigskirche.
Economy and infrastructure
Bad Dürkheim's main industry is
Transport
Bad Dürkheim is linked to the long-distance road network by Bundesstraßen 37 (Kaiserslautern–Mosbach) and 271 (Neustadt–Monsheim). The four-lane Autobahn A 650 has still not been built quite as far as Bad Dürkheim.
The Rhein-Haardtbahn (a
Until 1981, there was also a gondola lift that whisked riders from the Wurstmarkt grounds to the Teufelsstein (“Devil’s Stone” – a mountain). Since 2005, the town has been preparing its reintroduction.[Is it likely to be reintroduced soon?]
To Bad Dürkheim's north-east lies a recreational airfield, the Flugplatz Bad Dürkheim.
Media
Local print media are the daily newspaper Die Rheinpfalz (with a local section for the Bad Dürkheim region) and the weekly Stadtanzeiger.
On cable television, the public-access channel Offener Kanal Neustadt und Weinstraße can be received.
Education
Primary schools
- Salierschule
- Pestalozzischule
- Grundschule Grethen
Combined primary school and Hauptschule
- Valentin-Ostertag-Schule
Realschule
- Realschule(roughly 1,000 students)
Gymnasium
- Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium (roughly 1,250 students)
Professional training schools
- BBS (Berufsbildende Schule) Bad Dürkheim
Special schools
- Siegmund-Crämer-Schule
- Limburgschule (roughly 130 students)
Telecommunications
Transmission tower
The transmission tower, a 130 m-tall steel-reinforced concrete mast, stands on the Weilerskopf and is used by Deutsche Telekom. This standard tower, or Typenturm, was built in 1969. Position: 49°29′26″N 8°7′31″E / 49.49056°N 8.12528°E.
Microwave transmission tower
The Richtfunkturm, a 72 m-tall steel-reinforced concrete mast, was formerly used by the military. The operational buildings stood in the outlying centre of Hardenburg. Today the tower is used for
Public institutions
Bad Dürkheim, as the district seat, hosts the like-named district's administration. It has at its disposal an Amtsgericht that belongs to the Landgerichtsbezirk of Frankenthal and to the Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk of Zweibrücken.
On 23 November 2008, the Palatinate's first Protestant urn graveyard was consecrated in Bad Dürkheim's outlying centre of Seebach. It is found right at the monastery church. The burials there are exclusively cinerary urns made of disintegrating unfired earth. Charged with the artistic design was the Landau sculptor Madeleine Dietz.[10]
Notable people
- Carl Friedrich Wilhelm(1724–1807), first Prince of Leiningen
- Emich Carl zu Leiningen (1763−1814), second Prince of Leiningen
- Philipp Fauth(1867–1941), schoolteacher and astronomer
- Heiner Dopp (b. 1956), national-level field hockey player
- Ralf Stegner (b. 1959), politician (SPD), Member of Schleswig-Holstein parliament since 2005
- Torsten Lieberknecht (b. 1973), footballer
- Steffen Bohl (b. 1983), footballer
- Christian Henel (b. 1988), footballer
- Tobias Sippel (b. 1988), footballer
- Jean Zimmer (b. 1993), footballer
Notable people associated with the town
- Viktor Brack (1904−1948), executed Holocaust perpetrator, attended the Realschule in Bad Dürkheim.
- .
- Paul Camille von Denis (1796−1872) died in Bad Dürkheim.
- Rudolf Virchow (1821−1902), medic, visited the Dürkheim Brine Bath.
References
- ^ Wahlen der Bürgermeister der verbandsfreien Gemeinden, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 30 July 2021.
- Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz. 2022.
- ISBN 978-3411911516.
- ^ "History of Bad Dürkheim".
- ^ "Bürgerentscheid für Beibehaltung der Straßennamen". Bad Dürkheim (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ KommWis, Stand: 31. Dezember 2007 Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2014, Stadt- und Gemeinderatswahlen
- ISBN 3-9801574-2-3
- ^ Description and explanation of Bad Dürkheim’s arms
- ^ Die Rheinpfalz, Nr. 274, 24. November 2008
Further reading and film
- Walter Dautermann: Bad Dürkheim: Chronik einer Salierstadt. Landau 1978
- SWR (Inhaltsangabe Archived 2012-04-03 at the Wayback Machine): Die Toskana der Pfalz. Rund um Bad Dürkheim. Reisedokumentation, 2008, 28 min., Erstausstrahlung 15. Juli 2008
External links
- Town’s official webpage (in German)
- Town history (in German)
- Constituent community of Ungstein (in German)
- Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. .