Bad Bertrich is an ''

Ortsgemeinde A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germany, German States of Germany, federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically compose ...

'' – a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

belonging to a ''

Verbandsgemeinde A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns. Rhineland- ...

'', a kind of collective municipality – in the

Cochem-Zell Cochem-Zell (German: ''Landkreis Cochem-Zell'') is a district (''Kreis'') in the north-west of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Mayen-Koblenz, Rhein-Hunsrück, Bernkastel-Wittlich, and Vulkaneifel. History In 1816 the di ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Ulmen, whose seat is in the like-named town. The municipality is a state-owned spa (''Staatsbad'') and a health resort (''Kurort'').

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in the southern

Eifel The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

in the

Üßbach The Üßbach (also UeßbachFor its entry in the Geoexplorer the spelling ''Ueßbach'' has to be used. or Üssbach) is a stream, just under long in the Eifel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It rises near Mosbruch in the county of Vul ...

valley near the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

Constituent communities

Bad Bertrich's ''

Ortsteil A village is a clustered human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population t ...

e'' are the main centre, also called Bad Bertrich, and the outlying centre of Kennfus.

History

Even as long ago as Roman Emperors Valentinian's and

Gratian Gratian (; la, Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and wa ...

’s time, stately bathing houses were being built in ''Bertriacum''. In 1097, Bad Bertrich had its first documentary mention in an ownership document from Archbishop

Egilbert Egilbert (or Engelbert) (died 1101), called of Rothenburg, was the Archbishop of Trier from 1079 until his death. He was a partisan of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy, and was rewarded in 1100 with the dignity of ...

of Trier. In 1476, the village became an Electoral-Trier state-owned spa.

Prince Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony Prince Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony (German: ''Clemens Wenzeslaus August Hubertus Franz Xaver von Sachsen'') (28 September 1739 – 27 July 1812) was a Saxon prince from the House of Wettin and the Archbishop-Elector of Trier from 1768 until 180 ...

, the last Elector of Trier, had the little Electoral palace built here between 1785 and 1787, and used it as a summer seat and a hunting lodge. Beginning in 1794, Bad Bertrich lay under French rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

at the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

, whereupon it became a Prussian state-owned spa. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

. On 1 January 1975, the until then self-administering municipality of Kennfus was amalgamated with Bad Bertrich.

2006 FIFA World Cup

For the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

, Bad Bertrich served as the Swiss national football team’s training camp. The Swiss team stayed at the five-star ''Häcker’s Kurhotel Fürstenhof''. This was made possible by, among others, former mayor Günter Eichberg, former president of

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhi ...

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairwoman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
/ref>

Mayor

Bad Bertrich's mayor is Christian Arnold.

Coat of arms

The municipality's

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

might be blazoned thus: ''Per bend sinister, Or a double arch sable over a dais of the same, and gules an eagle rising, head bowed and wings displayed, argent.''

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in

’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: *

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

church, Kurfürstenstraße – quarrystone

aisleless church An aisleless church (german: Saalkirche) is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated fro ...

from early 20th century; whole complex with graveyard wherein a

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

cross from about 1849; warriors’ memorial, lion, 1920s; soldiers’ graveyard, 1950s. *

Saint Peter Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...

’s

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Church (''Kirche St. Peter''), Kirchstraße 27 – Romanesque quarrystone aisleless church;

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

1868/1869. * Kirchstraße 10 – Catholic rectory,

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

quarrystone building, latter half of the 19th century. * Kirchstraße 33 – Villa Sonnenschein (“Sunshine Villa”),

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

building with hipped roof, 1920s. * Kurfürstenstraße 27 –

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

, Late

Historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

building with

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

, about 1900. * At Kurfürstenstraße 34 – spa parlour with pumproom and taproom, complex of plastered buildings with nine-axis, originally open pumproom, two-floor spa parlour with

Baroque Revival The Baroque Revival, also known as Neo-Baroque (or Second Empire architecture in France and Wilhelminism in Germany), was an architectural style of the late 19th century. The term is used to describe architecture and architectural sculptu ...

mansard roof, 1927/1928. * Kurfürstenstraße 34 – former ''Kavaliershaus'' (home for staffers who owned horses), now a spa hotel, three-floor, eleven-axis building with mansard roof, 1788–1789, side oriels built higher in 1928–1929. * At Kurfürstenstraße 34 – former Electoral bathhouse (''Badeschlösschen''), seven-axis

Classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

plastered building, 1786–1787. * Kurfürstenstraße 36 – great bathhouse (now a spa treatment house), three-winged Baroque Revival complex, 1907–1909, expanded 1927. * Kurfürstenstraße 76 – three-floor building with mansard roof, Expressionist influences, 1920s. * Bismarckturm, on the Hohe Lei, southeast of the village –

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

quarrystone round tower with stone cupola, 1908. * Clemens-Wenzeslaus-Hütte, Clemens-Wenzeslaus-Höhe, south of the village – Gothic Revival quarrystone building from 1889. * Entersburg, northwest of the village – complex with lookout tower and several terraces with various wall remnants from the Nentirsburg (another

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

), which was destroyed in 1138. * Hohenzollernturm, northeast of the village – cast-iron tower with pointed top, latter half of the 19th century. * Substation tower, on the slope over the Osbach's right bank, quarrystone

Swiss chalet style Swiss chalet style (german: Schweizerstil, no, Sveitserstil) is an architectural style of Late Historicism, originally inspired by rural chalets in Switzerland and the Alpine (mountainous) regions of Central Europe. The style refers to traditi ...

building with mansard roof, early 20th century.

Kennfus

* Saint Mary's

Church (branch church; ''Filialkirche St. Maria''), Moselblickstraße 4 – Gothic Revival aisleless church, 1904; campanile 1955. * Wayside

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

, south of the village on the road to Bad Bertrich – small aisleless church, 19th century,

basalt cross The basalt cross (german: Basaltkreuz) is a particular type of stone cross found in the Eifel mountains of Germany, bearing witness to the piety of the local population in times past. These crosses indicate their beliefs as well as the wealt ...

from 1675. * Wayside chapel, south of the village on the road to Bad Bertrich – small aisleless church, 19th century, relief inside, 18th century. * Wayside chapel, on ''Landesstraße'' (State Road) 103, north of the village – aisleless church from 1889, two wooden sculptures inside, 19th century.

Events

In June and July 2007, the newly founded festival ''Eifel-Kulturtage'' (“

Cultural Days”) was held in Bad Bertrich and at

Himmerod Abbey Himmerod Abbey (Kloster Himmerod) is a Cistercian monastery in the community of Großlittgen in the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Manderscheid in the district of Bernkastel-Wittlich, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located in the Eifel, in the valley ...

. Heading the series of events, with more than 90 artists, was Rainer Laupichler.

Economy and infrastructure

Bergquelle

The Bergquelle (“Mountain

Spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

”) is an extremely stable healing spring with regard to delivery and content consistency. It is a

sodium sulphate Sodium sulfate (also known as sodium sulphate or sulfate of soda) is the inorganic compound with formula Na2SO4 as well as several related hydrates. All forms are white solids that are highly soluble in water. With an annual production of 6 milli ...

bicarbonate In inorganic chemistry, bicarbonate (IUPAC-recommended nomenclature: hydrogencarbonate) is an intermediate form in the deprotonation of carbonic acid. It is a polyatomic anion with the chemical formula . Bicarbonate serves a crucial biochemic ...

hotspring.

Notable people

Sons and daughters of the town

* Ottmar Dillenburg (b. 1961),

priest, Federal

Praeses ''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions. ...

of the ''Kolpingwerk Deutschland''

Notable people associated with the municipality

* Josef Neunzig (1904-1965), Catholic priest persecuted in the time of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

* Günter Eichberg (b. 1946), former president of

and former Mayor of Bad Bertrich

References

External links

Bad Bertrich
{{Authority control Cochem-Zell Spa towns in Germany