Bad Vilbel

Bad Vilbel () is a spa town in Hesse (Hessen), Germany, famous for its many mineral water springs. Bad Vilbel is the largest town in the Wetteraukreis district and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area with its city center being located 8 km northeast of downtown Frankfurt am Main at the banks of the river Nidda.

History

Bad Vilbel was founded in 774 (first written document) but much older artefacts were found in the area. In 1848 during railway works, a Roman villa was unearthed with a
Thermae and a Mosaic. A replica of this mosaic is presented in a modern exhibition in the spa gardens.

20th Century

The town Vilbel got the label "Bad" (spa) in 1948 for its numerous mineral springs. The health spa operations stopped in the 1960s but the mineral water industry connected more springs of the Wetterau by pipelines to the bottling plant of ''Hassia'' in Bad Vilbel.
The hessian government reform formed 1971/72 Bad Vilbel (with Heilsberg), Dortelweil, Gronau and Massenheim to the new city Bad Vilbel. Since 1997 great areas have been developed for living and business, like the residential area of Dortelweil-West or the commercial park ''Quellenpark'' between Bad Vilbel, Massenheim and Dortelweil.

File:Vilbel März 07 018.jpg, fountain near the old town-hall
File:Altes Rathaus Bad Vilbel.jpg, old town-hall
File:Bad Vilbel Alte Mühle Viaam.jpg, Cultural center, old mill
File:Vilbeltrinkbrunnen.JPG, Friedrich-Karl-Sprudel
File:Hassia-Quelle Bad Vilbel 877-Ld.jpg, Hassia mineral spring
File:Roemisches Mosaik Bad Vilbel01.jpg, exhibition of Roman mosaic
File:Dortelweil, Brunnen und Brunnen-Center.JPG , shopping & business center in Dortelweil

Mayor

The Current Mayor is Sebastian Wysocki(born 1985) of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). He was elected in March 2022.

Transport

''Bad Vilbel'' has four railway stations (Bad Vilbel, Bad Vilbel Süd and Dortelweil on the Main–Weser Railway and Gronau on the Vilbel–Glauburg-Stockheim railway) served by Frankfurt's local transport network (S-Bahn line S 6 and RE Line 34). It has access to the A661 autobahn and the highway B3.

Furthermore, Bad Vilbel has several local bus lines called ''Vilbus'' connecting the city center to the neighborhoods. Additional connections to Frankfurt am Main with the bus line ''30'' and with Offenbach am Main with the ''fast bus'' line ''X97''.

Twin towns – sister cities

Bad Vilbel is twinned with:
* Brotterode-Trusetal, Germany (1990)
* Eldoret, Kenya (1982)
* Glossop, England, United Kingdom (1987)
* Moulins, France (1990)

See also

* Bad Vilbel station
* English electronic music duo Autechre released a song entitled Second Bad Vilbel on their EP Anvil Vapre. The title derives from the town's twinning with Glossop, an area the group would have passed en route to Sheffield, from their homes in Rochdale.
* Asteroid '' (340980) Bad Vilbel'' discovered 2007 by Uwe Süßenberger .

Notable people

Born in Bad Vilbel

* Wilhelm von Finck (1848–1924), banker and co-founder of the Alliance Insurance
* Friedel Lutz (born 1939), former national soccer player
* Thomas Stöhr (born 1966), jurist and major of Bad Vilbel since 2003

Linked to Bad Vilbel

* Friedrich Carl Michael Grosholz (1810–1888), co-founder of Bad Vilbel bottled water industry
* Bernhard Rechthien (1876–1941), mayor of Bad Vilbel 1919–1928
* Klaus Havenstein (1922–1998), actor and television presenter, from 1990 to 1992 director of the Castle Festival Bad Vilbel
* Jürgen Sparwasser (born 1948), is a retired German football player and later briefly a football manager living in Bad Vilbel. He gained fame as East Germany football player at the 1974 FIFA World Cup finals, where he scored the winning goal in a politically prestigious match against West Germany

References

External links

Official site

{{Authority control

Spa towns in Germany
Wetteraukreis