Bad Wilsnack (until 1929 Wilsnack) is a small town in the

Prignitz Prignitz () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the northwestern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring are (from the north clockwise) the district Ludwigslust-Parchim in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the district Ostprignitz-Ruppin in Brandenburg, th ...

district, in

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

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 ...

. The former

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

site of the

Holy Blood of Wilsnack The Holy Blood of Wilsnack was the name given to three hosts, which survived a fire in 1383 that burned the church and village to the ground. The hosts were thus seen as miraculous. The relics became the destination of medieval religious pilgrim ...

has been officially recognised as a

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. H ...

(''Bad'') since 1929. It is the administrative seat of the ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' ("collective municipality")

Bad Wilsnack/Weisen Amt Bad Wilsnack/Weisen is an ''Amt'' ("collective municipality") in the district of Prignitz, in Brandenburg, Germany. Its seat is in Bad Wilsnack. The ''Amt'' Bad Wilsnack/Weisen consists of the following municipalities: #Bad Wilsnack # Breese # ...

Geography

The town is situated within the Prignitz historical region in the northwest of Brandenburg, roughly halfway between

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. It is located on the

Karthane Karthane is a river of Brandenburg, Germany. It flows into the Stepenitz in Wittenberge. See also *List of rivers of Brandenburg A list of rivers of Brandenburg, Germany: A * Alte Oder * Alte Schlaube B * Bäke * Berste * Black Elster * B ...

river, which flows into the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

at nearby

Wittenberge Wittenberge () is a town of eighteen thousand people on the middle Elbe in the district of Prignitz, Brandenburg, Germany. Geography Wittenberge is situated at the right (north-eastern) bank of the middle Elbe at its confluence with the Stepen ...

. A few kilometers to the south is the confluence of the

Havel The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe and long. However, the direct distance from its source to its mo ...

and Elbe rivers. The neighbouring municipality of

Rühstädt Rühstädt is a municipality in the Prignitz district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located close the confluence of the rivers Havel and Elbe. Rühstädt is famous for its high number of resident white stork The white stork (''Ciconia ciconia ...

is famous for its high number of resident

white stork The white stork (''Ciconia ciconia'') is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to en ...

s. Bad Wilsnack station is a stop on the

Berlin–Hamburg Railway The Berlin–Hamburg Railway (german: Berlin-Hamburger Bahn) is a roughly long railway line for passenger, long-distance and goods trains. It was the first high-speed line upgraded in Germany to be capable of handling train speeds of over ...

. The townscape is marked by the large St Nicholas Church of the Holy Blood and several

timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

houses.

History

Wilsnack in the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg (german: link=no, Markgrafschaft Brandenburg) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. Brandenburg developed out o ...

was first mentioned in 1384. The town became a pilgrimage destination after being burned down on 15 August 1383 during a raid by the

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...

captain and robber baron Heinrich von Bülow against the

Bishopric of Havelberg The Bishopric of Havelberg (german: Bistum Havelberg) was a Roman Catholic diocese founded by King Otto I of Germany in 946, from 968 a suffragan to the Archbishops of Magedeburg. A Prince-bishopric (''Hochstift'') from 1151, Havelberg as a res ...

. It was believed that aft the fire some

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places *Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman *Michel Host ( ...

were found to have survived, but had the appearance of being bloodied. The

was authenticated when the Havelberg bishop

Dietrich Man Dietrich Man, known as Dietrich II, was Bishop of Havelberg from 1370 to 1385. Biography The Man family, though not noble, were prominent in the Prignitz, which lay within the Diocese of Havelberg, and closely connected with the local nobility. D ...

went to consecrate the hosts as a precaution, and the central one overflowed with blood, according to later accounts. Reformers like

Jan Hus Jan Hus (; ; 1370 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the inspir ...

and

Nicholas of Cusa Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renai ...

later discouraged pilgrimage to Wilsnack, questioning the nature of these wonder hosts and suspecting fraud. The pilgrimage led from St. Mary's Church in Berlin to Wilsnack. Numerous pilgrims, among them Elector

Frederick II of Brandenburg Frederick II of Brandenburg () (19 November 1413 – 10 February 1471), nicknamed "the Iron" (''der Eiserne'') and sometimes "Irontooth" (''Eisenzahn''), was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1440 until his abdication in 14 ...

went to the rebuilt town to see the miraculous hosts; their revenues enabled the citizens to construct the large St Nicholas Church for their worship, a larger building than otherwise needed in the parish. The pilgrims who went to Wilsnack bought pewter trinkets to indicate that they had reached the site. These emblems were often in the form of three hosts connected together. Seen in numerous medieval paintings, the tokens have turned up in

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

digs from the area. The numbers of pilgrims were said to rival those to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St ...

in Spain. Despite controversy, the pilgrimages continued until 1552, when the hosts were destroyed during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. The story of the bleeding hosts was depicted in a series of woodcuts made during the Middle Ages. The town used the image on emergency money which it printed and issued during the

hyperinflation In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as t ...

crisis of the 1920s (''Notgeld'').

Demography

Local council

Elections were held in 2014: *6 seats: FDP *5 seats: CDU *2 seats: SPD *1 seat: Unabhängige Wählergemeinschaft Grube Ergebnis der Kommunalwahl am 25. Mai 2014
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Sons and daughters of the town

* Wilhelm Harnisch (1787-1864), theologian and educator * Otto Reincke (1830-1906), jurist, (Reichsgerichtsrat) * Christoph Lütgert (born 1945), journalist and author

Individuals connected to the city

* Karl Saur (c.1901 -1978), engineer and former mayor of Bad Wilsnack * Hugo Spieler (1854-1922), sculptor

References

External links

Chronology and genealogy of Wilsnack
{{Authority control Localities in Prignitz Catholic pilgrimage sites Spa towns in Germany