Bad Zwesten is a municipality in the

Schwalm-Eder Schwalm-Eder is an electoral constituency (German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 170. It is locate ...

district of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

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 ...

Geography

Location

Bad Zwesten lies about 8 km southeast of

Bad Wildungen Bad Wildungen is a state-run spa and a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Geography Location Bad Wildungen lies in the eastern foothills of the Kellerwald range in the so ...

on the river Schwalm, which belongs to the Eder watershed. North of the community begins the

Kellerwald The Kellerwald is a low mountain range reaching heights of up to 675 m in the western part of northern Hesse, Germany. Its assets include Germany's largest contiguous beech woodland and it contains Hesse's only national park, the Kellerwald-Ederse ...

-Edersee Nature Park.

Constituent communities

* Betzigerode * Niederurff * Oberurff-Schiffelborn * Wenzigerode * Zwesten (administrative seat)

History

Zwesten had its first documentary mention about the year 800. In 1913 came the discovery of a

mineral spring Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produces hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage underg ...

, which in 1960 was officially declared a recognized ''Heilquelle'' (≈health spring). Within the framework of municipal reform in Hesse, the formerly independent communities of Betzigerode, Niederurff, Oberurff-Schiffelborn, Wenzigerode and Zwesten were amalgamated into the new, united community of Zwesten in 1972. In 1992, the community was granted official recognition as a spa, allowing it to prefix the designation ''Bad'' –

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

for "bath" – to its name.

Politics

Municipal council

Municipal representation consists of 23 members. * CDU 6 seats *

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...

10 seats * Greens 3 seats *FWG (citizens' coalition) 2 seats *Bürgerliste (citizens' coalition) 2 seats (as of municipal elections on 26 March 2006)

Economy

The spa of Bad Zwesten bases its burgeoning prosperity on its ''Löwensprudel'' ("Lion's Fizzy Water"). In this spa town, two clinics are to be found, Hardtwald Clinics I and II with about 650 beds.

Transport

Bad Zwesten lies at the crossroads of Federal Highways (''Bundesstraßen'') B 3 and B 485. About 5 km from the community is the Borken/Bad Zwesten interchange with Autobahn A 49 (

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

–

Fritzlar Fritzlar () is a small town (pop. 15,000) in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, Germany, north of Frankfurt, with a storied history. The town has a medieval center ringed by a wall with numerous watch towers. Thirty-eight meters (125& ...

–

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

). The community belongs to the North Hesse Transport Network (''Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund'') which, among other things, runs a hailed shared taxi to Borken railway station on the Main-Weser Railway.

Literature

*Martin Opfer: ''Zwesten : Betzigerode, Niederurff, Oberurff, Schiffelborn und Wenzigerode ; Bilder und Texte erzählen, wie es damals war'', Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 1989,

References

External links

Bad Zwesten
{{Authority control Spa towns in Germany Schwalm-Eder-Kreis