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The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld (''Bad'' is "spa" in German; the Old High German name of the city was ''Herolfisfeld'') is the district seat of the
Hersfeld-Rotenburg Hersfeld-Rotenburg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Werra-Meißner, Wartburgkreis, Fulda, Vogelsbergkreis, Schwalm-Eder. History In 1821, districts were created in Hesse, including the district ...
district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km southeast of Kassel. Bad Hersfeld is known countrywide above all for the ''
Bad Hersfelder Festspiele The Bad Hersfelder Festspiele is a German theatre festival in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse. The ''Bad Hersfelder Festspiele'' have been staged since 1951. The Festival The ''Bad Hersfeld Festival'' takes place every year from mid-June to early August in ...
'' (festival), which have taken place each year since 1951 at the monastery ruins. These themselves are said to be Europe's biggest Romanesque church ruin. In 1967, the town hosted the seventh ''
Hessentag The Hessentag (; en, Hesse Day) is an annual event, both fair and festival, organized by the German state of Hesse to represent the different regions of Hesse. The events are shown for a week to the visitors, with an emphasis on cultural displ ...
'' state festival.


Geography


Location

The town lies in the Hersfeld Basin formed here by the forks of the Fulda and the Haune. The inner town lies on the Fulda's left bank. Furthermore, the Geisbach and the Solz empty into the Fulda in the municipal area. In the southwest lie the
Vogelsberg Mountains The is a large volcanic mountain range in the German Central Uplands in the state of Hesse, separated from the Rhön Mountains by the Fulda river valley. Emerging approximately 19 million years ago, the Vogelsberg is Central Europe's larges ...
, in the northwest the Knüll and in the northeast the
Seulingswald The Seulingswald (also called the Sillingswald) is a hill range in the German Central Uplands which reaches heights of up to . It is part of the Fulda-Werra Uplands in the East Hesse Highlands within the Hessian county of Hersfeld-Rotenburg; ...
(ranges, the latter visible in the background of this image). The town's lowest point, at 195 m above sea level, is to be found in the area where the Solz empties into the Fulda, whereas the highest point within town limits is the Laxberg in the Knüllgebirge, at 408 m
above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...
. The town can be said to belong both to Northern Hesse (''Nordhessen'') and Eastern Hesse (''Osthessen''). The nearest cities are Kassel, 52 km to the north,
Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univer ...
, 79 km to the southwest, Fulda, 36 km to the south and Eisenach, 45 km to the east. Through Bad Hersfeld runs the ''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße'' ("German
Timber Frame 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 ...
Road"), a holiday road that showcases many of Germany's timber-frame houses and buildings.


Geology

The Old Town stands on an
alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
or fluvial fan made of gravel and pebbles, which were washed up between Fulda and Geisbach. Also in the Fulda valley are found gravel and pebbles from the Holocene that are mostly of alluvial origin. There are layers of flood-deposited loess and loam of Pleistocene origin running through them. The gravel and pebbles are to a great extent made up of Middle Bunter, the most widespread stone here. In the west and east, this layer reaches from the Germanic
Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...
on the Stellerskuppe (480.5 m above sea level) and the Haukuppe (446.1 m above sea level) up to 400 m above sea level. In the east, on the Wippershainer Höhe (heights), the layer reaches up to 440 m above sea level. The Middle Bunter's lower limit is found at about 110 m above sea level. Newer mineral layers from the Triassic are found only in sporadic deposits and discontinuous layers within town limits. This is the Röt formation, which crops up in the headwaters of the many small brooks around the town. The Lower or Middle
Muschelkalk The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; french: calcaire coquillier) is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million ...
that overlies it can only be found in a narrow, west-to-east running
rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben wi ...
stretching between Heenes and Oberrode, north of the inner town. The newest mineral layer from the Triassic – the Lower Keuper (for example the so-called ''Lettenkohlensandstein'') – is only preserved in the region under a lava flow, which does not show itself above ground anywhere near the town. Owing to uplift in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, there are no mineral layers from these geological time periods. Volcanic rock from the Miocene can be found on the Haukuppe. Mineral layers that do not reach the surface here are the Lower Bunter, running from a depth of some 90 m underneath the town (about 110 m above sea level) down to some 390 m farther down, and, following at yet greater depths, Upper and Lower
Zechstein The Zechstein ( German either from ''mine stone'' or ''tough stone'') is a unit of sedimentary rock layers of Middle to Late Permian (Guadalupian to Lopingian) age located in the European Permian Basin which stretches from the east coast of Engla ...
from the Permian. From this layer come the two mineral springs in Bad Hersfeld. This layer is also used in underground mining from the 400-metre level on down on the
Werra The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the tow ...
(Heringen, Philippsthal) and on the Fulda (Neuhof bei Fulda), yielding potash.


Municipal area’s extent

Today's main town spreads over the slopes of the Tageberg (323.5 m above sea level), the Frauenberg (310 m), the Wehneberg (320 m) and the Wendeberg (291 m), further reaching into the valleys of the Meisebach and the Geisbach. From southwest to northeast it stretches some 4.5 km, and from northeast to southwest some 3.5 km. The Old Town in the Fulda valley has an oval shape and an area of some 40 ha. From west to east it stretches some 960 m and from south to north some 570 m. This can still clearly be seen today, as where the town moat once led around the town there is today a ringroad that leads traffic around it.


Constituent communities

Besides the main town – also called Bad Hersfeld – the town also has the outlying centres of Allmershausen, Asbach, Beiershausen, Eichhof, Heenes, Hohe Luft, Johannesberg, Kathus, Kohlhausen, Petersberg and Sorga. Further subdivisions in the main town are not officially '' Stadtteile''. The Old Town itself is divided into the ''Stiftsbezirk'' ("Monastery Zone") and the ''Unterstadt'' ("Lower Town") to the east. Between the two lies the oldest part of the Old Town. The spa is centred in a spot west of the ''Stiftsbezirk'' and is considered part of the main town. Furthermore, there are Kalkobes (a village that was amalgamated by the turn of the 20th century), Wehneberg (which arose from a lordly estate), Zellersgrund, Oberrode (an agricultural operation), Hof Hählgans (likewise an agricultural operation) and Mönches (now forsaken; a former forester's house stands here).


Neighbouring communities

Clockwise from the north, these are
Ludwigsau Ludwigsau is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany. With an area of 112 km² it is Hesse's biggest community by land area. Geography Location The community lies on the Fulda in the triangle defined by ...
,
Friedewald Friedewald is a municipality in the district of Altenkirchen, in Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers an ...
,
Schenklengsfeld Schenklengsfeld is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hessen, Germany lying roughly 30 km northeast of Fulda and 60 km southeast of Kassel. Geography Location The community of Schenklengsfeld lies in the outliers ...
,
Hauneck Hauneck is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany. Geography Location The town of Bad Hersfeld lies right nearby to the north. Some 35 km away lie Fulda to the south and Alsfeld to the west. The community s ...
,
Niederaula Niederaula is a market community in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, 59 km south of Kassel. Geography Location The community lies on the Fulda between the outliers of the Rhön, the Vogelsberg and the Knüllgeb ...
, Kirchheim and Neuenstein.


Climate

The town's sheltered location in the Fulda valley with the surrounding Hessian and Thuringian low mountain ranges leads to a relatively high average yearly temperature in Bad Hersfeld of 8.7 °C and a rather dry climate with yearly precipitation averaging only 718.1 mm. The average yearly sunshine, therefore, is quite high at 1,385.4 hours. On average over the year, Bad Hersfeld has 34 "summer days" (that is, with temperatures reaching 25 °C or higher), 86 "frost days" (with the day's lowest temperature below 0 °C) and 22 "ice days" (with the day's temperature never rising above 0 °C).


History

Bad Hersfeld's written history begins with the monk
Sturm Sturm (German for storm) may refer to: People * Sturm (surname), surname (includes a list) * Saint Sturm (died 779), 8th-century monk Food * Federweisser, known as ''Sturm'' in Austria, wine in the fermentation stage * Sturm Foods, an American ...
, who established a monastic settlement in ''Haerulfisfeld'' but later evacuated it to Fulda, and with
Lullus Saint Lullus (Lull or Lul) (born about 710 AD in Wessex, died 16 October 786 in Hersfeld) was the first permanent archbishop of Mainz, succeeding Saint Boniface, and first abbot of the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey. He is historiographically conside ...
, who reëstablished the
Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...
Hersfeld Abbey in 769. Both had been missionary bishop Boniface's disciples. The monastery was enlarged between 831 and 850 and Lullus's remains were moved in 852 to another grave in the new basilica. During this ceremony his
canonisation Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...
was announced by Rabanus Maurus. Since 852, the ''Lullusfest'', the oldest folk festival in Germany, has been celebrated in the week of Saint Lullus's day, 16 October (his day of death). Martin Luther visited the monastery, on his way back from the
Diet of Worms The Diet of Worms of 1521 (german: Reichstag zu Worms ) was an imperial diet (a formal deliberative assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire called by Emperor Charles V and conducted in the Imperial Free City of Worms. Martin Luther was summoned to t ...
in 1521 and held a sermon in the abbey church on 1 May. About two years later, the town and the territory of the abbey was mostly Protestant. It has been shown, however, through
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 that today's townsite has a considerably longer settlement history, with traces of habitation going back to the
New Stone Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...
about 2000 BC; a
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
grave from about 1200 BC has also been unearthed, as have finds from La Tène times about 400 BC. Hersfeld was first mentioned as a market centre in 1142 and as a town in 1170. At this time also came the Hersfeld Abbey's greatest importance in Imperial politics. In the centuries that followed, the Abbey's might ebbed as after the Great Interregnum (1254–1273) it could no longer enjoy the Holy Roman Emperor’s support. Beginning in 1373, the Landgraviate of Hesse acquired influence over the town through defensive alliances. On ''Vitalisnacht'' (Saint Vitalis’s night, 27–28 April) 1378, the power struggle between the Abbey and the town reached its high point. Because of the German Peasants' War in 1525, great parts of the town and the Abbey passed to Hesse. In 1606, the last abbot died and in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Imperial Abbey, raised to Electorate, was awarded to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel. Hersfeld, now a worldly electorate, henceforth belonged to Hesse-Kassel. In 1439, great parts of the town were destroyed by fire. The oldest
timber-frame 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 ...
house in town is the ''Küsterhaus'' (Sexton’s House") from 1452. Abbot Ludwig V (1571–1588) brought the town its last building boom for centuries in which he had the Abbey's buildings expanded and converted in the "Weser Renaissance" style. These can still be seen throughout the Old Town, for instance the former mint and the ''Schloss Eichhof'' (palatial castle). During the Seven Years' War the French army used the former abbey church as a supply and food depot. In 1761, the French burnt the church and the monastery buildings down to destroy their supplies during their retreat, thus destroying one of the largest churches in Germany, and in 1807, the town was almost utterly destroyed by Napoleonic occupation troops, but was spared when it turned out that
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...
Lieutenant Colonel Johann Baptist Lingg von Linggenfeld would only carry out Napoleon's orders "literally": he was supposed to set fire to the town on all four sides, and this he did by having four buildings, each standing away from others, set on fire. During the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
King
George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
of Great Britain hired the
Musketeer Regiment Prinz Carl The Musketeer Regiment Prinz Carl was a regiment of Hessian (soldiers), Hessian troops that served Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. It was raised in 1702 by Colonel C. F. E. von Wartensleben and became a regiment of the princes ...
along with other regiments from
Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse Frederick II (german: Landgraf Friedrich II von Hessen-Kassel) (14 August 1720 – 31 October 1785) was Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) from 1760 to 1785. He ruled as an enlightened despot, and raised money by renting soldiers ( calle ...
. The Musketeer Regiment Prinz Carl was stationed both before and after their return from America at Hersfeld. In 1821, Hersfeld became the seat of Hersfeld district in the
Electorate of Hesse The Electorate of Hesse (german: Kurfürstentum Hessen), also known as Hesse-Kassel or Kurhessen, was a landgraviate whose prince was given the right to elect the Emperor by Napoleon. When the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, its prin ...
. In the same century, Hersfeld was linked to the railway network in 1866, and the town has also had an
Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
link since 1938 (today
Bundesautobahn 7 is the longest German Autobahn and the longest national motorway in Europe at 963 km (598 mi). It bisects the country almost evenly between east and west. In the north, it starts at the border with Denmark as an extension of the Danish part o ...
) northwards via Kassel and Hamburg to Scandinavia and southwards via Kirchheim,
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
and
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
to
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...
. The
Bundesautobahn 4 is an autobahn that crosses Germany in a west–east direction. The western segment has a length of , the part in the east is long. Works to continue the A 4 are in progress, but currently no plans exist to fill the gap completely. ...
coming from Kirchheim links eastwards via Dresden and Görlitz to Poland. The development into a spa town began when the Lullusbrunnen (
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 h ...
) was tapped in 1904. In 1935 the barracks was built in the outskirts of Hersfeld (today Hohe Luft), by the Wehrmacht. In 1945, Hersfeld was once again spared utter destruction, when two officers who had been taken prisoner guaranteed the town's peaceful handover. The United States Army took over the Wehrmacht's barracks. Between 1948 and 1993 it was the McPheeters Barracks. Here served the 3rd Squadron, 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (1948 until 1972) and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (1972 until 1993) at the Inner German border. About 800 American soldiers manned the barracks and its three observation posts, designated OP Romeo, OP India and OP Oscar. They also conducted two patrols daily along the border trace. The Americans had no interest in civilians crossing the border. Theirs was a tactical mission to halt possible Warsaw Pact aggression. Bad Hersfeld lies in the Fulda Gap, a historical avenue used for armies of the past. Bad Hersfeld was the northernmost American border garrison and the first line of defense during the days of the Cold War. While small in numbers, the US forces were heavily equipped with a nuclear capability. They were primarily equipped with armored personnel carriers, artillery, and main battle tanks. They were augmented with combat engineers and an anti-aircraft missile site. However, they patrolled the Russian-American Demarcation Line in pairs of jeeps to avoid damage to the roads. Beginning in 1949, the town was called Bad Hersfeld, and as of 1963 it became a Hessian State Spa, which was municipalized in 2006. (''Bad'' is
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 **Ge ...
for "bath", and is a title given towns by state governments in recognition of their spa status). In May 1983, 5,000 people in the town demonstrated against a reunion of soldiers from the Waffen-SS. Among the protest organizers were also the organizers of the ''Bad Hersfelder Festspiele''.


Religion

The area of the town of Bad Hersfeld today belongs to the ''Evangelische Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck'' ("
Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
Church of the Electorate of Hesse-Waldeck"), and the largely coextensive
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 ...
Bishopric of Fulda. Besides the two big churches, various communities and
free church A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions fro ...
es can be found in Bad Hersfeld, among them the State Church Community, the Evangelical Free Church Community ( Baptists), the Seventh Day Adventists and the Free Christian Community ( Pentecostal). Further religious communities in Bad Hersfeld are the New Apostolic Church and the Jehovah's Witnesses.


Amalgamations

In 1918, Kalkobes was amalgamated and in 1928 so was the area that later became the outlying centre od Johannesberg (''Domäne Johannesberg und Bingartes''). In 1972, the centres named above under "Constituent communities" were amalgamated. Moreover, the districts of Hersfeld and Rotenburg were merged into one new district,
Hersfeld-Rotenburg Hersfeld-Rotenburg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Werra-Meißner, Wartburgkreis, Fulda, Vogelsbergkreis, Schwalm-Eder. History In 1821, districts were created in Hesse, including the district ...
, and Bad Hersfeld became its seat.


Population development

In 1525, 400 men lived in the town, and presumably this meant only householders – men with townsman's rights. Before the Thirty Years' War, in 1614, there were 725 households, putting the town's population at this time somewhere between 3,300 and 3,600. The town only reached this figure once again in the mid-18th century. The leftmost chart below shows the sharp drop in the town's population due to the Thirty Years' War. After the Thirty Years' War, the population figure rose only slowly, falling back in the wake of many wars, disease outbreaks and famines. Only beginning in the mid-19th century, as the town was spreading outside to old town walls and as the textile and machine building industries were growing did the population figure rise sharply. Between 1910 and 1913, it surpassed 10,000 and after the Second World War, sometime between 1946 and 1950, it reached the 20,000 mark. After eleven villages were amalgamated in 1972, the population reached some 27,000, and sometime between 1987 and 1994, the town's population reached 30,000. Given the population structure and the forecast migration to urban agglomerations, the HA Hessen Agentur GmbH foresees that the district's population will shrink by 6% by 2020. This fall is therefore also foreseen within the same timeframe for the town. File:Haushalte entwicklung mittelalter hersfeld.jpg, Number of free householders in Bad Hersfeld in the Middle Ages File:Einwohnerentwicklung since1645 hersfeld.jpg, Population development since the Thirty Years' War File:Einwohnerentwicklung 100j hersfeld.jpg, Population development over the last hundred years


Politics


Town council

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results: The SPD and the FWG form one faction in the current election period. The executive (''Magistrat'') is made up of 7 councillors and the mayor. Three seats are allotted to the SPD, two to the CDU and one each to the FDP and FWG.


Mayor

Hartmut Henning Boehmer (independent) was re-elected mayor for the fourth time on 2 December 2007 with 50.8% of the vote. He quit on August 31, 2010. He was followed by Mr. Seitz. Since 1 January 2011 Thomas Fehling, candidate of F.D.P., is the mayor of Bad Hersfeld.


List of mayors

*Werner Hessemer: 1963-1977 *Hartmut Henning Boehmer: 1978-1989 *Walter Weiss: 1990-1996 *Hartmut Henning Boehmer: 1996-2010 *Lothar Seitz: September–December 2010 temporary


Coat of arms

The town's arms might be described thus: Party per pale azure the Lion of Hesse sinister armed Or and royally crowned, argent a Cross of Lorraine pattée gules, the bottom arm fleury. The arms used today have been borne since 1559. The "double cross" stems from the
Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...
abbey of Hersfeld. The Lion of Hesse appeared in the town's arms after the conquest in the Peasants’ War from Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse in 1525.


Older coats of arms

The oldest known town seal, from 1256, shows the patron saint
Wigbert Saint Wigbert, (Wihtberht) (May 7, 675 - August 13, 747) born in Wessex around 675, was an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine monk and a missionary and disciple of Saint Boniface who travelled with the latter in Frisia and northern and central Germany to con ...
. The smaller seal from the 14th century shows the patron
Simon the Zealot Simon the Zealot (, ) or Simon the Canaanite or Simon the Canaanean (, ; grc-gre, Σίμων ὁ Κανανίτης; cop, ⲥⲓⲙⲱⲛ ⲡⲓ-ⲕⲁⲛⲁⲛⲉⲟⲥ; syc, ܫܡܥܘܢ ܩܢܢܝܐ) was one of the most obscure among the apostl ...
and Jude the Apostle of the Benedictine abbey of Hersfeld with the
Wheel of Mainz The Wheel of Mainz or ''Mainzer Rad'', in German, was the coat of arms of the Archbishopric of Mainz and thus also of the Electorate of Mainz (Kurmainz), in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It consists of a silver wheel with six spokes on a red b ...
and the double cross. In the Late Gothic town seal, this cross was the only
charge Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * '' Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...
. At Philip I's conquest, it was displaced by the Lion of Hesse. A stylized double cross also appears in the Bad Hersfeld town logo designed in 2008. It is supposed to be used for marketing and the Internet.


Sponsorships

*Already by 1954, the town had undertaken a sponsorship for Sudeten Germans driven out of Šumperk – formerly Mährisch-Schönberg – in Moravia. *A sponsorship with the German Navy Fast Attack Craft "S 75 Zobel" has existed since 1969.


Culture and sightseeing

The town has since 1962 yearly awarded the '' Hersfeld-Preis'' to actors of the current festival season. Another honour awarded by the town is the ''Ulenroder Kruzifix'', a cast taken of a
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
crucifix from the early 11th century that was found in the abandoned village of Ulenrode, which lay above Meckbach in what is now the community of Ludwigsau.


Theatre

Every summer, the ''
Bad Hersfelder Festspiele The Bad Hersfelder Festspiele is a German theatre festival in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse. The ''Bad Hersfelder Festspiele'' have been staged since 1951. The Festival The ''Bad Hersfeld Festival'' takes place every year from mid-June to early August in ...
'' (festival) are held. Outside the festival season, theatrical productions are given in the ''Stadthalle'', an event venue.


Museums

The Bad Hersfeld Town Museum is housed in the only wing of the former monastery complex that is still preserved, south of the monastery ruins themselves. Besides the departments for town and monastery history, the department for town handicrafts is also worthy of mention. In
Konrad Duden Konrad Alexander Friedrich Duden (3 January 1829 – 1 August 1911) was a Gymnasium (high school) teacher who became a philologist. He founded the well-known German language dictionary bearing his name Duden. Life Duden was born in Lackha ...
’s memory is a small museum right next door to the former Old Monastery School (on the New Market). Here Duden was active from 1876 to 1905 as principal, which is why the school now bears his name. The ''Haus Mährisch Schönberg'' shows a local history collection from the formerly German district of Landkreis Mährisch-Schönberg in what was the
Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the b ...
(on the New Market). Since 2006 there has been a small savings bank museum at the main branch of the '' Sparkasse Bad Hersfeld-Rotenburg'' in which is displayed the history of the financial institution and the changes in the banking world in a great number of exhibits.


Buildings

In the Old Town are 216 buildings under monumental protection. On the west side of the Old Town are found the monastery ruins. They are Europe’s biggest ecclesiastical ruin, and are now used as a venue for the ''Bad Hersfelder Festspiele''. In the monastery zone stands the Katharinenturm (tower), in which hangs the '' Lullusglocke'', Germany’s oldest dated
bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an intern ...
(cast in 1038 AD). Furthermore, a wing of the
cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
has been preserved (today a museum; chapter house preserved) and likewise great parts of the remnants of the town wall (South Gate, ''Halbschalenturm'' or "Half-Shell Tower"). The two ''Nordschulteiche'' (ponds) in the Leonhard Müller Complex are leftovers of the town moat. In this park is also found Saint Vitalis's Cross (the original can be seen in the museum). It stands on the spot where the townsmen fought off the attack by the ''Sternerbund'' in 1378. Further remnants of the town fortifications stand in the Lower Town (east side of the Old Town), among them the ''Klausturm'' (a watchtower and prison) and the somewhat smaller ''Pulverturm'' ("Powder Tower") Furthermore, on Johannestor (a street) is found the ''Elisabeth-Hospital'', endowed in 1239, with a
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
chapel. Other Abbey buildings are the Schloss Eichhof and the ruins – the ''Bruderhaus'' – of the former Johannesberg provost's house. Both buildings lie some 3 km from the Old Town and can also be reached on foot from the spa park. In the centre of Bad Hersfeld's Old Town stands the
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
''Stadtkirche'' ("Town Church") whose 14th-century tower is the town's landmark. On the church square stands a continuous row of
timber-frame 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 ...
buildings, among them the former ''Küsterhaus'' (sexton's house), which is the town's oldest timber-frame house, built in 1452. Right next to this stands the Town Hall, which was built about 1371 in the Gothic style and remodelled and expanded between 1607 and 1612 in the
Weser Renaissance Weser Renaissance is a form of Northern Renaissance architectural style that is found in the area around the River Weser in central Germany and which has been well preserved in the towns and cities of the region. Background Between the star ...
style. Further timber-frame houses are to be found throughout the
pedestrian precinct Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...
. Particularly worthy of mention here is the richly decorated ''Zimmermannshaus'' ("Carpenter’s House") on Klausstraße. On Linggplatz, the Abbey's old court square (old stone "double cross"), a statue recalls
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...
Lieutenant Colonel Johann Baptist Lingg von Linggenfeld, who saved the town from being burnt down by Napoleonic troops in 1807. Beside this lies the marketplace on which patrician houses from
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
times stand, among them the old mint. They were remodelled in the Renaissance and bear witness, with their gables like the timber-frame houses across the street, to the monastery's last building boom. On the ''Neumarkt'' ("New Market") stands, besides the other timber-frame houses, the ''Linggklause'' (Lieutenant Colonel Lingg's dwelling). Here, too, are the old monastery school (nowadays the ''Konrad-Duden-Schule'') and the Konrad Duden Museum.


Parks

The biggest park in town is the ''Kurpark'', or spa park (some 6.5 ha) with the ''Kurhaus'' (spa house), the pump room and the spring pavilion. Right near the Old Town is found the ''Leonardt-Müller-Anlage'' (park), along the town wall, with the two ''Nordschulteiche'' (ponds). In the monastery zone is another park, which in 2006 was expanded with a perennial plant garden. Both the spa park and the ''Leonardt-Müller-Anlage'' were remodelled between 2006 and 2007. Further greenspaces are the 15-hectare Fuldapark with its Fuldasee (lake) and the ''Carl-Strauß-Anlage'' on the Kleinshöhe (heights) on the Tageberg.


Sport

*Besides the football clubs in many centres, there is the SVA Bad Hersfeld club, which with its first team is playing in the Fußball-Verbandsliga Hessen Nord in the 2008/2009 season. The second team plays in the Bezirksliga Fulda Nord, and the A-Juniors belong, for the third year now, to the Hyundai Oberliga Hessen. Further ball sports are played at the Turnverein Hersfeld 1848 e. V. (gymnastic club). Among others, there are team handball, volleyball and
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
. *The team of the SG Hessen Hersfeld played from the 1997/1998 season until the 2002/2003 season in the women's Handball-Bundesliga. *The three rowing and canoe clubs, Hersfelder Kanu-Club 1924 e. V., Kanu-Wanderer Hersfeld 1986 e. V. and Hersfelder Ruderverein 1977 e. V. carry out their activity in the summer, mainly on the Fulda. The last-named club also engages in competitive rowing. *Besides the shooting clubs in almost every outlying centre, there is also the Hersfelder Schützengilde ("Marksmen’s Guild") 1252 e. V. It is one of Germany's oldest still-active clubs. *The Luftsportverein Bad Hersfeld e. V. (
air sports The term "air sports" covers a range of aerial activities, including air racing, aerobatics, aeromodelling, hang gliding, human-powered aircraft, parachuting, paragliding and skydiving. Recognized and regulated air sports Many air sports a ...
) has its
glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of gliding ...
facility on the Langenberg near Hattenbach (a constituent community of
Niederaula Niederaula is a market community in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, 59 km south of Kassel. Geography Location The community lies on the Fulda between the outliers of the Rhön, the Vogelsberg and the Knüllgeb ...
). *the famous "Zu-Null-Bickel" lives in Bad Hersfeld.


Regular events

Nationally known are the yearly ''Bad Hersfelder Festspiele'', opera festival and the festival concerts. They are held between June and August in the monastery ruins. Other great musical events for every taste is the Bad Hersfeld
Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
Days event (every year at Easter at the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Haus), the Live- Jazz-Festival (every year on the first weekend in June on stages throughout the Old Town), the ''StadtJugendNacht'' ("Town Youth Night"; yearly on the first Saturday in September under the ''Peterstorbrücke''
ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...
and the ''Metalfest'' (late every year). The ''Lullusfest'' is known for being Germany's oldest folk festival. It is held every year in the week in which 16 October falls. Other greater folk festivals are the shooting festival of the marksmen's guild in the Jägersgraben and the Tagebergfest of the volunteer fire brigade (an outdoor forest festival). Among sporting events that can be named are the ''Sauer Lollslauf'', a marathon run on the occasion of the ''Lullusfest'', and the ''Internationale Bad Hersfelder DMV-Grasbahnrennen'' held each summer by the Motorsportclub Bad Hersfeld e. V. on a 500 m-long track. Most markets in town are held on Linggplatz. The weekly market is held twice a week and a flea market takes place from April to October on the first Saturday of each month. Other, yearly, markets are the Easter Market on Wednesday before Good Friday, the Whitsun Market on Wednesday before Whitsunday, the ''Große Lulluskrammarkt'' ("Great Lullus Traders’ Market") on Wednesday during ''Lullusfest'' and the Autumn Market on Penance Day, the Wednesday before 23 November (this day is known in Germany as ''
Buß- und Bettag ' (Day of Repentance and Prayer) was a public holiday in Germany, and is still a public holiday in Saxony. In Germany, Protestant church bodies of Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United denominations celebrate a day of repentance and prayer ...
'', an
Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
observance).


Economy and infrastructure

Since German reunification Bad Hersfeld has lain in the middle of Germany, favourably located on the A 4 and the A 7, leading the region to develop into a stronghold for logistics firms. The town appears in Hesse's state development plan as a middle centre partly functioning as a higher centre. The town maintains a large volunteer fire brigade, which sometimes sees service elsewhere in Germany.


Transport


Highway

The north–south
Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
en A 5 (Hattenbach–
Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...
) and A 7 ( Flensburg
Füssen Füssen is a town in Bavaria, Germany, in the district of Ostallgäu, situated one kilometre from the Austrian border. The town is known for violin manufacturing and as the closest transportation hub for the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau cas ...
) meet the east-west Autobahn A 4 (
Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
Görlitz) at the Kirchheim and Hattenbach three-leg interchanges. Moreover, the north–south ''
Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' ( German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen ...
'' 27 (from the Harz to Lake Constance) and the east–west ''Bundesstraße'' 62 (from Marburg to
Bad Salzungen Bad Salzungen () is a town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wartburgkreis district. Geography Location Bad Salzungen is situated on the river Werra, east of Tiefenort and south of Eisenach. Divisions In July 2018 the former ...
) play an important role. ''Bundesstraße'' 324 serves as an Autobahn feeder to the A 7. All three ''Bundesstraßen'' meet each other in Bad Hersfeld.


Railway

Bad Hersfeld lies on the Kassel
Bebra Bebra () is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Bebra lies some south of Kassel on the Fulda. The town is easy to find on most maps thanks to its prominent location on the ''Fuldaknie'' ...
Fulda railway line. There is an
ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...
connection every two hours from Frankfurt am Main by way of Fulda to Eisenach
Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...
WeimarLeipzigBerlin/ Dresden. Regional trains run to, among other places, Kassel and Göttingen. Just behind Hersfeld railway station, the ''Knüllwaldbahn'' branches off.


Local public transport

The local public transport is run by the ''Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund'' ("North Hesse Transport Association", NVV). The nine town and four intercity bus routes are run by Überlandwerk Fulda AG (ÜWAG Bus GmbH). The ''Hersfelder Kreisbahn'' run by the ''Hersfelder Eisenbahngesellschaft'', a local railway line running from Bad Hersfeld to
Philippsthal Philippsthal (Werra) is a market community in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany, right at the boundary with Thuringia. Geography Location Philippsthal lies between the outliers of the Rhön and the Thuringian Forest (ranges) ...
– roughly 11 km – was abandoned in 1993, and the stretch as far as
Schenklengsfeld Schenklengsfeld is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hessen, Germany lying roughly 30 km northeast of Fulda and 60 km southeast of Kassel. Geography Location The community of Schenklengsfeld lies in the outliers ...
has been converted into a cycling path.


Air transport

The ''Flugplatz Johannesberg'' has the status of Special Airfield. The runway, some 671 m long and 18 m wide, is paved with asphalt and oriented in a north–south direction. The airfield lies on the Johannesberg in the like-named outlying centre at an elevation of 284 m above sea level. The airfield was built by the United States Army between 1952 and 1953 and belonged to McPheeter Barracks in the outlying centre of Hohe Luft. It was known at that time as US Army Airfield Werve-Thompson. When the US Army pulled out in 1993, the airfield was taken over by Motor-Flieger-Club e. V. Bad Hersfeld.


Established businesses

Among businesses in the oldest field of endeavour in Bad Hersfeld, textile manufacturing, is the firm Performance Fibers (formerly the Hoechst works, which makes high-strength polyester fibres. Further long-established family businesses are the mineral oil dealer and operator of the LOMO filling stations Lorenz Mohr GmbH & Co. KG and the building firm Kirchner Holding GmbH. Working in the field of electronics are EMS ( Electronic Manufacturing Services) service provider EN ElectronicNetwork Hersfeld GmbH (formerly Zuse KG, later Siemens AG, and KRONE Kommunikationstechnik GmbH) and Thales e-Transactions GmbH. In the field of machine building and process engineering, the firms Grenzebach BSH GmbH (in Schilde AG's old buildings), Linde Ladenbau GmbH & Co. KG and TLT Turbo GmbH (since 2006 owned by Siemens AG) can be named. The logistics field settled here for the most part only after German reunification. After amazon.de and Libri, a book wholesaling firm, came the logistics firm RS Components, setting up its European hub in Bad Hersfeld. A further important economic factor is the hospital establishment, which in part also supports the spa operations. The following hospitals and clinics are to be found in town: the ''Klinikum Bad Hersfeld'' and the ''Krankenhaus St. Elisabeth Bad Hersfeld'', which are active mainly in general medicine, and the spa clinics ''Klinik im Kurpark'' (clinic for psychosomatic medicine and orthopaedics), ''Fachklinik Wigbertshöhe'' (clinic for sociopsychosomatic illnesses), ''Klinik am Hainberg'' (clinic for psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy), ''Vitalisklinik'' (clinic for digestive and metabolic disorders) and the ''Orthopädische Akutklinik''. The biggest bank in town is the '' Sparkasse Bad Hersfeld-Rotenburg''.


Music

Each year after the ''Festspiele'', an opera festival is held in the monastery ruins. Even during the time of the ''Festspiele'', though, the ''Arbeitskreis für Musik e. V. '' ("music workshop") has staged the ''Bad Hersfelder Festspielkonzerte'' in the monastery ruins, in the ''Stadthalle'' and at ''Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Haus'' since 1961. Furthermore, seasonal concerts are held the year round in the ''Stadthalle'' and at ''Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Haus''. Among them are the ''Internationale Bachtage in Hessen und Thüringen'' at which each year during Holy Week and at Easter great choral works and chamber music extravaganzas are produced. Also, each year on the first weekend in June is the jazz festival. National and international stars as well as groups from the town itself liven up the town the whole weekend long from morning until late evening with
swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing ri ...
,
beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ...
and blues. For many years this festival has been a great yearly highlight, drawing many visitors from all over. In autumn, the yearly ''Cross Music Metalfest'' is held, at which many hard rock and metal bands from all over the world appear. It is always held on the first weekend in October and draws visitors from all over Europe.


Media

The local daily newspaper is the ''Hersfelder Zeitung'' (founded in 1763) and the twice weekly advertising flier ''Kreisanzeiger'' has been distributed free since 1980. Both papers have belonged to the publishing business Dirk Ippen. Competition comes from an independent advertising flier published since August 2008, the ''Express Waldhessen''. Since several months the "Express Waldhessen" has a new name. It's called "Klartext". In addition sind 2004 there is another small Newspaper made by Bodo Neumann. It's called: "EXTRABLATT" which will be free distributed every 14 days. Since 1 May 2008, FunRadio Hersfeld has been broadcasting from the town.


Public institutions

Besides the customary institutions usually found in a district seat, and those already described under "Culture and sightseeing", there are the ''Stadthalle'' (literally "town hall", but actually an event venue, not connected at all with the town's administration; "town hall" is ''Rathaus'' in
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 **Ge ...
), the book café (sponsor: Verein für Kultur und Kommunikation e. V.) and the ''Konrad-Duden-Stadtbibliothek'' (town library). This was opened in March 1999 on the marketplace in Bad Hersfeld. The public library has a total floor area of some 1 000 m2. On 31 December 2007, it had an inventory of some 65,000 media, and yearly media borrowings amount to 210,000. In the field of sport, there are two baths, the Aqua Fit (sport and family bath) and the Kurbad Therme ( wellness bath) at the spa park. Moreover, there is the heated swimming pool Geistalbad. Many other sports can be pursued at the Jahn-Park (sport and leisure centre), the Nordic-Walking-Park and the sport and tennis grounds in Bad Hersfeld.


Spa operations

In Bad Hersfeld are two mineral springs. The ''Lullusquelle'' was newly bored in 1904. It was documented as early as 1518, but was overwhelmed in a flood in the 17th century. The ''Vitalisbrunnen'' was bored in 1949. The water is heavy with
Glauber's salt 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 ...
. Bottled mineral water has also been available since 2006 under the name ''Naturquellen Bad Hersfeld''. The spa operations therefore primarily entail drinking and bathing treatments, which are used to deal with liver, gall bladder, stomach, intestinal and metabolic illnesses, as well as psychosomatic illnesses, musculoskeletal illnesses and rheumatic disorders. After spa privatization failed in 2005, the town once again took charge of the administration.


Youth

Besides the various football and sport clubs, youths also have a chance to meet each other after school in one of Bad Hersfeld's supervised institutions for fostering the town's youth. One possible choice is the ''Jugendhaus Bad Hersfeld'' on Dippelstraße, which is popular among youth mainly for its many events.


Education

In Bad Hersfeld are three
comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is re ...
s, ''Gesamtschule Geistal'', ''Gesamtschule Obersberg'' and ''Konrad-Duden-Schule'', the last-named of which was founded in 1570 by Abbot Michael of the Hersfeld Abbey as a monastery school. From 1876 to 1905,
Konrad Duden Konrad Alexander Friedrich Duden (3 January 1829 – 1 August 1911) was a Gymnasium (high school) teacher who became a philologist. He founded the well-known German language dictionary bearing his name Duden. Life Duden was born in Lackha ...
was the principal at the then ''Königliches Gymnasium zu Hersfeld'', which was named in his honour in 1980. The pilot school ''Modellschule Obersberg'' offers a Gymnasium-type upper level. Furthermore, there are six primary schools, '' Ernst-von-Harnack-Schule'', ''Grundschule An der Sommerseite'', ''Grundschule Sorga'', ''Kolibri-Grundschule'', ''Linggschule'' und ''Wilhelm-Neuhaus-Schule''. There is also a special school, Friedrich-Fröbel-Schule. Also, there are three vocational schools, ''Berufliche Schulen des Landkreises Hersfeld-Rotenburg'' (''Europaschule''), ''Berufsbildungszentrum Metall'' and ''Bildungszentrum für Handel und Dienstleistung''. Further training and higher education is to be had at the ''Studienakademie für Logistik'' (department of the ''Berufsakademie Nordhessen''), the evening school for adults, the Academy of the DGUV (''Deutsche Gesetzliche Unfallversicherung'', or "German Legal Accident Insurance"), the ''Deutsche Angestellten Akademie'', the ''Evangelische Jugendbildungsstätte Frauenberg'' ("
Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
Youth Education Centre", sponsored by the Evangelical Church of Electoral Hesse-Waldeck), the district
folk high school Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule; ...
and the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district music school.


Twin towns – sister cities

Bad Hersfeld is twinned with: *
Bad Salzungen Bad Salzungen () is a town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wartburgkreis district. Geography Location Bad Salzungen is situated on the river Werra, east of Tiefenort and south of Eisenach. Divisions In July 2018 the former ...
, Germany (1990) *
L'Haÿ-les-Roses L'Haÿ-les-Roses () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. L'Haÿ-les-Roses is a ''sous-préfecture'' of the Val-de-Marne ''département'', being the seat of the Arrondissement of L'Haÿ- ...
, France (1994) *
Šumperk Šumperk (; german: Mährisch Schönberg) is a town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 26,000 inhabitants. It is the centre of the north of Moravia and, due to its location, is known as "The Gate to the Jeseníky mountains ...
, Czech Republic (1979)


Notable people


Honorary citizens

* Leonhard Müller (1799–1878), :: the
Electorate of Hesse The Electorate of Hesse (german: Kurfürstentum Hessen), also known as Hesse-Kassel or Kurhessen, was a landgraviate whose prince was given the right to elect the Emperor by Napoleon. When the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, its prin ...
land and road building master :: Honoured in 1834 :: He undertook the first measures to preserve the Bad Hersfeld monastery ruins, designed the ''Luisenschule'' and many other buildings in town. * Dr. Wilhelm Münscher (1795–1872), :: Gymnasium principal in Hersfeld from 1832 to 1867 :: Honoured in 1857 * Wilhelm Neuhaus (1873–1956), :: Teacher and vice-principal at the Evangelical elementary school (former ''Nordschule'', today ''Fröbelschule'') and later at the ''Südschule'' (it has borne his name since 1962), ''Heimatforscher'' ("homeland researcher") :: Honoured in 1948 *Nils Bickel known as "Zu-Null-Bickel" *Björn Schlensog


Notable people

This list, arranged by birthdate, contains people who were born in Bad Hersfeld as well as some who worked, but were not born, here. The list is by no means complete. *
Lullus Saint Lullus (Lull or Lul) (born about 710 AD in Wessex, died 16 October 786 in Hersfeld) was the first permanent archbishop of Mainz, succeeding Saint Boniface, and first abbot of the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey. He is historiographically conside ...
(about 710–786), first regular Archbishop of Mainz and first abbot of the Hersfeld monastery * Lampert von Hersfeld (c. 1028 – c. 1085), chronicler and
abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fe ...
* Friedrich Risner (c. 1533–1580), mathematician * Heinrich Gutberleth (1572–1635), educator * Johann Baptist Lingg von Linggenfeld (1765–1842), lieutenant general * Wilhelm Valentin Volckmar (born 1812), composer *
Konrad Duden Konrad Alexander Friedrich Duden (3 January 1829 – 1 August 1911) was a Gymnasium (high school) teacher who became a philologist. He founded the well-known German language dictionary bearing his name Duden. Life Duden was born in Lackha ...
(1829–1911), from 1876 to 1905 principal of the Royal Hersfeld Gymnasium * Karl Franz Wilhelm Schimmelpfeng (1841–1913), founder of the Auskunftei Schimmelpfeng * Benno Schilde (1849–1911), inventor and founder of the Schilde AG machine building company * Fritz Rechberg (1868–1939), entrepreneur and ''Kommerzienrat'' * Michael Schnabrich (1880–1939), was town councillor and Member of the Reichstag for Hersfeld from 1924 to 1933, was murdered by the Nazis at
Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...
* Max Becker (1888–1960), German politician and an initiator of the ''Bad Hersfelder Festspiele'' * Johannes Klein (1897–1976), was founder of the ''Bad Hersfelder Festspiele'' and their first artistic director *
Konrad Zuse Konrad Ernst Otto Zuse (; 22 June 1910 – 18 December 1995) was a German civil engineer, pioneering computer scientist, inventor and businessman. His greatest achievement was the world's first programmable computer; the functional program-c ...
(1910–1995), German computer pioneer, moved his firm's headquarters to Bad Hersfeld in 1957 * Karl Heinz Knoth (born 1930), his family home located is at Klaustor 1. Karl Heinz attended elementary school in Bad Hersfeld and went on to attend gymnasium at the Real Gymnasium in Bad Hersfeld. He was later employed by US Airforce Intelligence as Senior Interviewer in Kassel, Germany following World War II until 1957 when he emigrated to the United States. Later in his career Knoth returned to Germany as Geschäftsführ of ASC metalforming operations in Germany.North Ville History
Following his retirement from ASC and still interested in business, Knoth founded West Side Manufacturing in Wixom, Michigan specializing in metalforming, welding, manufacturing and assembly. In 2014 Westside celebrated its 25th year in business.Westside Manufacturing - Welding, Stamping, Assembly, and Fabrication Specialists for OEMs and the Aftermarket
/ref> Knoth attended Harvard Business School Karl- Heinz and Ingeborg raised three children in Northville, Michigan and have 6 grandchildren * William Zinkewich (born 1946), in Bad Hersfeld; Business executive with SSAB in North America, formerly with Kelsey-Hayes a
Varity Varity was a Canadian multinational manufacturing company, created in 1986 from the remains of Massey Ferguson Limited (MF) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Varity also owned Perkins Engines, headquartered in Peterborough, England, and Kelsey-Hay ...
company and prior to that with farm machinery manufacturer Massey Ferguson * Detlef Altenburg (born 1947), was a musicologist * Reinhard Schmidt-Rost (born 1949), in Bad Hersfeld) is an Evangelical clergyman, psychologist and college teacher in practical theology at the Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn * Helmut Balzert (born 1950), holder of the chair for software engineering in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the
Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction beg ...
* Heinrich Fischer (born 1951), brigadier general of the Bundeswehr * Manfred Gruber (born 1951), well known artist ( painting,
graphic arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.
and scenic design) and was from 1978 to 1987/1988 head of decoration and chief scenic designer at the ''Bad Hersfelder Festspiele'' *
Uwe Bein Uwe Bein (born 26 September 1960) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Career Although, due to his reserved nature, he was never able to gain large public fame, Bein's fans and experts call him one of the mo ...
(born 1960), professional footballer, world champion 1990, Kids instructor at soccer schools and at the SVA Bad Hersfeld. Formerly also manager at Kickers Offenbach * Jonathan Nichols (born 1965), Oklahoma state senator * Werner L. Maier (born 1966), lawyer and president of the Munich Cowboys * Dirk Müller (born 1973), active German bicycle racer, 2006 German Road Champion * D.L. Lang (born 1983), Poet laureate of Vallejo, California * Nina von Schwanenflug (born 1989), it-girl *
Sheila Gaff Sheila (alternatively spelled Shelagh and Sheelagh) is a common feminine given name, derived from the Irish name ''Síle'', which is believed to be a Gaelic form of the Latin name Caelia, the feminine form of the Roman clan name Caelius, mean ...
(born 1989), international Mixed Martial Artist *
Shkodran Mustafi Shkodran Mustafi (; born 17 April 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Segunda División club Levante. Mustafi began his career in the youth ranks of Hamburger SV and English club Everton, where he made one ...
(born 1992), professional footballer, world champion 2014


Further reading

* Thomas Wiegand, ''Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen - Landkreis Hersfeld Rotenburg III Stadt Bad Hersfeld'', Vieweg&Sohn Verlags GmbH Braunschweig/Wiesbaden 1999, * Dieter Handtke, ''Ein nostalgischer Stadtrundgang durch Bad Hersfeld'', Ott-Verlag Bad Hersfeld 1995 * Norbert Landeck / Michael Würz, ''AugenBlicke - Bilder und Geschichten'', Ott-Verlag Bad Hersfeld 2001, * Arno Bingel, ''Hersfeld im Wandel der Zeiten'', Sutton Verlag 2002, *


References


External links

*
Official website of Bad Hersfeld

Bad Hersfeld Festival

Bad Hersfeld Opera Festival

Administration of medicinal treatment

Lullusfest in Bad Hersfeld

Webcam Site of Bad Hersfeld 2004-2014
{{Authority control Spa towns in Germany Hersfeld-Rotenburg