Bad Karlshafen () is a baroque, thermal salt spa town in the district of Kassel, in

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 ...

. It has 2300 inhabitants in the main ward of Bad Karlshafen, and a further 1900 in the medieval village of Helmarshausen. It is situated at the confluence of the

Diemel The Diemel is a river in Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Weser. Route The source of the Diemel is near Willingen, in Sauerland. The Diemel flows generally northeast through the towns Marsberg, Warburg, an ...

and

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports of Bre ...

rivers, 15 km south of

Höxter Höxter () is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany on the left bank of the river Weser, 52 km north of Kassel in the centre of the Weser Uplands. The main town's population is around 15,000, and with outlying centres, about 30,0 ...

, and 37 km north of

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 ...

History

The town was founded in 1699 by

French Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss politica ...

fleeing persecution in France. Though initially named Sieburg, the town was later named after Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, who granted them refuge. Th
German Huguenot Museum
located here contains a picture archive, library, and family histories of the Huguenots in Germany. Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, had ambitious plans for town-planning and developing new water trade channels in the region; including a 'haven' in Karlshafen. Together with his engineer and architect Friedrich Conradi he developed plans for a Landgrave-Carl-Canal in order to avoid customs duty at Hannoversch Münden, but these were never finalised. Plans for Bad Karlshafen, however, were partially completed in a baroque style by architect

Paul du Ry Jean Paul du Ry (1640 – 21 June 1714) was a French architect and Huguenot refugee who was responsible for a number of baroque buildings in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. Origins Jean Paul du Ry came from a family of French architects. His father was ...

in 1717 and the town was renamed as Carlshaven. Since 1977 Karlshafen has spa status, which is when it received the title 'Bad'.

Mayor

Ulrich Otto was elected in 2005 with 62,94 % of the votes, he was reelected in 2011 with 78,32 % of the votes.

Leisure and health

Bad Karlshafen is a spa town (Bad = spa), which offers a modern health centre, th
Weser Therme
based on a thermal salt spring, and in 1986 a

graduation tower A graduation tower (occasionally referred to as a thorn house) is a structure used in the production of salt which removes water from a saline solution by evaporation, increasing its concentration of mineral salts. The tower consists of a wood ...

was established.

Transport

Bad Karlshafen railway station Bad Karlshafen is a railway station located in Bad Karlshafen, Germany. The station is located on the Sollingbahn. The train services are operated by NordWestBahn. The station is close to the borders of three states: Hesse, North Rhine-Westphal ...

offers services between Ottbergen and Göttingen, at roughly a 2 hourly frequency, with bicycle space. * Bus services also operate in the area.

Sons and daughters of the town

Hermann Suchier Hermann Suchier (11 December 1848, in Carlshafen – 3 July 1914, in Halle an der Saale) was a German Romance philologist of Huguenot ancestry. He is known for his studies on the history of the French language and the literary history of the M ...

(1848-1914), linguist * Georg Zülch (1870-1942), lawyer and politician (

DNVP The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...

) * Günter Frankenberg, (born 1945), lawyer * Wilhelm Hubweges (1905-1971), sculptor and painter * Andreas Thiele (born 1980), actor *

Sebastian Schachten Sebastian Schachten (born 6 November 1984) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defender. Career Schachten was born in Bad Karlshafen. After his expiring contract with 2. Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli had not been renewed, ...

(born 1984), football player

References

{{Authority control Kassel (district) Reinhardswald Spa towns in Germany