Bad Laasphe () is a town in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

, Germany, in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district.

Geography

Location

The town of Bad Laasphe lies in the upper

Lahn The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source i ...

Valley, near the stately home of Wittgenstein Castle (de) (nowadays a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of " room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exte ...

) in the former Wittgenstein district. The municipal area is located south of the main crest of the

Rothaargebirge The Rothaar Mountains (german: Rothaargebirge, , also ''Rotlagergebirge''), or Rothaar, is a low mountain range reaching heights of up to 843.1 m in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, Germany. It is believed that its name must once have been ...

, and borders in the north on the towns of

Bad Berleburg Bad Berleburg (, earlier also Berleburg) is a town, in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of Germany's largest towns by land area. It is located approximately northeast of Siegen and northwest of ...

and

Erndtebrück Erndtebrück is a municipality in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Location Erndtebrück situated on the river Eder in the Rothaargebirge, approx. 20 km northeast of Siegen. Neighbouring com ...

, in the east on the town of

Biedenkopf Biedenkopf () is a spa town in western Hesse, Germany with a population of 13,491 (2020). Geography Location The town of Biedenkopf lies in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Ringed by mountains reaching up to above sea level – ...

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

, in the southeast on

Breidenbach Breidenbach is a municipality in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Neighbouring communities *Bad Laasphe *Biedenkopf *Dautphetal *Eschenburg * Steffenberg Community divisions The community is divided into ...

, in the south on

Dietzhölztal The municipality of Dietzhölztal is the northernmost municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. Geography The community is located in a valley of the same name, only a few kilometres east of the border with North Rhine-Westphalia. R ...

and in the west on the town of

Netphen Netphen () is a town in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies on the river Sieg, roughly 7 km northeast of Siegen. Geography Location Netphen lies on the Rothaargebirge's southern slope and forms t ...

. Bad Laasphe lies about 30 km east of

Siegen Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg region. The university town (nearly 20,000 students in the 2018–2019 winter semest ...

and 25 km northwest of

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 approximat ...

. The highest elevation in the municipal area rises to 694 m. It lies southwest of the main town at the outlying centre of Heiligenborn.

Constituent communities

Each one of the following centres is part of the town of Bad Laasphe:

History

In 1888, the town of Laasphe lay in the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

n administrative region of

Arnsberg Arnsberg (; wep, Arensperg) is a town in the Hochsauerland county, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Hochs ...

in Wittgenstein district and was connected to the Kreuzthal-Marburg line of the Prussian State

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

(''Preußische Staatsbahn''). In 1888 Laasphe had a junior teachers' college, a local

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

and

knitwear Knitted fabric is a textile that results from knitting, the process of inter-looping of yarns or inter-meshing of loops. Its properties are distinct from woven fabric in that it is more flexible and can be more readily constructed into smaller pi ...

and

hosiery Hosiery, also referred to as legwear, describes garments worn directly on the feet and legs. The term originated as the collective term for products of which a maker or seller is termed a hosier; and those products are also known generically as ...

factories. In 1885, Laasphe had 2225 mostly

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 expe ...

inhabitants. Schloss Wittgenstein owned two

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomer ...

. (From ''

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon ' or ' was a major encyclopedia in the German language that existed in various editions, and by several titles, from 1839 to 1984, when it merged with the '. Joseph Meyer (1796–1856), who had founded the publishing house in 1826, intended t ...

'') Since 1960, Laasphe has been a Kneipp spa. On 1 January 1984 the town became a Kneipp curative spa for its mild climate, and since then has been called Bad Laasphe.

Government

The results of the local council elections in May 2014SPD wird stärkste Kraft im Rat von Bad Laasphe
/ref> were:

Coat of arms

Bad Laasphe's civic

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

might heraldically be described thus: In sable a town wall with open gate tower argent flanked by two crenellated towers argent, between which an inescutcheon in argent two pallets sable. A stamping of the town's seal from the 14th century has been preserved, which shows the same composition as the arms shown here. The inescutcheon (smaller shield within the main one) bears the same arms as the town's former overlords, the Counts of Wittgenstein. When the arms were revised in 1908, the town came up with another composition which looked the same, but the inescutcheon, owing to a misunderstanding, was rather different, being quartered with two opposite quarters showing in gules (red) a castle argent (silver), and in the two other quarters the Wittgenstein pallets. The castle charge was a modern addition and related to the Wittgensteins' overlordship in Homburg. The town archive suggested even then that the inescutcheon bear the old Wittgenstein arms as seen in the town's oldest known seal, but no decision was made about it at that time. Only in 1936 did the town finally decide to revert to the composition shown in the old seal. This was confirmed as the town's arms on 10 March 1937.

Twin towns

Tamworth, Staffordshire Tamworth (, ) is a market town and borough in Staffordshire, England, north-east of Birmingham. The town borders North Warwickshire to the east and north, Lichfield to the north, south-west and west. The town takes its name from the River T ...

, England, United Kingdom, since 10 October 1980 *

Châteauneuf-sur-Loire Châteauneuf-sur-Loire () is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas r ...

, France, since 28 September 1991

Notable people

Ludwig Crocius Ludwig Crocius (also Ludovicus Crocius; 29 March 1586 – 7 December 1653 or 1655) was a German Calvinist minister. He was a delegate at the Synod of Dort and professor of theology and philosophy in Bremen. Background and career Ludwig Crocius was ...

(1586–1655), preacher, professor at Bremen '' School Illustre '' *

Friedrich Kiel Friedrich Kiel (8 October 182113 September 1885) was a German composer and music teacher. Writing of the chamber music of Friedrich Kiel, the scholar and critic Wilhelm Altmann notes that it was Kiel’s extreme modesty which kept him and his ex ...

, (1821–1885),

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

* Wilhelm Pauck (1901–1981), Protestant church historian * Rudolf Jung (1907–1973), writer and translator * Fritz Heinrich, (1921–1959), German politician ( SPD), Member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Comm ...

Otto Piene Otto Piene (pronounced PEE-nah, 18 April 1928 – 17 July 2014) was a German-American artist specializing in kinetic and technology-based art, often working collaboratively. He lived and worked in Düsseldorf, Germany; Cambridge, Massachusetts; ...

, (1928–2014),

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

* Fritz Roth, born 1955,

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

and musician

References

External links

Official site

Bad Laasphe in the ''Kulturatlas Westfalen'' (with 360° panoramas)

{{Authority control Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia Siegen-Wittgenstein Spa towns in Germany