Bad Freienwalde is 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 ...

in the

Märkisch-Oderland Märkisch-Oderland is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the eastern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring are (from the north clockwise) the district Barnim, the country Poland, the district-free city Frankfurt (Oder), the district Oder-Spree and ...

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 ...

Geography

The town is situated on the Alte Oder, an old branch of the

Oder The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows thr ...

River at the northwestern rim of the

Oderbruch The Oderbruch ( pl, Kotlina Freienwaldzka) is a landscape located at the Oder river in eastern Germany on the Polish border, with a small part also in Poland. It extends from the towns Oderberg and Bad Freienwalde in the north to Lebus in the sout ...

basin and the steep rise of the

Barnim Plateau The Barnim Plateau is a plateau which is occupied by the northeastern parts of Berlin and the surrounding federal state of Brandenburg in Germany. Boundaries and Subdivision Boundaries The limits of the plateau are easily definable. The souther ...

. It is located east of

Eberswalde Eberswalde () is a major town and the administrative seat of the district Barnim in the German State ( Bundesland / ''federated state'') of Brandenburg, about 50 km northeast of Berlin. Population 42,144 (census in June 2005), geographic ...

, and northeast of

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 ...

, near the border with

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The municipal area comprises the following villages: Altranft, Altglietzen, Bralitz, Hohensaaten, Hohenwutzen, Neuenhagen and Schiffmühle.

History

The settlement of ''Vrienwalde'' 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 a 1316 deed and appeared as a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in 1364. From 1618, the Freienwalde manor was directly held by the Brandenburg

prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the prince ...

s (''Kurfürsten''). 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 ...

was discovered in 1683. The

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

Johann Kunckel brought it to the attention of the "Great Elector"

Frederick William of Brandenburg Frederick William (german: Friedrich Wilhelm; 16 February 1620 – 29 April 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is ...

, who,

gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensit ...

-ridden, arrived in Freienwalde the next year. Recorded by the physician

Bernhardus Albinus Bernhardus Friedrich Albinus (7 January 1653, Dessau – 7 September 1721, Leiden) was a Dutch physician and anatomist. His sons Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697–1770) and Friedrich Bernhard Albinus (1715-1778) were also anatomists of note in ...

in 1685, the ''Kurfürstenquelle'' became the foundation of Freienwalde's rise as a spa town. Frederick William's son King

Frederick I of Prussia Frederick I (german: Friedrich I.; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Frederick III) Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union ( Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function h ...

had a first maison de plaisance erected by the architect

Andreas Schlüter Andreas Schlüter (1659 – c. June 1714) was a German baroque sculptor and architect, active in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Tsardom. Biography Andreas Schlüter was bor ...

. The development was further promoted, when in 1799 the small Neoclassical Freienwalde Castle was built according to plans by David Gilly as a summer residence of Princess

Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Friederike Luise; 16 October 1751 – 25 February 1805) was Queen of Prussia as the second spouse of King Frederick William II. Life Frederica Louisa was the daughter of Louis IX, Landgrave of He ...

, the widow of King

Frederick William II of Prussia Frederick William II (german: Friedrich Wilhelm II.; 25 September 1744 – 16 November 1797) was King of Prussia from 1786 until his death in 1797. He was in personal union the Prince-elector of Brandenburg and (via the Orange-Nassau inherita ...

. Its park was redesigned by

Peter Joseph Lenné Peter Joseph Lenné (the Younger) (29 September 1789 – 23 January 1866) was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect. As director general of the Royal Prussian palaces and parks in Potsdam and Berlin, his work shaped the development of 19 ...

in 1822. The industrialist and politician

Walther Rathenau Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician. During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau s ...

acquired the palace in 1909, it was nationalised after his assassination in 1922. Freienwalde achieved the official status of spa town (''Bad'') in 1925.

Notable people

* Elisabeth Radziwill, (1803−1834), beloved of Prince

Wilhelm I of Prussia William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was th ...

died at Freienwalde *

Edith Andreae Edith Andreae, born Rathenau (18 January 1883–1952) was a German salonière. She was a literary executor and editor of the works of her brother Walther Rathenau. Edith Rathenau was born in 1883 in Berlin, only daughter of German-Jewish indus ...

(1883–1952) salonière and sister of Walter Rathenau. * Alfred Blaschko (1858–1922), dermatologist * Hilde Jennings (1906-unknown), actress * Hans Keilson (1909–2011), Dutch psychotherapist, novelist *

Kurt Kretschmann Kurt Kretschmann (2 March 1914 – 20 January 2007) was a German Conservation (ethic), nature conservationist. Most of his professional career took place in the German Democratic Republic where he is known as ''"Nestor des Naturschutzes in Ostde ...

(1914-2007) nature conservationist *

Erwin Wickert Erwin Wickert (7 January 1915 – 26 March 2008) was a German diplomat who, during the 1970s, served as the ambassador to Romania and China. Early life and education Born in Bralitz and raised in Wittenberg, Wickert applied to join the '' Sturmab ...

(1915-2008), German diplomat * Ferdinand Friedrich Zimmermann (1898-1967), journalist, publicist and

Sturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Sturmbannführer'' (; ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank equivalent to major that was used in several Nazi organizations, such as the SA, SS, and the NSFK. The rank originated from German shock troop units of the First World War ...

Volkmar Sigusch Volkmar Sigusch (born 11 June 1940) is a German sexologist, physician and sociologist. From 1973 to 2006, he was the director of the ''Institut für Sexualwissenschaft'' (Institute for Sexual Science) at the clinic of Goethe University in Frankf ...

(born 1940), sexologist and physician * Hildegard und Siegfried Schumacher, children's book authors

Demography

File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Bad Freienwalde.pdf, Development of population since 1875 within the current boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to population development of Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of Nazi rule; Red Background: Time of Communist rule) File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Bad Freienwalde.pdf, Recent Population Development and Projections: Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the

Census in Germany A national census in Germany (german: Volkszählung) was held every five years from 1875 to 1910. After the World Wars, only a few full population censuses have been held, the last in 1987. The most recent census, though not a national census, wa ...

in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line); for 2020-2030 (green line)

International relations

Bad Freienwalde is twinned with: *

Bad Pyrmont Bad Pyrmont (, also: ; West Low German: ) is a town in the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont, in Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population close to 19,000. It is located on the river Emmer, about west of the Weser. Bad Pyrmont is a popular spa resort ...

, Germany *

Międzyrzecz Międzyrzecz (; la, Meserici, german: link=no, Meseritz) is a town in western Poland, on the Obra and Paklica river, with 17,667 inhabitants (2020). The capital of Gmina Międzyrzecz and Międzyrzecz County. Since the Local Government Reorganiz ...

, Poland

References

External links

{{Authority control Localities in Märkisch-Oderland Spa towns in Germany