Bad Wörishofen () 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, Somerset, B ...

in the district of

Unterallgäu Unterallgäu is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Neu-Ulm, Günzburg, Augsburg, Ostallgäu, Oberallgäu, and the districts Ravensburg und Biberach in Baden-Württemberg. ...

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 l ...

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 betwee ...

, known for the water-cure (

hydrotherapy Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and treatment. The term ...

) developed by Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897), a Catholic priest who lived there for 42 years. Many of the resort hotels and boarding-houses in Bad Wörishofen offer their guests treatment using Kneipp's methods. Bad Wörishofen - St

The new spa complex out of town is called Therme Bad Wörishofen. ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine called the town "the secret capital of health".

Geography

The town is located on the Wörthbach, a tributary of the River Mindel in Donau-Iller, which is a border region straddling

and

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 ...

. It is approximately 80 km / 50 miles west of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

and 35 km / 22 miles east of

Memmingen Memmingen (; Swabian: ''Memmenge'') is a town in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is the economic, educational and administrative centre of the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-W� ...

History

The first known reference to the place dates from 1067, where it is described as the lordship "Werenshova". The name is thought to mean "Homestead of Werin". For centuries Wörishofen was an agricultural settlement. Between 1719 and 1721 the Dominican Wörishofen Monastery was built under the direction of

Dominikus Zimmermann Dominikus Zimmermann (30 June 1685, Gaispoint – 16 November 1766, Wies) was a German Rococo architect and stuccoist. Life Dominikus Zimmermann was born in Gaispoint near Wessobrunn in 1685 and became a Baumeister (Architect) and a stu ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, with south-western Germany belonging to the

American occupation zone Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Franc ...

, Bad Wörishofen was the site of a

displaced persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

. Most of the displaced people in question were of

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

n provenance. The camp enjoyed the confidence and support of the

UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...

, and was accordingly permitted to print its own bank notes.

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the town

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Rainer Werner Fassbinder (; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982), sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement. Fassbinder's mai ...

(1945–1982), film director * Jeremias Schröder OSB (born in 1964 as Maximilian Schröder), Benedictine Abbot and President of the Benedictine Congregation of St. Ottilien. *

Yank Azman Yank Azman (born October 19, 1947) is a Canadian television and film actor. Early life Azman was born in a displaced persons camp in Bad Wörishofen, Germany to Cesia (née Waishand), a sales clerk, and Kuba Zajfman, a tailor and furrier, Holoc ...

(born 1947), Canadian actor

Personalities associated with Bad Wörishofen

* Hermann Aust (1853–1944), a keen supporter of Sebastian Kneipp and supporter of the development of Bad Wörishofen as a spa town. * Viktor Frankl (1905–1997), founder of

logotherapy Logotherapy was developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl and is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. Frankl describes it as "the Third Viennese School of Psych ...

, worked in Bad Wörishofen in 1945 where he was a doctor at the Hospital for Displaced Persons.

* Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897), pastor and Hydrotherapeut, inventor of ''Kneipp'' health treatment using water''.'' *

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebra ...

(1888–1923), New Zealand-born writer, wrote the short stories of '' In a German Pension'' after a stay at Bad Wörishofen in 1909. * Franz "Bulle" Roth (born in 1946), football player for the German national football team and

FC Bayern München Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

, owner of a shop for sportswear in Bad Wörishofen *

Ulla Salzgeber Ulla Salzgeber (born 5 August 1958 in Oberhausen) is a German equestrianism, equestrian and Olympic champion who competes in the sport of dressage. Competing in the 2000 Summer Olympics, 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, she won two team gold medal ...

(born in 1958), dressage rider, lived in Bad Wörishofen until 2011. *

Irmgard Seefried Irmgard Seefried (9 October 191924 November 1988) was a distinguished German soprano who sang opera, sacred music, and lieder. Maria Theresia Irmgard Seefried was born in , near Mindelheim, Bavaria, Germany, the daughter of educated Austrian- ...

(1919–1988), soprano, lived in Bad Wörishofen from 1923 to 1940, winner of Bad Wörishofen's Public Service Medal in gold. *

Ethel Smyth Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended t ...

(1858–1944), an English composer, lived in Munich for a while and had a health-related stay in Bad Wörishofen in 1889. * Antanas Deksnys (7 May 1906 - 5 May 1999), a Catholic bishop from Lithuania.

Economy

Wörishofer sandals are made here.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bad Worishofen Spa towns in Germany Unterallgäu