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Bad Arolsen (, until 1997 Arolsen, ''Bad'' being the German name for ''Spa'') is a small town in northern Hesse, Germany, in Waldeck-Frankenberg district. From 1655 until 1918 it served as the residence town of the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont and then until 1929 as the capital of the Waldeck Free State. The International Tracing Service has its headquarters in Bad Arolsen. In 2003, the town hosted the 43rd Hessentag state festival.


Geography


Location

Bad Arolsen is situated roughly 45 km west 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 ...
. The German- Dutch holiday road called the
Orange Route The Orange Route ( nl, Oranje-Route, german: Oranier-Route) is a holiday route, that runs from Amsterdam in the Netherlands through North and Central Germany and returns to Amsterdam. It is 2,400 kilometres long and crosses the Netherlands and nine ...
runs through the town, joining towns, cities and regions associated with the House of Orange.


Neighbouring communities

Bad Arolsen neighbours are: the town of
Diemelstadt Diemelstadt is a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Diemelstadt lies in a small "bay" of Hesse that thrusts into, and is surrounded on three sides by, North Rhine-Westphalia. The River Diemel, the tow ...
to the north, the town of Volkmarsen (both belonging to the county of Waldeck-Frankenberg); the town of
Wolfhagen Wolfhagen () is a town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 12 km southeast of Bad Arolsen, and 23 km west of Kassel on the German Timber-Frame Road. In 1992, the town hosted the 32nd Hessentag The Hessenta ...
in the southeast (
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 ...
district); the town of Waldeck to the south, the community of Twistetal to the southwest; the community of
Diemelsee The Diemelsee or Diemel Reservoir (german: Diemelstausee) is a reservoir with a surface area of 1.65 km² and about capacity of 19.9 million m³ on the River Diemel in the counties of Waldeck-Frankenberg in North Hesse, and Hochs ...
to the west (the last three in Waldeck-Frankenberg county) and the town of
Marsberg Marsberg () is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. History Although its origins are obscure, Marsberg was a prospering town by the 13th century (it was even minting coins). It was a free city until 1807, when ...
( Hochsauerlandkreis in North Rhine-Westphalia).


Constituent communities

Besides the main district (8,300 inhabitants), which bears the same name as the town, Bad Arolsen consists of the following subdivisions: * Braunsen, 199 inhabitants * Bühle, 110 inhabitants * Kohlgrund, 255 inhabitants. * Helsen, 2,156 inhabitants * Landau, 1,120 inhabitants * Massenhausen, 583 inhabitants *
Mengeringhausen Mengeringhausen is a village and a municipal district of Bad Arolsen in Waldeck-Frankenberg, in Hesse, Germany. Its population is estimated to be 3,800 people. The was first mentioned as the town 'Stadt Mengeringhausen' in 1234. The town was in p ...
, 3,746 inhabitants * Neu-Berich, 246 inhabitants * Schmillinghausen, 495 inhabitants * Volkhardinghausen, 130 inhabitants * Wetterburg, 859 inhabitants


History

The earliest documents mentioning Arolsen date back to 1131 when an
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...
nunnery was established there with the name of "Aroldessen". The nunnery was secularized in 1526 and in 1655 became the residence of the Counts (later Princes) of Waldeck, who converted it into a stately home. It was torn down in 1710 and replaced with a new Baroque structure (1713–1728) by Friedrich Anton Ulrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (1676–1728). From 1918 to 1929 Arolsen was capital of the Free State of Waldeck-Pyrmont (after 1922: Free State of Waldeck), which was subsequently incorporated into Prussia.


Politics


Town council

The town council's 37 seats are apportioned in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006: Note: "FWG" is a citizens' coalition. ''Offene Liste'' is the independent "Open List".


Town government

The town is governed by the town magistrate which is headed by the Mayor of Bad Arolsen. The incumbent Mayor is Jürgen van der Horst (Independent), first elected in 2007. His current six-year term is scheduled to end in 2025.


Coat of arms

Bad Arolsen's civic coat of arms might heraldically be described thus: In argent a nine-leaved oak tree vert with four acorns Or, before which an inescutcheon within which in Or a bar-topped letter "A" sable surmounted by a halved eight-pointed star sable. The oak tree stands for the surrounding woods and indirectly the fresh air that Bad Arolsen is known for as a climatic spa. The inescutcheon shows the town's (original) initial, and the eight-pointed star of Waldeck. The original arms were dropped in 1938 owing to a perceived reference to Freemasonry, which was not officially tolerated in Nazi Germany. The charge in question was "God's Eye" – a triangle with the sun's rays shining out of it, such as may still be seen in Bad Krozingen's civic coat of arms. Bad Arolsen's old arms showed the same inescutcheon over this, but "God's Eye" was replaced with an oak tree in 193


Partnerships

*
Bad Köstritz Bad Köstritz is a town in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the White Elster river, 7 km northwest of Gera. Bad Köstritz is known for the Köstritzer brewery and its Schwarzbier (black beer). History The ...
, Thüringen *
Heusden-Zolder Heusden-Zolder (; li, Heuze-Zolder ) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian Limburg (Belgium), province of Limburg near Hasselt. On 1 January 2006 Heusden-Zolder had a total population of 30,769. The total ar ...
, Belgium * Hermann, Missouri, United States *
Klütz Klütz () is a town in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated near the Baltic Sea coast, 22 km northwest of Wismar, and 33 km northeast of Lübeck. It is famous for the manor house Bo ...
, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern


Culture and sightseeing


The town

Worthy of note is the town's
baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
layout near the stately home. The street grid shows a chequered pattern that was typical of that time. It was originally planned to build a mirror-image layout to the stately home's east and west, but the plans were never fully carried out; after completing the developments west of the stately home, there was no money left to do the eastern part. Instead, the mirrored layout is illustrated by landscaping the area with trees and bushes. Some of the development's buildings are protected by law. Since 1999 there has been a ''Gestaltungssatzung'' – or "design code" – in place to ensure the townscape's current form through collective protection. The Grosse Allee ("Grand Avenue") is a remarkable piece of city landscaping. It is a broad avenue running one mile from east to west lined by some 880 German oak trees in a six-line arrangement. Particularly during the warm months of spring, summer and fall it attracts scores of people strolling and enjoying the shady park-like atmosphere. The avenue was built in 1676 as a prestigious connecting way for the carriages between the "Residenzschloss" and the princely "Lustschloss", the latter having been torn down in the year 1725.


Buildings

*The baroque-style Schloß Arolsen, originally belonging to the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont with its imposing construction was built between 1713 and 1728 by architect Julius Ludwig Rothweil. Of particular importance are the ceiling paintings by the Italian artist Carlo Ludovici Castelli, and the outstanding
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
works by Andrea Gallasini. *''Landauer Wasserkunst'', an historic waterworks in Landau dating from 1555.


Regular events

*March/April: Lighting of the ''Easter Fire'' on the Königsberg fair ground *May: ''Arolser Barockfestspiele'' (Baroque festival) *August: ''Arolser Kram- und Viehmarkt'' (a fair with amusement rides, household goods and cattle markets at the Königsberg fair ground) *August: Bad Arolsen ''
Twistesee The Twistesee is a reservoir on the Twiste in the county of Waldeck-Frankenberg in North Hesse, Germany. Location The Twistesee is located at the northern end of the Langer Wald around 30 km as the crow flies west-northwest of Kassel b ...
Triathlon'' running *November: ''Bad Arolsen Advent Waldmarathon'' running *December: ''Weihnachtsmarkt'' (Christmas fair at the Kirchplatz in the towns central place ”Kirchplatz“) *Repeating every seven years (last time 2007): The “Freischiessen festival” in Mengeringhausen


Economy and infrastructure

Of particular economic importance to the town was its role as a garrison. In 1994 the Belgian Army deactivated its garrison and left the town. On 17 December 2004, the Bundeswehr deactivated its camp in Mengeringhausen.


Transport

Bad Arolsen is located on the railway line from
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 ...
to Korbach. Local public transport is also handled by buses of the North Hesse Transport Association (''Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund''; NVV). The town is also served by the BRS (''Busverkehr - Ruhr - Sieg'') bus company.


Public institutions

Since 1946, Bad Arolsen has been headquarters to the International Tracing Service, an organization dedicated to finding missing civilians, typically lost to family and friends as a result of war or political unrest during World War II. The institution was led and administered until December 2012 by the International Committee of the Red Cross and funded by the Federal Republic of Germany; it is now administered by the Federal Republic of Germany. A venue for millions of documents related to the Nazi-attempted extermination of the Jewish people and others, the ITS holds vast archives of Nazi-related documents. In April 2006, German justice minister Brigitte Zypries announced that Germany would cooperate with the United States and allow survivors and historians of the Holocaust access to 47 million pages of documents, although an eleven-nation accord had to decide unanimously that this was to be done.
More than 12 million of the documents have now being digitally scanned and shared with research institutions around the world. The archive fully opened when France, Italy and Greece ratified changes to the access protocol. Information kept hidden from the public since its inception was finally opened to the public in November 2007.


Well known persons

*
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
, former
Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
of the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
from 1871 until 1890, is an "honorary citizen" of Bad Arolsen.


Sons and daughters of the town

* 1556, Philipp Nicolai, song-poet and Reformer, in Mengeringhausen (died 26 October 1608 in Hamburg) * 1620, Prince Georg Friedrich von Waldeck (died 19 November 1692 in Bad Arolsen) * 1740, Ernst Eichner, composer (died 1777 in Potsdam) * 1743, Friedrich Karl August, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (died 1812), Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont * 1747, George I, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (died 1813), Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont * 1767,
Johann Stieglitz Johann Stieglitz, born as Israel Stieglitz (10 March 1767, Arolsen – 31 October 1840, Hanover) was a German physician. He was the brother of banker Ludwig von Stieglitz (1779-1843) and uncle to poet Heinrich Wilhelm Stieglitz (1801-1849). ...
, doctor (died 31 October 1840 in Hanover) * 1777,
Christian Daniel Rauch Christian Daniel Rauch (2 January 1777 – 3 December 1857) was a German sculptor. He founded the Berlin school of sculpture, and was the foremost German sculptor of the 19th century. Life Rauch was born at Arolsen in the Principality of ...
, sculptor (died 3 December 1857 in Dresden); The Museum in Bad Arolsen looks after his memorial. * 1804,
Wilhelm von Kaulbach Wilhelm von Kaulbach (15 October 18057 April 1874) was a German painter, noted mainly as a muralist, but also as a book illustrator. His murals decorate buildings in Munich. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography E ...
, painter (died 7 April 1874 in Munich) * 1822, Friedrich Kaulbach, painter (died 17 September 1903 in Hanover) * 1831, George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (died 1893), Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont * 1838, Walther Herwig, founder of German high-sea fishing * 1858, Adelheid Emma Wilhelmina Theresia von Waldeck-Pyrmont, Queen and 1890-1898 Regent of the Netherlands (Dutch King
William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198) * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...
's second wife; died 20 March 1934 in The Hague) * 1861,
August Bier August Karl Gustav Bier (24 November 1861 – 12 March 1949) was a German surgeon. He was the first to perform spinal anesthesia and intravenous regional anesthesia. Early medical career Bier began his medical education at the Charité – Uni ...
,
surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...
, in Helsen (died 12 March 1949 in (near Beeskow)) * 1865. Friedrich, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont (died 1946), Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont * 1873, , orthopaedics professor * 1896, Josias Erbprinz von Waldeck-Pyrmont, SS Obergruppenführer (died 30 November 1967 in Bad Arolsen) * 1936, Wittekind, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, residing prince and chief of the House of Waldeck


References


External links

*
Nazi-era archive available at US Holocaust Museum
*
Slate report on archive's opening
{{Authority control Towns in Hesse Spa towns in Germany Waldeck-Frankenberg Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont The Holocaust in Germany