Bad König () is a town and resort ('' Kurort'') in the central

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried'' (the northeastern se ...

in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in

Hesse 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 Da ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, 29 km southeast of

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

Geography

Neighbouring communities

Bad König borders in the north on the communities of Höchst and Lützelbach, in the east and south on the town of

Michelstadt Michelstadt () in the Odenwald is a town in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in southern Hesse, Germany between Darmstadt and Heidelberg. It has a population of 28,629 people. Geography Location Michelstadt is the biggest town in the Odenwaldkre ...

and in the west on the communities of Brombachtal and Brensbach.

Constituent communities

Besides the main town, also called Bad König, the town has the outlying ''

Ortsteil A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

e'' of Zell, Momart, Etzen-Gesäß, Fürstengrund, Kimbach, Nieder-Kinzig and Ober-Kinzig with Gumpersberg.

History

Bad König is one of the oldest settlements in the Mümling valley. There were Germanic settlers quite early on. In

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

, the name for this place was apparently ''Quintiacum'', and ''Quinticha'' was the name under which Bad König had its first documentary mention between 820 and 822. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

it was originally an

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...

holding, then belonging to the Fulda Monastery. Bad König was already fortified in the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the M ...

, and was the hub of a

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or sp ...

area with a tithing office. In 1477, ''Künnig als Chur Maintzisch Lehn'' (or in standard modern

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

''König als Kurmainzisches Lehen'' – “König as an

Electorate of Mainz The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...

”) was given to the ''Schenk'' Konrad von Erbach. Under the terms of the Erbach land partition in 1747, the ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'' of König passed into the ownership of the Counts of Erbach-Schönberg. In 1948, König was granted the right to call itself ''staatlich anerkanntes Bad'', or “state-recognized resort”, and in 1980 this resort in the Odenwald was granted town rights.

Jewish community

In (Bad) König there was a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish community until 1939. Its establishment went back to the 18th century. The town’s Jewish population peaked at 100 about 1880. It was an Orthodox community. The Jewish families in town owned

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to anima ...

and

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million ...

businesses,

cereal A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more foo ...

and

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many c ...

businesses,

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...

businesses and colonial goods businesses as well as those that made

glass Glass is a non-Crystallinity, crystalline, often transparency and translucency, transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most ...

and

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

. The firm J. Mannheimer had a great shop for farming machinery. For Jewish resort guests there was a kosher guesthouse. The synagogue built in 1795-1797 was heavily damaged on

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung, (SA) paramilitary and Schutzstaffel, (SS) paramilitary forces along ...

(9 November 1938), and in 1939 it was torn down. In 1933 there were still 72 Jews living in town. Because of the scenes of utter brutality in connection with Kristallnacht, most of them left town, especially as from 1939 they were no longer allowed to buy food. At least ten Jews from Bad König were deported to the camps and murdered.Informationen zur jüdischen Geschichte
/ref>

Politics

The municipal election held on 6 March 2016 yielded the following results: * CDU = 6 seats * SPD = 10 seats * Greens = 2 seats * Zukunft Bad König (Future Bad König) = 9 seats There are local deputies in the outlying centres of Etzen-Gesäß, Fürstengrund, Kimbach, Nieder-Kinzig, Ober-Kinzig and Zell.

Town partnerships

Argentat,

Limousin Limousin (; oc, Lemosin ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central France. On 1 January 2016, it became part of the new administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprised three departments: Corrèze, Creuse, and Haute-Vienn ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

since 1982.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

The town is linked to the long-distance road network by ''

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' ( German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraße ...

'' 45 (

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its station is a major railway junction and it has a port on the rive ...

– Eberbach). The ''Odenwaldbahn'' (

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 Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

; RMV Lines 80, 81, 82 and 85) links Bad König, as well as the outlying centre of Zell, with the

Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Sc ...

valley and also

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

and

Personalities

* Franz Taurinus (1794-1874), mathematician * Friedrich Bergsträsser (1800-1847), Hessian politician and former liberal-conservative deputy of the 2nd Chamber of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse * Johann Adam Groh (1824-1881), co-founder of the agricultural cooperative associations in Hessen * Carl Weyprecht (1838-1881), polar explorer * Gottfried Büchner (1851-1919), mayor of Bad König and liberal member of Hesse Landtag * Georg Vetter (1891-1969), painter * Ingetraut Dahlberg (1927-2017), information scientist * Frank Philipp Schlößmann (born 1963), scenic and costume designer focused on operas

References

External links

Town’s website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bad Konig Odenwaldkreis Holocaust locations in Germany Spa towns in Germany