Bad Königshofen im Grabfeld (, ) is a small

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, Ba ...

in the

German state The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, located in the

Rhön-Grabfeld Rhön-Grabfeld is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by (from the southeast and clockwise) the districts of Hassberge, Schweinfurt and Bad Kissingen, and the states of Hesse (district Fulda) and Thuringia (distri ...

district in northeast

Lower Franconia Lower Franconia (, ) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. It consists of nine districts and 308 municipalities (including three cities). History After ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. According to the Bavarian State Office for Statistics and Data, Bad Königshofen had a population of 5,995 in 2017. The

Franconian Saale The Franconian Saale (, ) is a 140 km long river in Bavaria, Germany. It is a right-bank tributary of the Main (river), Main, in Lower Franconia. It should not be confused with the larger Saxon Saale (), which is a tributary of the Elbe Riv ...

flows through the town.

Geography

There are 17 town districts: It is only from the state of

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

. The city is twinned with

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal c ...

, USA. Bad Königshofen has a downtown recreational park named "Arlington" in honor of the city of Arlington. In 2006, the City of Arlington opened a water park named "Bad Königshofen Family Aquatic Center" in honor of the city of Bad Königshofen.

History

First mention of the town was in 741, although it had been settled way before then. Graves marked from as early as the 6th century have been found. There are

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

and

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

burials in this Festung Road cemetery. Artifacts found in the graves included a longsword and pottery. An even older cemetery found on Bamberger Road shows evidence of settlement in the 4th century. During the

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

, the town was ruled by tribal duchies as the

Duchy of Franconia The Duchy of Franconia () was one of the five stem duchies of East Francia and the medieval Kingdom of Germany emerging in the early 10th century. The word Franconia, first used in a Latin charter of 1053, was applied like the words Francia, Fr ...

. The town was granted a

city charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally, the granting of a charter ...

in 1235. Königshofen was owned by the

House of Henneberg The House of Henneberg was a medieval German Graf, comital family (''Grafen'') which from the 11th century onwards held large territories in the Duchy of Franconia. Their county was raised to a Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, princely county ( ...

in 1200. In 1353, the heiress Elisabeth of Henneberg married Eberhard II, Count of Württemberg and he sold the town in 1354 to the bishops of Würzburg. They subsequently expanded the town into a

fortress A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from L ...

. The

acquired the castle in 1400 and in 1412 they bought the entire town back from the Würzburg monastery. Later, the town became home to an episcopal

bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...

. In 1603, there was a

Leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East ...

called the Siechhaus in the town.

Government

The elections in March 2014 showed the following results:Ergebnis Stadtratswahl 2014
/ref> *CSU: 5 seats *SPD: 2 seats *Greens: 1 seat *Block Freier Wähler (Free voters): 2 seats *List Merkershausen: 2 seats *Bürgerblock der Stadtteile: 2 seats *List Eyershausen: 2 seats *List Althausen: 1 seat *List Untereßfeld: 1 seat *Junge Liste (young list): 1 seat *Aktive Bürger Bad Königshofen (Active citizens Bad Königshofen) 1 seat

Notable people

Gaspar Schott Gaspar Schott (German language, German: ''Kaspar'' (or ''Caspar'') ''Schott''; Latin: ''Gaspar Schottus''; 5 February 1608 – 22 May 1666) was a Germans, German Jesuit and scientist, specializing in the fields of physics, mathematics and natura ...

(1608-1666), science writer and educator * Ludwig Rousseau (1724-1794), German chemist * Karl Albert (1743-1819), sculptor of the Rococo * Alois Albert (1880-1939), politician (BVP), member of the Reichstag * Sieglinde Hofmann (born 1945), former member of the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (, ; RAF ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang ( ), was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998, considered a terrorist organisat ...

(RAF) * Waldemar Heckel (born 1949), leading authority and historian of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

Associated people

* Andreas Baader (1943-1977), leading terrorist of the

(RAF)

References