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, Ba ...

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-Württ ...

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 ...

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 ...

, 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 Physical therapy, physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and ...

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

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

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

Geography

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

and

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...

. It is approximately 80 km / 50 miles west of

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and 35 km / 22 miles east of

Memmingen Memmingen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Memmenge'') is a town in Swabia (Bavaria), 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 ...

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 was built under the direction of Dominikus Zimmermann. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, with south-western Germany belonging to the American occupation zone, Bad Wörishofen was the site of a displaced persons camp. Most of the displaced people in question were of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n provenance. The camp enjoyed the confidence and support of the UNRRA, and was accordingly permitted to print its own bank notes.

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the town

* Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945–1982), film director * Jeremias Schröder (born in 1964 as Maximilian Schröder), Benedictine Abbot and President of the Benedictine Congregation of St. Ottilien. * Yank Azman (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, 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''.'' * Carl Beines (1869–1950), violinist, composer, choral director and vocal pedagogue, whose pupils included Richard Tauber, and Herbert Ernst Groh, lived, taught and died in the town. *

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer and critic who was an important figure in the Literary modernism, modernist movement. Her works are celebrated across the world and have been ...

(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 1946), football player for the

Germany national football team The Germany national football team () represents Germany in men's international Association football, football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (''Deutscher Fußball-Bund''), founded ...

and FC Bayern München, 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 1958), dressage rider, lived in Bad Wörishofen until 2011. * Irmgard Seefried (1919–1988), soprano, lived in Bad Wörishofen from 1923 to 1940, winner of Bad Wörishofen's Public Service Medal in gold. * Ethel Smyth (1858–1944), an English composer, lived in Munich for a while and had a health-related stay in Bad Wörishofen in 1889. * Antanas Deksnys (1906–1999), a Catholic bishop from Lithuania.

Economy

Wörishofer sandals are made here.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bad Worishofen Spa towns in Germany Unterallgäu