Bad Frankenhausen
Bad Frankenhausen | |
|---|---|
 Frankenhausen Castle | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Bad Frankenhausen withinKyffhäuserkreisdistrict  | |
  Bad Frankenhausen  Bad Frankenhausen | |
| Coordinates:51°21′21″N11°6′4″E/ 51.35583°N 11.10111°E | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Thuringia |
| District | Kyffhäuserkreis |
| Government | |
| •Mayor(2024–30) | Matthias Strejc[1](SPD) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 91.07 km2(35.16 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 132 m (433 ft) |
| Population (2022-12-31)[2] | |
| • Total | 9,995 |
| • Density | 110/km2(280/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00(CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00(CEST) |
| Postal codes | 06567 |
| Dialling codes | 034671 |
| Vehicle registration | KYF |
| Website | bad-frankenhausen |
Bad Frankenhausen(officially:Bad Frankenhausen/Kyffhäuser) is aspa townin theGermanstate ofThuringia.It is located at the southern slope of theKyffhäusermountain range, on an artificial arm of theWipperriver, a tributary of theUnstrut.Because of the nearbyKyffhäuser monumentdedicated toEmperor Frederick Barbarossa,it is nicknamedBarbarossastadt.The municipality includes the villages of Seehausen, Udersleben, (since 2007)Esperstedtand (since 2019)IchstedtandRingleben.
History
[edit]Frankenhausen was first attested as aFrankishsettlement in the 9th century in deeds of theAbbey of Fulda.It receivedtown privilegesin 1282 and from 1340 on was part of theCounty of Schwarzburg.
On 15 May 1525 it was the location of theBattle of Frankenhausen,one of the last great battles of theGerman Peasants' War,when the insurgent peasants underThomas Müntzerwere defeated by troops of the alliedDuke George of Saxony,Landgrave Philip I of HesseandDuke Henry V of Brunswick-Lüneburg.Müntzer was captured, tortured and finallybeheadedatMühlhausenon 27 May.
With the partition of Schwarzburg County in 1599, Frankenhausen became the capital of theUnterherrschaftsubdivision of the County ofSchwarzburg-Rudolstadt,which in 1710 was raised to aprincipality.Prince Günther Victorwas the last German monarch to abdicate, on 23 November (as Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt) and 25 November 1918 (as Prince ofSchwarzburg-Sondershausen). The succeeding short-lived Free State of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt merged into the newly created Thuringia in 1920.
Since 1818 asaline waterwell that had been used for centuries to extract salt has been used forsalinebaths and medical purposes. Therefore, in 1927 Frankenhausen received the official title of a spa town (Bad). In the 19th century the town was also famous for the manufacture ofpearl buttons.Today it mainly depends on tourism and spa vacation.
Since 1972 Frankenhausen has been agarrison town,formerly of amotorised infantryregiment of theNational People's Army,from 1990 on of the13th Mechanized Infantry Divisionof theGerman Army.
Population since 1994
[edit]Population as of 31 December unless otherwise noted:[3]
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Peasants' War Panorama
[edit]
rotunda
Based onFriedrich Engels' 1850 bookThe Peasant War in Germany,Thomas Müntzer as an early revolutionary became an icon ofhistorical materialisminEast Germany.
At the 450-years jubilee of the battle for Frankenhaus in 1975, the then-rulingSocialist Unity Party of Germany(SED) charged the rector of theLeipzig Academy of Visual Arts,ProfessorWerner Tübke,with the creation of a monumental panorama painting:Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany,also known as thePeasants' War Panorama.The work in a specially erectedrotundawas finished in 1987. Depicting more than 3000 individuals, the panorama is 123 metres (404 ft) in length and 14 metres (46 ft) in height.
Despite thePolitburo's plans modelled on theBattle of Borodinopanorama atPoklonnaya HillinMoscow,Tübke realised a rather pessimistic vision of a resigned Müntzer standing alone among battling troops, aBundschuhflag on the ground at his side. The Panorama was inaugurated byKurt HagerandMargot Honecker,as deputy for her husbandErich,on 14 September 1989, eight weeks before the fall of theBerlin Walland the eventualreunification of Germany in October 1990.
Today thePanorama Museumdisplays art shows and a collection of works of contemporary international artists.
Sights
[edit]- Frankenhausen Castle, with medieval foundations from the 14th century on, served as a residence of theHouse of Schwarzburg.Heavily damaged during thePeasants' War,it was rebuilt inRenaissancestyle between 1533 and 1536. Today it houses a museum of local history.
- TheChurch of Our Lady at the Mountain,colloquially calledOberkirche(Upper Church), completed in 1382, is known for its spire which precariously inclines to the side. The imbalance caused bysinkholesof the nearby salt mines had already started to affect it in the 17th century, for theBaroquetop partly equalises the slant of the tower. When last measured, it leant at 4.8°,[4]increasing 6 cm (2.4 in) per year, and thus is the second most leaning tower of Germany (after thespire of the Suurhusen Church) and leaning to a greater extent than theTower of Pisa.[5]In 2014, the German federal government agreed to pay €950,000 for work to stabilise the lean of the tower, fitting a "steel corset", thereby saving the structure from the risk of demolition.[6]
- The Kyffhäuser mountain range north of the town is the site of theKyffhäuser Monument,a huge sculpture in celebration of German national unity built from 1890 to 1896 to plans byBruno Schmitzon the ruins of a formerKaiserpfalz.
Notable people
[edit]
- Rudolf Aderhold(1865–1907), mycologist, botanist, director of the Imperial Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Berlin-Dahlem
- Sethus Calvisius(1556–1615), composer, grew up in Frankenhausen
- Dapayk(born 1978), producer and label owner
- Georg Eberhardt(1914–1943), Sturmbannführer (Major) of the Waffen SS during World War II
- Ludwig Elsbett(1913–2003), inventor of theElsbettEngine, studied engineering in Bad Frankenhausen
- Robert H. Foerderer(1860-1903), U.S. Congressman
- Reimund Neugebauer(born 1953), engineer and university teacher
- Eva Padberg(born 1980), fashion model, born 27 January 1980 in Bad Frankenhausen.
- Dieter Rex(1936–2002), painter and designer
- Doris Schade(1924–2012), actress, born in Frankenhausen
- Tom Schilling (choreographer)(born 1928 in Esperstedt), choreographer of modern dance theater
- Selmar Schonland(1860–1940), botanist and a founder ofRhodes University,born in Bad Frankenhausen
- Nils Schumann(born 1978), track and field athlete and Olympic 800 m champion
- Harald Vollmar(born 1947), marksman and multiple Olympic medalist
- Martin Gottfried Weiss(1905–1946), war criminal, commander of theDachau concentration camp,studied electrical engineering in Bad Frankenhausen
- Franz Winter (politician, born 1860)(1860–1920), the first social democratic president of a German parliament
- Christa Wolf(1929–2011), novelist, finished school in Bad Frankenhausen
- Gerhard Wolf (writer)(born 1928), writer and publisher
Twin town
[edit]
Bad Sooden-Allendorf,Werra-Meißner-Kreis,Hesse,Germanysince 1990.
References
[edit]- ^Gewählte Bürgermeister - aktuelle Landesübersicht,Freistaat Thüringen. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
- ^"Bevölkerung der Gemeinden, erfüllenden Gemeinden und Verwaltungsgemeinschaften in Thüringen Gebietsstand: 31.12.2022"(in German).Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik.June 2023.
- ^Datenquelle: Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik
- ^Christoph Seidler,"Built on Salt: The Leaning Tower of Bad Frankenhausen",Der Spiegel29 April 2010.
- ^Bojan Pancevski, Colin Freeman, Malcolm Moore,"Churches Challenge Leaning Tower of Pisa",Sunday Telegraph,22 July 2007.
- ^Huggler, Justin (20 November 2014)."Europe's tallest 'wonky' tower to be saved from collapse".The Telegraph.Retrieved6 April2017.
Literature
[edit]- Deutscher Städteatlas;Band: IV; 2 Teilband. Acta Collegii Historiae Urbanae Societatis Historicorum Internationalis - Serie C. Im Auftrag des Kuratoriums für vergleichende Städtegeschichte e. V. und mit Unterstützung der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, hrsg. von Heinz Stoob, Wilfried Ehbrecht, Jürgen Lafrenz und Peter Johannek. Stadtmappe Bad Frankenhausen, Author: Heinz Stoob.ISBN3-89115-032-6;Dortmund-Altenbeken, 1989.
External links
[edit]
- Official website(in German)
- .Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. IX (9th ed.). 1879. p. 704.
- .The American Cyclopædia.1879.
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