Bad Arolsen

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Bad Arolsen
Coat of arms Location
Coat of arms of Bad Arolsen
Bad Arolsen (Germany)
Bad Arolsen
Administration
Country Flag of Germany Germany
State Hesse
Admin. region Kassel
District Waldeck-Frankenberg
Mayor Jürgen van der Horst (Independent)
Basic statistics
Area 126.32 km² (48.8 sq mi)
Elevation 286 m  (938 ft)
Population 18,199  (18/12/2007)
 - Density 144 /km² (373 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate KB
Postal code 34454
Area codes 05691, 05696
Website Stadt Bad Arolsen

Coordinates: 51°22′00″N 9°1′00″E / 51.366667, 9.016667

Bad Arolsen (until 1997 Arolsen) is a small town in northern Hesse, Germany, in Waldeck-Frankenberg county. 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.


Contents

[edit] Geography

[edit] Location

Bad Arolsen is situated roughly 45 km west of Kassel.

The German-Dutch holiday road called the Oranier-Route runs through the town, joining towns, cities and regions associated with the House of Orange.

[edit] Neighbouring communities

Bad Arolsen neighbours are: the town of Diemelstadt to the north, the town of Volkmarsen (both belonging to the county of Waldeck-Frankenberg); the town of Wolfhagen in the southeast (Kassel district); the town of Waldeck to the south , the community of Twistetal to the southwest; the community of Diemelsee to the west (the last three in Waldeck-Frankenberg county) and the town of Marsberg (Hochsauerlandkreis in North Rhine-Westphalia).

[edit] Constituent communities

Downtown
Downtown
Stately residence
Stately residence

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, 3,746 inhabitants
  • Neu-Berich, 246 inhabitants
  • Schmillinghausen, 495 inhabitants
  • Volkhardinghausen, 130 inhabitants
  • Wetterburg, 859 inhabitants

[edit] History

The earliest documents mentioning Arolsen date back to 1131 when an Augustinian 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 Prince Frederik Anton Ulrich (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.

Bad Arolsen is the site of the International Tracing Service archive, a venue for millions of documents related to the Nazi-attempted extermination of the Jewish people and others. Information kept hidden from the public for the past fifty years is slated to be made available by the ITS, an organization that is part of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

[edit] Politics

[edit] Town council

The town council's 37 seats are apportioned in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006:

CDU 15 seats
SPD 11 seats
Offene Liste 3 seats
FDP 3 seats
FWG 3 seats
Greens 2 seats

Note: FWG is a citizens' coalition. Offene Liste is the "Open List".

[edit] 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). His six-year term is scheduled to end in May 2014.

[edit] 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 1938.[1]

[edit] Partnerships

[edit] Culture and sightseeing

[edit] The town

Schloss Arolsen
Schloss Arolsen

Worthy of note is the town's baroque 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.

[edit] Buildings

  • The baroque Stately Home, Schloss Arolsen, originally belonging to the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont with its imposing construction was built from 1713 until 1728 by architect Julius Ludwig Rothweil. Of particular importance are the ceiling paintings by the Italian artist Carlo Ludovici Castelli, and the outstanding stucco works by Andrea Gallasini.
  • Landauer Wasserkunst, an historic waterworks in Landau dating from 1555.

[edit] Tourism

The best known outing destination near Bad Arolsen is the Twistesee, a man-made lake.

Panorama of Twistesee


[edit] Regular events

  • May: Arolser Barockfestspiele (Baroque festival)
  • July: Magic Circle Music Festival (Heavy Metal Music Festival at the Bioenergiepark)
  • August: Arolser Kram- und Viehmarkt (a fair with amusement rides, household goods and cattle markets)
  • December: Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas fair at the Kirchplatz in the towns central place)

[edit] 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.

[edit] Transport

Bad Arolsen is located on the railway line from Kassel 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.

[edit] Public institutions

Since 1946, Bad Arolsen has been headquarters to the International Tracing Service, an organization dedicated to finding missing persons, typically lost to family and friends as a result of war or political unrest during World War II. The institution is led and administered by the International Red Cross and funded by the Federal Republic of Germany.

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 must decide unanimously that this is to be done.[2] 12 Million of the documents have now being digitally scanned and shared with research institutions around the world. The archive will be fully opened later this year when France, Italy and Greece ratify changes to the access protocol[3].

[edit] Well known persons

[edit] Sons and daughters of the town

[edit] References

This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Towns and municipalities in Waldeck-Frankenberg district
Wappen des Landkreises Waldeck-Frankenberg