Bad Schlema

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Bad Schlema
Coat of arms Location
Coat of arms of Bad Schlema
Bad Schlema (Germany)
Bad Schlema
Administration
Country Flag of Germany Germany
State Saxony
Admin. region Chemnitz
District Aue-Schwarzenberg
Mayor Jens Müller (Ind.)
Basic statistics
Area 15.53 km² (6 sq mi)
Elevation 357 m  (1171 ft)
Population 5,451  (31/12/2006)
 - Density 351 /km² (909 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate ASZ
Postal code 08301
Area code 03772
Website www.kurort-schlema.de

Coordinates: 50°37′00″N 12°40′00″E / 50.616667, 12.666667

Bad Schlema is a community in the district of Aue-Schwarzenberg in the Free State of Saxony in Germany and belongs to the Silberberg Town League (Städtebund Silberberg). Through town runs the Silver Road (Silberstraße). The community is developing its tourist industry, above all its spa facilities.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Bad Schlema’s constituent communities are Oberschlema, Niederschlema and Wildbach.

[edit] History

Today’s community of Bad Schlema is an amalgamation of the two formerly separate communities of Niederschlema and Oberschlema, which took place in 1958. Since 1994, the community of Wildbach has also been united with this newer community.

Both these roughly 800-year-old communities in the Schlema Valley became well known through the centuries for iron, copper, silver and uranium mining. At the time of industrialization, the Toelle, Ehrler, Leonhardt, Rostosky and Philipp factories in Niederschlema and the Wilisch, Leonhardt, Kenzler and Müller companies in Oberschlema were household names throughout Germany. After a means of manufacturing blue dye from cobalt was discovered by Christoph Schürer, there developed in Oberschlema the world’s biggest cobalt-blue dyeworks, with 42 buildings. After rich radon springs were opened up in the Marx-Semmler-Stolln (a hillside mine) in Oberschlema between 1908 and 1912, the world’s richest radium spa developed after 1918. Only 10 years later, it was counted among Germany’s most important spas (in 1943, there were more than 17,000 spa visitors). Once the uranium mining was taken over by the Soviet occupational forces after 1946, the spa and the community of Oberschlema were utterly obliterated by 1952. By 1990, the Soviet-German Wismut Corporation (Sowjetisch-Deutsche Aktiengesellschaft Wismut, or SDAG Wismut) had mined almost 80 000 t of pure uranium from the Schlema Valley and the neighbouring Mulde Valley.

After mining came to an end, the mayor, Konrad Barth, organized Schlema’s revival as a spa town, which was realized in 1998 when the new Kurhaus (“spa house”) was opened. The newly opened radon springs afford ample bathing, now daily used by 1,200 guests at the "Actinon" bathhouse.

On 18 January 2005, Saxony’s state government bestowed upon the community the official designation Bad (literally “Bath”), after it had already been recognized as a radon spa since 29 October 2004. Bad Schlema thus became the first community to receive the Bad designation since 1990.

Markus-Semmler-Stollen visitor mine
Markus-Semmler-Stollen visitor mine

[edit] Population development

All following figures are for 31 December in the given year.

1982 to 1988

1989 to 1995

1996 to 2002

2003 to 2006

Source: Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen

[edit] Politics

[edit] Municipal partnership

Bad Schlema maintains a partnership with Rechberghausen in Baden-Württemberg.

[edit] Culture and sightseeing

[edit] Museums

  • Traditionsstätte des Sächsisch-Thüringischen Uranerzbergbaus (Saxon-Thuringian Historic Site for Uranium Mining)

[edit] Music

  • Silberbach-Chor (choir)

[edit] Famous people

  • Karsten Speck (1960- ), Entertainer and actor
  • Ricco Groß (1970- ), Biathlete
  • Johannes Unger (1976- ), Organist

[edit] Further reading

  • Oliver Titzmann: Uranbergbau contra Radiumbad, Selbstverlag, 2002
  • Oliver Titzmann: Radiumbad Oberschlema. Die Geschichte eines Kurortes, Selbstverlag 1995

[edit] External links

Bad Schlema’s official website

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