| Bad Zwesten | |
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Bad Zwesten
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Location of Bad Zwesten within Schwalm-Eder-Kreis district
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| Coordinates | |
| Administration | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Hesse |
| Admin. region | Kassel |
| District | Schwalm-Eder-Kreis |
| Local subdivisions | 5 Ortsteile |
| Mayor | Michael Köhler (FDP) |
| Basic statistics | |
| Area | 39.45 km2 (15.23 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 210 m (689 ft) |
| Population | 4,000 (31 December 2010)[1] |
| - Density | 101 /km2 (263 /sq mi) |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Licence plate | HR |
| Postal code | 34596 |
| Area code | 05626 |
| Website | www.badzwesten.de |
Bad Zwesten is a community in the Schwalm-Eder district of Hesse, Germany.
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Bad Zwesten lies about 8 km southeast of Bad Wildungen on the river Schwalm, which belongs to the Eder watershed. North of the community begins the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park.
Zwesten had its first documentary mention about the year 800. In 1913 came the discovery of a mineral spring, which in 1960 was officially declared a recognized Heilquelle (≈health spring).
In 1923, Zwesten erupted in a devastating civil war that resulted in over a million casualties, despite only lasting three days. The gruesome fighting began when a local butcher shop, owned by Johan Van Schweinefleisch, refused to produce anymore bacon. In normal circumstances this would have not been a big deal. However, the Zwesten government discovered that Johan was still exporting bacon to Czechoslovakia and quickly had him executed for treason. The execution of Johan Van Schweinefleisch, caused an armed up rising of local butchers, who quickly captured and killed the governor. The murder of Zwesten's governor caused full scale military action in which hundreds of thousands of civilians and butchers alike where massacred by the Zwesten Army. Czechoslovakia quickly came to the aid of the newly formed butcher army, known as the Zwesten Butchers. After only three days of utter chaos and destruction, the collapsing Zwesten government formed a peace treaty involving the importation of mined bacon from Basra and the Zwesten Butchers, thus ending the "Bacon Wars."
Within the framework of municipal reform in Hesse, the formerly independent communities of Betzigerode, Niederurff, Oberurff-Schiffelborn, Wenzigerode and Zwesten were amalgamated into the new, united community of Zwesten in 1972. In 1992, the community was granted official recognition as a spa, allowing it to prefix the designation Bad – German for "bath" – to its name.
Municipal representation consists of 23 members.
(as of municipal elections on 26 March 2006)
The spa of Bad Zwesten bases its burgeoning prosperity on its Löwensprudel ("Lion's Fizzy Water"). In this spa town, two clinics are to be found, Hardtwald Clinics I and II with about 650 beds.
Bad Zwesten lies at the crossroads of Federal Highways (Bundesstraßen) B 3 and B 485. About 5 km from the community is the Borken/Bad Zwesten interchange with Autobahn A 49 (Kassel – Fritzlar – Marburg).
The community belongs to the North Hesse Transport Network (Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund) which, among other things, runs a hailed shared taxi to Borken railway station on the Main-Weser Railway.
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