Bad Schlema

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Bad Schlema

Coat of arms
Bad Schlema
Coordinates: 50°37′N 12°40′E / 50.617°N 12.667°E / 50.617; 12.667Coordinates: 50°37′N 12°40′E / 50.617°N 12.667°E / 50.617; 12.667
Country Germany
State Saxony
District Erzgebirgskreis
Government
 • Mayor Jens Müller (Ind.)
Area
 • Total 15.53 km2 (6.00 sq mi)
Elevation 357 m (1,171 ft)
Population (2012-12-31)[1]
 • Total 4,991
 • Density 320/km2 (830/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 08301
Dialling codes 03772
Vehicle registration ERZ
Website www.kurort-schlema.de

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

Geography

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

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 more than 80 000 t of 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

Population development

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

1982 to 1988

  • 1982 − 7921
  • 1983 − 7779
  • 1984 − 7617
  • 1985 − 7568
  • 1986 − 7466
  • 1987 − 7428
  • 1988 − 7309

1989 to 1995

  • 1989 − 6959
  • 1990 − 6605
  • 1991 − 6460
  • 1992 − 6365
  • 1993 − 6343
  • 1994 − 6340
  • 1995 − 6234

1996 to 2002

  • 1996 − 6189
  • 1997 − 6249
  • 1998 − 6227
  • 1999 − 6088
  • 2000 − 5849
  • 2001 − 5737
  • 2002 − 5649

2003 to 2006

  • 2003 − 5595
  • 2004 − 5549
  • 2005 − 5493
  • 2006 − 5451
Source: Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen

Politics

Municipal partnership

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

Culture and sightseeing

Museums

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

Music

Famous people

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

Further reading

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

References

  1. ↑ "Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen – Bevölkerung des Freistaates Sachsen jeweils am Monatsende ausgewählter Berichtsmonate nach Gemeinden". Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen (in German). 17 June 2013. 

External links

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.
Towns and municipalities in Erzgebirgskreis
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