Bad Arolsen
Encyclopedia
Bad Arolsen is a small town in northern Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, in Waldeck-Frankenberg
Waldeck-Frankenberg
Waldeck-Frankenberg is a Kreis in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Höxter, Kassel, Schwalm-Eder, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Hochsauerland.-History:...

 district. From 1655 until 1918 it served as the residence town of the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont
Waldeck (state)
Waldeck was a sovereign principality in the German Empire and German Confederation and, until 1929, a constituent state of the Weimar Republic. It comprised territories in present-day Hesse and Lower Saxony, ....

 and then until 1929 as the capital of the Waldeck Free State. The International Tracing Service
International Tracing Service
The International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, is the internationally governed archive whose task it is to document the fate of millions of civilian victims of Nazi Germany. The documents in the ITS archives include original records from concentration camps, details of forced labour,...

 has its headquarters in Bad Arolsen.

Location

Bad Arolsen is situated roughly 45 km west of Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

.

The German-Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 holiday road called the Orange Route
Orange Route
The Orange Route is a holiday route, that runs from Amsterdam in the Netherlands through North and Central Germany and returns to Amsterdam. It is 2,400 kilometres long and crossess the Netherlands and nine German federal states...

 runs through the town, joining towns, cities and regions associated with the House of Orange.

Neighbouring communities

Bad Arolsen neighbours are: the town of Diemelstadt
Diemelstadt
-Location:Diemelstadt lies in a small "bay" of Hesse that thrusts into, and is surrounded on three sides by, North Rhine-Westphalia. The River Diemel, the town's namesake, does not cross through the municipal area, forming only parts of the town limits, and at the same time parts of the boundary...

 to the north, the town of Volkmarsen
Volkmarsen
Volkmarsen is a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in northern Hesse, Germany.-Location:Volkmarsen lies on the northern edge of the Waldecker Tafel where it flattens out into the Diemel Valley, some 28 km northwest of Kassel and 7 km northeast of Bad Arolsen.-Neighbouring...

  (both belonging to the county of Waldeck-Frankenberg); the town of Wolfhagen
Wolfhagen
Wolfhagen is a town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 12 km southeast of Bad Arolsen, and 23 km west of Kassel on the German Framework Road.-External links:*...

 in the southeast (Kassel
Kassel (district)
Kassel is a Kreis in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Northeim, Göttingen, Werra-Meißner, Schwalm-Eder, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Höxter...

 district); the town of Waldeck
Waldeck, Hesse
Waldeck is a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in northwestern Hesse, Germany.-Location:Waldeck lies on the Edersee, a man-made lake...

 to the south , the community of Twistetal
Twistetal
Twistetal is a community in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northwest Hesse, Germany, southwest of Bad Arolsen.-Location:The community lies on the river Twiste, a tributary to the Diemel, itself a tributary to the Weser...

 to the southwest; the community of Diemelsee
Diemelsee
Diemelsee is a community in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northwest Hesse, Germany, and is part of the Upland region.-Location:Diemelsee lies in the River Diemel in the Diemelsee Nature Park just upstream from and southwest of the Diemelsee reservoir...

 to the west (the last three in Waldeck-Frankenberg county) and the town of Marsberg
Marsberg
Marsberg is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-History:Although its origins are obscure, Marsberg was a prospering town by the 13th century . It was a free city until 1807, when it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Westphalia, until 1813...

 (Hochsauerlandkreis in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

).

Constituent communities

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
    Mengeringhausen
    Mengeringhausen is a village and a municipal district of Bad Arolsen in Waldeck-Frankenberg, in Hesse, Germany. Its population is estimated at 3,800.First time mentioned as a town 'Stadt Mengeringhausen' in 1234...

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

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
Waldeck
-Places:* Waldeck Castle, a medieval fortress/castle in Germany* Waldeck, Hesse, a town in Hesse* Waldeck or Waldeck-Pyrmont, a principality in the German Empire and German Confederation, and a state in the Weimar Republic, named after the above castle and town* Waldeck, Bavaria, a village in the...

, 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
Free State
The Free State is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Orange Free State Boer republic and later Orange Free State Province. The current borders of the province date from 1994 when the Bantustans...

 of Waldeck-Pyrmont (after 1922: Free State of Waldeck), which was subsequently incorporated into Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

.

Town council

The town council's 37 seats are apportioned in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006:
CDU
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

 
15 seats
SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 
11 seats
Offene Liste 3 seats
FDP
Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...

 
3 seats
FWG 3 seats
Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

 
2 seats

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

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.

Coat of arms

Bad Arolsen's civic coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 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
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

, which was not officially tolerated in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. 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
Bad Krozingen
Bad Krozingen is a spa town in the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 15 km southwest of Freiburg....

'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.http://www.ngw.nl/int/dld/a/arolsen.htm

Partnerships

Bad Köstritz
Bad Köstritz
Bad Köstritz is a town in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Weiße Elster, 7 km northwest of Gera. Bad Köstritz is known for the Köstritzer brewery and its Schwarzbier .-External links:*...

, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

 Heusden-Zolder
Heusden-Zolder
Heusden-Zolder is a municipality located in the Belgian province of province of Limburg near Hasselt. On 1 January 2006 Heusden-Zolder had a total population of 30,769...

, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 Hermann
Hermann, Missouri
Hermann is a city designated in 1842 as the county seat of Gasconade County, Missouri, United States. It is near the center of the Missouri Rhineland and south of the Missouri River. The population was 2,674 at the 2000 census....

, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Klütz
Klütz
Klütz is a town in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated near the Baltic Sea coast, 22 km northwest of Wismar, and 33 km northeast of Lübeck.-External links:...

, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

The town

Worthy of note is the town's baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 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.

The Grosse Allee ("Grand Avenue") is a remarkable piece of city landscaping. It is a broad avenue running one mile from east to west lined by some 880 German oak trees in a six-line arrangement. Particularly during the warm months of spring, summer and fall it attracts scores of people strolling and enjoying the shady park-like atmosphere. The avenue was built in 1676 as a prestigious connecting way for the carriages between the "Residenzschloss" and the princely "Lustschloss", the latter having been torn down in the year 1725.

Buildings

  • The baroque-style Schloss Arolsen
    Arolsen Castle
    Arolsen Castle is a baroque styled Schloss in Bad Arolsen, Hesse, Germany. It has served as the family home of the Waldeck and Pyrmont family. It was birthplace of Queen consort Emma of the Netherlands.-History:...

    , 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
    Stucco
    Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

     works by Andrea Gallasini.
  • Landauer Wasserkunst, an historic waterworks
    WaterWorks
    WaterWorks is a water park owned by Cedar Fair, located at the back of Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. When it debuted in 1992, it was originally named Hurricane Reef...

     in Landau dating from 1555.

Regular events

  • March/April: Lighting of the Easter Fire on the Königsberg fair ground
  • May: Arolser Barockfestspiele (Baroque festival)
  • August: Arolser Kram- und Viehmarkt (a fair with amusement rides, household goods and cattle markets at the Königsberg fair ground)
  • August: Bad Arolsen Twistesee Triathlon running
  • November: Bad Arolsen Advent Waldmarathon running
  • December: Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas fair at the Kirchplatz in the towns central place ”Kirchplatz“)
  • Repeating every seven years (last time 2007): The “Freischiessen festival” in Mengeringhausen

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
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...

 deactivated its camp in Mengeringhausen.

Transport

Bad Arolsen is located on the railway line from Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 to Korbach
Korbach
Korbach is the district seat of Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse, Germany. It is over a thousand years old and a former Hanseatic town. It is located on the German Framework Road.- Geography and geology :...

. 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.

Public institutions

Since 1946, Bad Arolsen has been headquarters to the International Tracing Service
International Tracing Service
The International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, is the internationally governed archive whose task it is to document the fate of millions of civilian victims of Nazi Germany. The documents in the ITS archives include original records from concentration camps, details of forced labour,...

, 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
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The institution is led and administered by the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...

 and funded by the Federal Republic of Germany.

A venue for millions of documents related to the Nazi-attempted extermination of the Jewish people and others, the ITS holds vast archives of Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

-related documents. In April 2006, German justice minister Brigitte Zypries
Brigitte Zypries
Brigitte Zypries is a German politician. She was Federal Minister of Justice of Germany from 2002 to 2009. She is member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .- Career :...

 announced that Germany would cooperate with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and allow survivors and historians of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

 access to 47 million pages of documents, although an eleven-nation accord had to decide unanimously that this was to be done.http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8633EA3D-1AC2-41DF-9B7B-D2C385B1E10F.htm More than 12 Million of the documents have now being digitally scanned and shared with research institutions around the world. The archive fully opened when France, Italy and Greece ratified changes to the access protocol. Information kept hidden from the public since its inception was finally open to the public in November 2007.

Well known persons

  • Otto von Bismarck
    Otto von Bismarck
    Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...

    , former Chancellor
    Chancellor
    Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...

     of the German Empire
    German Empire
    The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

     from 1871 until 1890, is a "honorary citizen" of Bad Arolsen.

Sons and daughters of the town

  • 1556 Philipp Nicolai
    Philipp Nicolai
    Philipp Nicolai was a German Lutheran pastor, poet, and composer, author of two famous hymns: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme and Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern...

    , song-poet and Reformer, in Mengeringhausen (died 26 October 1608 in Hamburg
    Hamburg
    -History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

    )
  • 1620 Prince Georg Friedrich von Waldeck (died 19 November 1692 in Bad Arolsen)
  • 1767 Johann Stieglitz, doctor (died 31 October 1840 in Hanover
    Hanover
    Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

    )
  • 1777 Christian Daniel Rauch
    Christian Daniel Rauch
    Christian Daniel Rauch was a German sculptor. He founded the Berlin school of sculpture, and was the foremost German sculptor of the 19th century.-Biography:Rauch was born at Arolsen in the Principality of Waldeck...

    , sculptor (died 3 December 1857 in Dresden
    Dresden
    Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

    ); The Museum in Bad Arolsen looks after his memorial.
  • 1804, Wilhelm von Kaulbach
    Wilhelm von Kaulbach
    Wilhelm von Kaulbach was a German painter, noted mainly as a muralist, but also as a book illustrator. His murals decorate buildings in Munich.-Education:...

    , painter (died 7 April 1874 in Munich
    Munich
    Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

    )
  • 1822, Friedrich Kaulbach
    Friedrich Kaulbach
    Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Kaulbach was a German painter from Bad Arolsen, Hesse. His father was Christian Kaulbach , a cabinet maker in Arolsen. He was also the cousin and at one time the student of the painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach, son of Philipp Karl Friedrich v...

    , painter (died 17 September 1903 in Hanover)
  • 1838, Walther Herwig
    Walther Herwig
    Walther Herwig was a Prussian administrative lawyer, and the founder of the German fisheries science....

    , founder of German high-sea fishing
  • 1858, Adelheid Emma Wilhelmina Theresia von Waldeck-Pyrmont
    Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont
    Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont was Queen consort of William III, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg...

    , Queen and 1890-1898 Regent of the Netherlands
    Netherlands
    The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

     (Dutch King William III
    William III of the Netherlands
    William III was from 1849 King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg until his death and the Duke of Limburg until the abolition of the Duchy in 1866.-Early life:William was born in Brussels as son of William II of the Netherlands and...

    's second wife; died 20 March 1934 in The Hague
    The Hague
    The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

    )
  • 1861, August Bier
    August Bier
    August Karl Gustav Bier was a German surgeon and a pioneer of spinal anaesthesia. After professorships in Greifswald and Bonn, Bier became a professor at the Charité in Berlin.-Spinal anesthesia:...

    , surgeon
    Surgeon
    In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

    , in Helsen (died 12 March 1949 in Sauen (near Beeskow
    Beeskow
    Beeskow is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, and capital of the Oder-Spree district. It is situated on the river Spree, 30 km southwest of Frankfurt an der Oder....

    ))
  • 1873, Rudolf Klapp, orthopaedics professor
  • 1896, Josias Erbprinz von Waldeck-Pyrmont, SS
    Schutzstaffel
    The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...

     Obergruppenführer
    Obergruppenführer
    Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA and until 1942 it was the highest SS rank inferior only to Reichsführer-SS...

     (died 30 November 1967 in Bad Arolsen)
  • 1936, Wittekind Prinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, residing prince and chief of the House of Waldeck

External links

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