Bad König is a town and resort (Kurort

Spa town

A spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...

) in the central Odenwald

Odenwald

The Odenwald is a low mountain range in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Location :The Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried in the west, the Main and the Bauland in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of...

 in the Odenwaldkreis

Odenwaldkreis

The Odenwaldkreis is a Kreis in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Darmstadt-Dieburg, Miltenberg,Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis and Kreis Bergstraße. Odenwaldkreis belongs to the Rhine Neckar Area.-History:...

 (district) in 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...

, 29 km southeast of Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

.

Neighbouring communities

Bad König borders in the north on the communities of Höchst

Höchst im Odenwald

Höchst im Odenwald is a community in the Odenwaldkreis in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Höchst lies 25 km east of Darmstadt, in the northern Odenwald at elevations between 175 and 400 m....

 and Lützelbach

Lützelbach

-Location:The community lies in the northern Odenwald on the Hesse-Bavaria boundary in a richly wooded setting.-Neighbouring communities:Lützelbach borders in the north on the town of Breuberg and the town of Obernburg, in the east on the towns of Wörth am Main and Klingenberg , in the south on the...

, in the east and south on the town of Michelstadt

Michelstadt

Michelstadt in the Odenwald is a town in the Odenwaldkreis in southern Hesse, Germany between Darmstadt and Heidelberg.- Location :Michelstadt is the biggest town in the Odenwaldkreis and borders on the district seat of Erbach....

 and in the west on the communities of Brombachtal

Brombachtal

-Neighbouring communities:Brombachtal borders in the north and east on the town of Bad König, in the south on the town of Michelstadt and in the west on the communities of Reichelsheim and Brensbach.-Constituent communities:...

 and Brensbach

Brensbach

-Neighbouring communities:Brensbach borders in the north on the towns of Groß-Bieberau and Reinheim and the community of Otzberg , in the east on the community of Höchst and the town of Bad König, in the south on the communities of Brombachtal and Reichelsheim and in the west on the communities of...

.

Constituent communities

Besides the main town, also called Bad König, the town has the outlying Ortsteile of Zell, Momart, Etzen-Gesäß, Fürstengrund, Kimbach, Nieder-Kinzig and Ober-Kinzig with Gumpersberg.

History

Bad König is one of the oldest settlements in the Mümling valley. There were Germanic

Germanic peoples

The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...

 settlers quite early on. In Roman times

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, the name for this place was apparently Quintiacum, and Quinticha was the name under which Bad König had its first documentary mention between 820 and 822. In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 it was originally an Imperial

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

 holding, then belonging to the Fulda Monastery. Bad König was already fortified in the Early Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

, and was the hub of a tithing

Tithe

A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...

 area with a tithing office. In 1477, Künnig als Chur Maintzisch Lehn (or in standard modern German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 König als Kurmainzisches Lehen – “König as an Electorate of Mainz

Archbishopric of Mainz

The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...

 fief”) was given to the Schenk Konrad von Erbach. Under the terms of the Erbach land partition in 1747, the Amt of König passed into the ownership of the Counts of Erbach-Schönberg. In 1948, König was granted the right to call itself staatlich anerkanntes Bad, or “state-recognized resort”, and in 1980 this resort in the Odenwald was granted town rights.

Jewish community

In (Bad) König there was a Jewish community until 1939. Its establishment went back to the 18th century. The town’s Jewish population peaked at 100 about 1880. It was an Orthodox

Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...

 community. The Jewish families in town owned livestock

Livestock

Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

 and horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

 businesses, cereal

Cereal

Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...

 and flour

Flour

Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...

 businesses, manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

 businesses and colonial goods businesses as well as those that made glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 and porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

. The firm J. Mannheimer had a great shop for farming machinery

Agricultural machinery

Agricultural machinery is machinery used in the operation of an agricultural area or farm.-Hand tools:The first person to turn from the hunting and gathering lifestyle to farming probably did so by using his bare hands, and perhaps some sticks or stones. Tools such as knives, scythes, and wooden...

. For Jewish resort guests there was a kosher guesthouse

Pension (lodging)

A pensione is a family-owned guest house or boarding house. This term is typically used in Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, other Continental European countries, in areas of North Africa and the Middle East that formerly had large European expatriate populations, and in some parts of South America...

. The synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

 built in 1795-1797 was heavily damaged on Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...

 (9 November 1938), and in 1939 it was torn down. In 1933 there were still 72 Jews living in town. Because of the scenes of utter brutality in connection with Kristallnacht, most of them left town, especially as from 1939 they were no longer allowed to buy food. At least ten Jews from Bad König were deported to the camps and murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

ed.

Politics

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:

Parties and voter communities		% 2006	Seats 2006	% 2001	Seats 2001
CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany	45.2	12	45.7	14
SPD	Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...	44.2	12	42.3	13
GREENS	Bündnis 90/Die Grünen	4.4	1	–	–
FDP	Free Democratic Party 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...	6.2	2	2.9	1
GAL	Grün-Alternative Liste Bad König	–	–	6.7	2
ÜWG	Überparteiliche Wählergemeinschaft Bad König	–	–	2.4	1
Total		100.0	27	100.0	31
Voter turnout in %		47.4		59.6

There are local deputies in the outlying centres of Etzen-Gesäß, Fürstengrund, Kimbach, Nieder-Kinzig, Ober-Kinzig and Zell.

Town partnerships

  Argentat

Argentat

Argentat is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.-Geography:Argentat is situated on the Dordogne River, to the south west of Bort-les-Orgues. It is the point where the Maronne, a tributary of the Dordogne, converges with the famous river...

, Limousin

Limousin (région)

Limousin is one of the 27 regions of France. It is composed of three départements: Corrèze, Creuse and the Haute-Vienne.Situated largely in the Massif Central, as of January 1st 2008, the Limousin comprised 740,743 inhabitants on nearly 17 000 km2, making it the second least populated region of...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 since 1982.

Transport

The town is linked to the long-distance road network by Bundesstraße

Bundesstraße

Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...

45 (Hanau

Hanau

Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...

–Eberbach

Eberbach (Baden)

Eberbach is a town in Germany, in northern Baden-Württemberg, located 33 km east of Heidelberg. It belongs to the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis. Its sister city is Ephrata, United States.- Location :...

). The Odenwaldbahn (railway; RMV Line 65) links Bad König, as well as the outlying centre of Zell, with the Neckar

Neckar

The Neckar is a long river, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, but also a short section through Hesse, in Germany. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the River Rhine...

 valley and also Frankfurt and Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

.

External links

• Town’s website