Bad Mergentheim

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Bad Mergentheim (Mergentheim until 1926) is a town in the Main-Tauber district in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

History

Mergentheim is mentioned in chronicles as early as 1058, as the residence of the family of the counts of Hohenlohe, who early in the 13th century assigned the greater part of their estates in and around Mergentheim to the Teutonic order. In 1340 Mergentheim got Town privileges. It rapidly increased in fame, and became the most important of the eleven commanderies of that society. On the secularization of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in 1525, Mergentheim became the residence of the grand master, and remained so until the final dissolution of the order in 1809 by Napoleon.

Bad Mergentheim's fortunes were reversed in 1826, when a shepherd discovered rich mineral springs in the surrounding area, during the time when spas were expanding in Germany at a rapid pace. The water turned out to be the strongest sodium-sulfate water in all of Europe, especially good for the treatment of digestive disorders.

In the 1970s several neighbouring villages were incorporated during the "Gemeindereform".

Year	Population
1660	1.064
1855	2.917
1900	4.372
1933	6.191
1945	9.300
1950	10.184
1961	11.608
1975	19.895
1990	21.567
2005	22.486

Villages

(inhabitants)
Althausen (600), Apfelbach (350), Dainbach (370), Edelfingen (1.400), Hachtel (360), Herbsthausen (200), Löffelstelzen (1.000), Markelsheim (2.000), Neunkirchen (1000), Rengershausen (480), Rot (260), Stuppach (680), Wachbach (1.300)

Main sights

Schloss 001 - Boardrx182.jpg The most interesting sight in Bad Mergentheim is the Deutschordenschloss, the medieval castle where the Teutonic Knights once had their home base. It is a complex of buildings built over a period of eight hundred years. The first buildings of the castle were probably already erected in the 12th century. The castle was expanded in the late 16th century under Grand Master Walter von Cronberg. Over the course of time a representative Renaissance complex was built by connecting the individual buildings in the inner palace courtyard to a closed ring of buildings. In 1574, the main architect, Blasius Berwart, also constructed the spiral staircase between the west and north wing still famous today. Today the castle houses the Deutschordensmuseum (Museum of the Teutonic Order).

The castle complex is dominated by the Schlosskirche (Castle Church), built in 1730 in Baroque style. Its Rococo interior features elaborate ceiling frescos by the court painter Nikolaus Gottfried Stuber, depicting The Defense of Faith, the Glorification of the Cross in Heaven and on Earth and the Emperor Constantine's Vision of the Cross. Almost 200 years ago the Schlosskirche became an Evangelische Kirche or Protestant church.

Modern facilities

Löffelstelzen Transmitter

Twin towns

Notable residents and natives

1854 Ottmar Mergenthaler, (1854-1899), inventor of the linotype
1894 Felix Fechenbach, (1894-1933) German journalist, poet and political activist, who was murdered by the Nazis
1944 Barbara Stamm, German politician and vice-chairwoman of the CSU
1955 Fritz Kuhn, German politician and former co-chairman of the German Green Party
Eduard Mörike, German poet, lived in Bad Mergentheim from 1844-1851.
Ludwig van Beethoven, was viola player in the court's musical establishment of the Hochmeister (Grand Master) of the Teutonic Knights Maximilian Franz of Austria in 1791.