Bad Honnef () is a

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath, Somerset, Ba ...

in Germany near

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

in the Rhein-Sieg district,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. It is located on the border of the neighbouring state

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

. To the north it lies on the slopes of the Drachenfels (“Dragon's Rock”) mountain, part of the

Siebengebirge The (), occasionally Sieben Mountains or Seven Mountains, are a hill range of the German Central Uplands on the east bank of the Middle Rhine, southeast of Bonn. Description The area, located in the municipalities of Bad Honnef and Königswin ...

Overview

Bad Honnef is home to a mineral spring called the ("Dragon Spring") which was discovered in 1897. This discovery led to Honnef, as the town was called at the time, transforming from a

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

-growing town to a spa town, adding the prefix Bad to its name. The mineral spring has been used for both drinking and bathing. Bad Honnef includes several districts, such as Aegidienberg, Rhöndorf, and Lohfelderfähre, which is located near the Rhine ferry crossing to Rolandseck. During his term as first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (then West Germany),

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...

lived (and died) in Bad Honnef, as it was near Bonn, then the capital of the republic. Also, German politician and leader of the Free Democratic Party Guido Westerwelle was born in Bad Honnef. Since the 1980s Bad Honnef has developed into an important place for conferences in Germany. Because of the close proximity to the still internationally important Federal City of Bonn, many federal institutions are located in Bad Honnef. The head office of the Nationalpark Siebengebirge project was also planned to be in Bad Honnef; however the project was rejected in a referendum on 27 September 2009. Bad Honnef has the highest purchasing power of all towns in North Rhine-Westphalia; its percentage of millionaires is also one of the highest.

Mayors

Twin towns – sister cities

Bad Honnef is twinned with: *

Berck Berck (), sometimes referred to as Berck-sur-Mer in French or Berck-su-Mér in Picard language, Picard ( ''Berck on Sea''), is a Communes of France, commune in the northern French Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Situated on ...

, France * Cadenabbia (Griante), Italy *

Ludvika Ludvika () is a bimunicipal Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Ludvika Municipality, Dalarna County within the country of Sweden, with 14,498 inhabitants in 2010. Overview The conurbation of Ludvika extends over the border of Smedjebacke ...

, Sweden * Wittichenau, Germany

Notable people

* Curt Haase (1881–1943), general in World War II * Boris Papandopulo (1906–1991), composer and conductor * Franz Brungs (born 1936), football player and coach *

Peter Frankenberg Peter Frankenberg (born 1947 in Bad Honnef, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) is a German researcher, professor and politician ( CDU). Frankenberg was Minister of Science, Research and the Arts of the state of Baden-Württemberg (''Ministerium f� ...

(born 1947), professor and politician (CDU), minister in Baden-Württemberg * Peter Hintze (1950–2016), politician (CDU), 2013–2016 Vice-President of the Bundestag * Guido Westerwelle (1961–2016), politician (FDP), Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany (2009–2013) * Sydney Lohmann (born 2000), football player

References

External links

*
Stadt Bad Honnef

International University of Applied Sciences, Bad Honnef

Physikzentrum Bad Honnef

{{Authority control Populated places on the Rhine Spa towns in Germany Districts of the Rhine Province