Bad Vilbel () 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 ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

(Hessen),

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, famous for its many

mineral water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. It is usually still, but may be sparkling ( carbonated/ effervescent). Traditionally, mineral waters were used or consumed at t ...

springs. Bad Vilbel is the largest town in the

Wetteraukreis The Wetteraukreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Landkreis Gießen, Vogelsbergkreis, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, district-free Stadt Frankfurt, Hochtaunuskreis and Lahn-Dill-Kreis. History The dis ...

district and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area with its city center being located 8 km northeast of

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

at the banks of the river Nidda.

History

Bad Vilbel was founded in 774 (first written document) but much older artefacts were found in the area. In 1848 during railway works, a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

was unearthed with a

Thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large Roman Empire, imperial public bath, bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed i ...

and a

Mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

. A replica of this mosaic is presented in a modern exhibition in the spa gardens.

20th Century

The town Vilbel got the label "Bad" (spa) in 1948 for its numerous mineral springs. The health spa operations stopped in the 1960s but the mineral water industry connected more springs of the

Wetterau The Wetterau (, ) is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter (river), Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda (river), Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mounta ...

by pipelines to the bottling plant of ''Hassia'' in Bad Vilbel. The hessian government reform formed 1971/72 Bad Vilbel (with Heilsberg), Dortelweil, Gronau and Massenheim to the new city Bad Vilbel. Since 1997 great areas have been developed for living and business, like the residential area of Dortelweil-West or the commercial park ''Quellenpark'' between Bad Vilbel, Massenheim and Dortelweil. File:Vilbel März 07 018.jpg, fountain near the old town-hall File:Altes Rathaus Bad Vilbel.jpg, old town-hall File:Bad Vilbel Alte Mühle Viaam.jpg, Cultural center, old mill File:Vilbeltrinkbrunnen.JPG, Friedrich-Karl-Sprudel File:Hassia-Quelle Bad Vilbel 877-Ld.jpg, Hassia mineral spring File:Roemisches Mosaik Bad Vilbel01.jpg, exhibition of Roman mosaic File:Dortelweil, Brunnen und Brunnen-Center.JPG , shopping & business center in Dortelweil

Mayor

The Current Mayor is Sebastian Wysocki (born 1985) of the

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 ...

(CDU). He was elected in March 2022.

Transport

''Bad Vilbel'' has four railway stations ( Bad Vilbel, Bad Vilbel Süd and Dortelweil on the Main–Weser Railway and Gronau on the Vilbel–Glauburg-Stockheim railway) served by Frankfurt's local transport network (

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

line S 6 and RE Line 34). It has access to the A661 autobahn and the highway B3. Furthermore, Bad Vilbel has several local bus lines called ''Vilbus'' connecting the city center to the neighborhoods. Additional connections to

with the local Frankfurt bus line ''30'' and with

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

with the ''fast bus'' line ''X97''.

Twin towns – sister cities

Bad Vilbel is twinned with: * Brotterode-Trusetal, Germany (1990) *

Eldoret Eldoret is a city in the Rift Valley region of Kenya. It serves as the capital of Uasin Gishu County. Located in western Kenya and lying south of the Cherangani Hills, the local elevation varies from about at the Eldoret International Air ...

, Kenya (1982) *

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...

, England, United Kingdom (1987) * Moulins, France (1990)

Notable people

Born in Bad Vilbel

Wilhelm von Finck Wilhelm von Finck (6 February 1848 – 4 April 1924) was a German entrepreneur and banker. Finck was a co-founder of the German companies Allianz and Munich Re. Life In Frankfurt am Main, he was a student at the Hasselsche Institut. He worked ...

(1848–1924), banker and co-founder of the Alliance Insurance * Friedel Lutz (1939-2023), former national soccer player * Thomas Stöhr (born 1966), jurist and mayor of Bad Vilbel since 2003 * Kathrin Anders (born 1982), German politician (The Greens), Members of the Landtag of Hesse since 2019

Linked to Bad Vilbel

* Friedrich Carl Michael Grosholz (1810–1888), co-founder of Bad Vilbel bottled water industry * Bernhard Rechthien (1876–1941), mayor of Bad Vilbel 1919–1928 * Klaus Havenstein (1922–1998), actor and television presenter, from 1990 to 1992 director of the Castle Festival Bad Vilbel * Jürgen Sparwasser (born 1948), is a retired German

football player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

and later briefly a football manager living in Bad Vilbel. He gained fame as East Germany football player at the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...

finals, where he scored the winning goal in a politically prestigious match against

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Spa towns in Germany Wetteraukreis