Kaiserbad (Aachen)

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The Kaiserbad at the beginning of the 20th century

As Emperor several were thermal baths called successively at the same place in Aachen were built downtown across from the Kaiser source. The tradition of a thermal bath at this point dates back to Roman times and was continued until 1984.

history

Antiquity, Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

Illustration of the imperial bath on an engraving from the 18th century.

Already in Roman times, the 52 ° C hot spring, together with the neighboring Quirinus spring, was the center of a spa resort built by the Roman military in the province of Lower Germany . Roman legionaries had built the so-called Büchelthermen over the spring . These were destroyed in the 4th century when the Franks were attacked. In Carolingian times, the Kaiserquelle fed a bathhouse popular with Charlemagne , which in the old springs was called Königsbad ( Latin balneum regis ). This name lasted until the early modern period . The bathhouse of Charlemagne was part of the crown estate , and King Heinrich VII donated it to the Aachen Marienstift , from which the city acquired it in 1266. She leased it to bathers who ran the bathhouse for her.

In the 16th century the Königsbad was outdated. The city bought neighboring smaller baths, had them demolished together with the royal bath and built a stately new building on the area around 1540. This was called the Kaiserbad from the 17th century. This was badly damaged in the great fire in Aachen in 1656, but the tenant of the bathhouse was obliged to rebuild the building on presentation of the invoices.

18th to early 20th century

The Kaiserbad Hotel around 1900

The restored Kaiserbad lasted until the 19th century and also experienced Aachen's peak as a fashion bath in the 18th century. After French revolutionary troops occupied Aachen in 1794 and the city belonged to France from October 1797 through the provisions of the Peace of Campo Formio , the French government declared the imperial bath - as well as all springs and bath houses in the city area - state property in 1811. Since spa treatments in Aachen were popular with members of the French imperial family, a lot of money was also invested in the thermal springs. The French engineer Bélu carried out numerous works and improvements at the Kaiserbad, for example deepening the spring shaft and building a new spring chamber. In addition, the number of large pools has been reduced in favor of several smaller ones. The trend towards a more intimate single bathroom instead of a communal bathroom in a larger group had already started in the 18th century.

In 1815 Aachen came to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna , and King Friedrich Wilhelm III. returned the city's springs and bathhouses in 1818. Despite the work during the Napoleonic period, the building of the imperial bath was badly dilapidated at that time. Aachen's city builder Adam Franz Friedrich Leydel therefore planned a modernization and redesign, but the city council rejected the plans as too expensive. Instead, only repairs and minor improvements were made. For various reasons, bathing in Aachen declined in the middle of the 19th century. Other seaside resorts such as Baden-Baden and Bad Ems made great competition for the city. The Kaiserbad was considered too unfashionable, too small and not sufficiently representative. High-ranking and wealthy bathers stayed away. In order to attract more wealthy audiences to Aachen again, the city council decided to build the Kaiserbad as a luxurious bathing hotel. This should allow you to compete with the other well-known spas again. From 1862 to 1865, a new imperial bath was built as a four-storey bathing hotel in the style of late classicism according to the plans of the city architect Friedrich Joseph Ark . With the exception of the south wall, the previous building was completely abandoned. The two adjoining houses as well as the bathroom to the Queen of Hungary (also known as the Kleinbad) to the west were also included in the new planning. After completion, the Kaiserbad was the largest and most elegant bathing hotel in the city. The costs for the new building amounted to 107,000  thalers . It opened on June 1, 1865. But after around 60 years the importance of the “first house in the square” declined again, because in April 1913 the Aachen city council took the decision to build a new spa and bathing center on Monheimsallee. The spa hotel Quellenhof , which was built there by 1916, soon overtook the Kaiserbad.

Second World War to this day

The building complex known today as the Kaiserbad

An aerial bomb hit the Kaiserbad on April 11, 1944 and destroyed the southern flank of the building. But since it was still habitable, the bathing business continued. In October of the same year the city was besieged by American forces in the battle of Aachen and finally captured. Shortly before Aachen surrendered , the destruction squads set fire to the Kaiserbad, which was almost completely burned out. Only the royal bathing cell, known as the Fürstenbad , remained undamaged. After the end of the war it was long unclear what would happen to the ruins until it was demolished in 1959. Initially, a large new bathing hotel was to be built in its place, for which land purchases up to Ursulinenstrasse were planned. Since the neighboring properties in question were sold to the Eschweiler Mining Association , the plans came to nothing. Finally, in a meeting on October 13, 1960, the city council passed the resolution to build a new, modern spa and medicinal bath without a hotel on the site of the ruins of the Kaiserbad. The plans envisaged integrating the still-preserved Fürstenbad into the new building, so the bath cell was first dismantled and stored in the municipal building yard. Construction of the new Kaiserbad began in August 1961. The cost of the bath, which was inaugurated on June 8, 1963, including the renovation of the spring system, was around 3.75 million DM . It offered capacities for 400 bathtubs per day and an approximately equal number of applications of exercise therapy , fango , dry massages and stimulation therapy. Contrary to the initial plan, the Fürstenbad was not integrated into the new building, but built into the Burtscheider Kurpark terraces that were under construction in the summer of 1963 .

Due to declining visitor numbers, the Kaiserbad ceased operations on February 23, 1984 and was then demolished. In its place there is now a building ensemble from the 1990s, which includes the so-called source house and the Aachen window . Although a bathhouse is no longer part of this building complex, it is still called the Imperial Bath.

Descriptions

Early modern age

The Kaiserbad belonged to the so-called upper (also western) group of baths in Aachen city center. It consisted of the Kaiserbad, the Neubad, the Quirinusbad and the bath for the Queen of Hungary.

Its appearance in the 16th and 17th centuries is passed down through two book illustrations and a floor plan drawing made by the master carpenter Adam Winants in 1677. In the bathing document Thermarum Aquisgranensium et Porcetanarum elucidatio et Thaumaturgia , published in 1688 , the bath and spa doctor François Blondel stated that the facilities of the Imperial Bath included five water basins for more than 25 people and a primitive shower. After the Aachen city fire, the previously simple facade of the building was probably given a more elaborate design in the forms of the Maasland Renaissance . The three-storey building at that time had a central entrance and four cross- storey windows on all floors to the right and left of it . At that time the Kaiserbad was still a pure bathhouse with no accommodation for guests. These only came with the changes according to plans by Adam Franz Friedrich Leydel. After its renovation, the Kaiserbad had a total of 12 bathrooms and 25 guest rooms.

  • Floor plan of the upper bath house complex, 17th century, the imperial bath with a blue background

  • Image of the imperial bath from a bathing script from the 17th century.

  • Interior view of the imperial bath from 1682

Late classical bathing hotel

After the new building in the 1860s, the luxurious Kaiserbad presented itself as a four-story building with a richly structured facade made of Udelfang sandstone . Divided into eleven axes by windows, its three lower full floors were vertically structured by Tuscan , Ionic and Corinthian pilasters and half-columns . A balcony supported by pillars was in front of the middle three axes on the ground floor. The attic floor was occupied with acroteria . The house no longer had shared bathrooms, but only 36 individual bathrooms, 11 of them on the upper floor. However, since these were not particularly popular with guests, they were replaced by a dining room in 1881. The luxurious bath house was on the ground floor and first floor. Its bath cells and corridors were heated with the water and warm exhaust air from the Kaiserquelle. In addition to the bath cells, the bathing facilities included four steam baths, a drinking fountain and an inhalation room. The bathing hotel's technology, which was state-of-the-art at the time, was located in the basement . Even an electromagnetic bell system was part of the equipment. 64 comfortable rooms were available to accommodate the guests, some of them with open marble fireplaces , because English and French bathers expected this room equipment. There were also five social halls and rooms such as a smoking room, a game room and a billiard room. Originally a restaurant was also planned in the bathing hotel, but only a simple coffee kitchen was implemented.

The heart of the bathing hall was the so-called Fürstenbad , the most luxuriously equipped bathing cell in the house. Floor and walls were covered with marble, the ceiling was two with mosaics and terracotta - Friesen made ornate domes. In 1963 these were integrated into the new building of the Burtscheider Kurpark Terraces. Instead of the gray-blue wall marble, the walls were only covered with plaster . The floor and tub, however, were reconstructed from white marble. However, railings, fittings and wooden fixtures are missing. In 2003 the Fürstenbad was included in the list of monuments of the city of Aachen .

  • Ground floor plan

  • cross-section

  • Bathing hall around 1900

  • Fürstenbad

Modern therapeutic and thermal bath

The new Kaiserbad, built in 1961, was a modern low-rise building made of brick and natural stone. Part of the Roman wall of the ancient Bücheltherme was still preserved in its cellar . On a built-up area of ​​1400 m² with a trapezoidal floor plan, it offered a waiting and drinking hall with drinking fountain, 20 baths, rooms for mud treatments and a massage department. The treatment rooms and the large water basin for exercise therapy were arranged around an inner courtyard.

literature

  • Festschrift for the 72nd Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Doctors Aachen 1900. Anton Creutzer, Aachen 1900, pp. 85–111, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb00073245-2 .
  • Oberstadtdirektor of the city of Aachen (ed.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. Kutsch, Aachen [approx. 1964].
  • Ernst Kasper, Klaus Klever (Ed.): The Imperial Bath. The new building and its historical background. Thouet, Aachen / Leipzig / Paris 1995, ISBN 3-930594-09-9 .
  • Josef Stübben : The Kaiserbad in Aachen. Barth, Aachen 1881.

Web links

Commons : Kaiserbad  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ E. Kasper, K. Klever (Ed.): Das Kaiserbad. The new building and its historical background. 1995, p. 15.
  2. ↑ a b E. Kasper, K. Klever (ed.): Das Kaiserbad. The new building and its historical background. 1995, p. 21.
  3. ↑ Festschrift for the 72nd Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Doctors Aachen 1900. 1900, p. 88.
  4. ↑ E. Kasper, K. Klever (Ed.): Das Kaiserbad. The new building and its historical background. 1995, p. 18.
  5. ↑ Hans Königs: Aachen - One of the oldest baths in Germany. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 10.
  6. ↑ E. Kasper, K. Klever (Ed.): Das Kaiserbad. The new building and its historical background. 1995, p. 20.
  7. ↑ a b Festschrift for the 72nd Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Doctors Aachen 1900. 1900, p. 93.
  8. ^ A b Hans Königs: Aachen - One of the oldest baths in Germany. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 13.
  9. ↑ E. Kasper, K. Klever (Ed.): Das Kaiserbad. The new building and its historical background. 1995, p. 23.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h Information according to the information boards in the Fürstenbad
  11. ^ J. Stübben: The imperial bath in Aachen. 1881, p. 7.
  12. ↑ E. Kasper, K. Klever (Ed.): Das Kaiserbad. The new building and its historical background. 1995, p. 24.
  13. ↑ Hans Königs: Aachen - One of the oldest baths in Germany. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 17. Josef Stübben put the costs at 405,000 marks. See J. Stübben: The Kaiserbad in Aachen. 1881, p. 17.
  14. ↑ Georg Dünnwald: Luxury bathtub with marble and mosaics. In: Aachener Nachrichten . Edition of June 18, 2008 ( digitized version ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.buergerstiftung-aachen.de
  15. ↑ a b c Hans Königs: Aachen - One of the oldest baths in Germany. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 17.
  16. ↑ Hanns Compernass: bathhouse from the Kaiser source. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 41.
  17. ↑ Hanns Compernass: bathhouse from the Kaiser source. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 47.
  18. ↑ a b Hanns Compernass: bathhouse from the Kaiser source. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 50.
  19. ↑ Hanns Compernass: The baths technical facilities. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 51.
  20. ↑ Hanns Compernass: The baths technical facilities. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 61.
  21. ↑ Hans Königs: Aachen - One of the oldest baths in Germany. In: Oberstadtdirektor der Stadt Aachen (Hrsg.): Bad Aachen, its sources and the imperial bath. [approx. 1964], p. 15.
  22. ↑ a b J. Stübben: The imperial bath in Aachen. 1881, p. 8.
  23. ↑ Hans Königs: Report on war damage and construction work on the secular architectural monuments in Aachen. In: Yearbook of the Rheinische Denkmalpflege. Volume 25. Werner, Worms 1965, ISSN  0341-924X , p. 74.

Coordinates: 50 ° 46 '31.7 "  N , 6 ° 5' 8.8"  E