Prince Luitpold Bath
The Prinz-Luitpold-Bad is a bathing and hotel operation in Bad Oberdorf that uses Germany's highest sulfur spring.
history
The beginnings
The water of the spring, which rises on the southern flank of the Iseler , had long been known for its medicinal properties when the Sonthofen doctor Leonhard Stich thought about commercial use. On December 13, 1862, he bought the property on which the spring was located from the community for 700 guilders . The purchase contract contained a clause with which one wanted to protect oneself against the establishment of another catering establishment in Oberdorf: "The Oberdorf community protests from the outset against the establishment of a formal tavern by the buyer."
At first, Leonhard Stich was only able to have a bathhouse built. This happened in 1864. However, since the spring including the bath house was located above and outside the village and the bathers wanted to be fed, Stich applied for a license in 1865 to serve food and beverages and also to accommodate bathers. The royal district office in Sonthofen granted this request in the summer of 1865, but pointed out that there was still no permit to open a health resort.
The first analysis of the spring water was carried out in 1866 by Professor Ludwig Andreas Buchner from Munich . At the meeting of the mathematical-physical class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences on March 7, 1868, he reported:
- “Not far from the village of Oberdorf near Hindelang, in one of the most beautiful parts of the Algäu, on a hill dominating the wide mountain valley, over which the road leads to Tyrol, a sulfur spring rises which the active medical practitioner Dr. Leonhard Stich von Sönthofen [sic!] Has been using it for healing purposes for a couple of years, for which he has built a popular bathing establishment near the source. In response to an invitation sent to me, I have subjected the water of this spring to a chemical investigation, the results of which I will report below.
- During the inspection of the spring that I undertook, a smell of hydrogen sulphide could be perceived quite well at some distance from the well-room, which is closed with a door and in which the water from the spring collects . When the walled room was opened, this smell emerged even more strongly and the water in it appeared whitishly cloudy, just like a dissolution of hydrogen sulphide in water, the hydrogen sulphide of which was decomposed by the oxygen in the air with the elimination of sulfur.
- After the water had been drained from the well room, it was noticed that the spring water on the marly ground seeps partly sideways, partly from below, and then fills the well room up to a height of a few feet.
- The marl of this ground looks black-gray when wet and light-gray when dry. It contains, as the order made chemical analysis proved gypsum , mixed with a little organic matter and a little free sulfur [sic], the latter of which apparently stems from the constantly walking in the fountain room in front of decomposition of hydrogen sulfide dissolved in the water.
- The quantitative determination of the hydrogen sulfide in this water was carried out on an autumn morning after the fountain, which had been emptied the previous evening, had been freshly filled with water.
- This time too the clear water smelled very strongly of hydrogen sulfide; the taste of it was hepatic and soon afterwards slightly bitterly salty, similar to that of a solution of lime sulfuric acid.
- The amount of hydrogen sulphide was determined by means of a very dilute aqueous iodine solution which contained 1.27 grams in one liter, that is, 0.01 weight by weight of free iodine.
- 0.2 cc of this iodine solution were used to give 100 cc of a hydrogen sulfide-free water to which a little thin starch paste had been added to give it a clear blue color. On the other hand, in order to produce the same phenomenon in 100 CC of the mineral water in question, 15.05 CC iodine solution were required on the average of several very well-matched experiments.
- Since 1 mixed weight of iodine (= 127.00) is equivalent to one mixed weight of hydrogen sulfide (= 17.00) and both substances are converted into hydrogen iodide and free sulfur in these proportions, the result is that the Oberdorf sulfur water in one liter is 0.02525 Grm. Hydrogen sulfide contains what at the temperature of the water found, expressed in volume, 17.22 CG. amounts.
- This shows that the sulfur spring at Oberdorf is relatively rich in hydrogen sulfide and must therefore be counted among the stronger hydrothion springs in Bavaria.
- However, this high content was only shown in a constant way when the water was drawn from a greater depth of the well. The upper layers of the water, which initially came into contact with the air, showed a somewhat lower and more fluctuating content of hydrogen sulfide for an easily explainable cause.
- The water has a temperature of + 8> 5 ° R. or 10, Go C.
- Its specific gravity was found at - | - 15 ° R. = 1.0014. "
After this analysis had been carried out, Leonhard Stich received permission to open his spa on May 11, 1866.
In 1867, Stich's brother-in-law, the art mill owner Sebastian Weber from Berghofen , took part in the business. In 1868 the bathing building was increased and in 1869 a garden salon was added. In 1872 the establishment had 24 guest rooms, a dining room and five bath rooms with steam heating , plus a summer salon with more than a hundred seats. Among other things, Russian-Irish baths and warm showers as well as warm bathtubs with sulfur mineral water were offered. The applications were particularly recommended for gout , rheumatism , sciatica , nerve pain, gynecological problems, constipation, anemia, heart failure and hardening of the arteries. The patients should bathe in the 36 degrees warm sulfur mineral water for ten to 15 minutes every day or every two days and then rest for an hour each time.
In 1873, Sebastian Weber was granted the license to run a “full tavern business”. In the same year he had Leonhard Stich's son Crescenz pay him off after the founder of the spa died.
The namesake
Prince Regent Luitpold was closely connected to the area around Hindelang . Gradually he had expanded his hunting ground in this area to a size of 60,000 hectares, some of which, like the Retterschwanger Valley , had been donated to him. He had 17 red deer brought to this area from Forstenrieder Park , which were kept in particular by his personal hunter Leo Dorn from Hindelang - today there are around 3400. In addition to hunting, he also loved swimming in the surrounding waters. In 1886 he became the official sovereign, and two years later, on February 14, 1888, he responded to Crescenz Stich's request to be allowed to name his bath after Luitpold: “His Royal Highness Prince Luitpold, the Kingdom of Bavaria's administrator Most graciously deigned to approve that this in the Hindelang district, royally. Oberdorf's sulfur mineral bath located in the district office of Sonthofen will henceforth be called 'Prinz Luitpold sulfur mineral bath'. “ Luitpold was a guest in the establishment several times when he was in Hinterstein during the hunting season .
The time of the Prince Regent
In 1892 Leonhard Stich's granddaughter Josefa Schmid inherited the property. This started a phase of frequent changes of ownership. Josefa Schmid sold the bath in 1895 to Franz Josef and Johanna Müller, who ran it for eight years and passed it on to Josef and Cäcilia Holl in 1903 through an exchange of land. Among other things, these benefited from the regular meetings of the local riflemen, who used to train on the hotel terrace until the outbreak of World War I. The remains of the display cover at the shooting range-Bichel east of the house are said to still be visible today.
The expansion of Jochstrasse from 1900 onwards, as well as the establishment of the Sonthofen-Hindelang postal service and the construction of the Vaterlandsweg, which led directly past the buildings of the baths, also attracted visitors. The Vaterlandsweg is named after the association “The Lower Fatherland”, to which the painter Richard Mahn and the Kommerzienrat Gottfried Zillibiller belonged. On May 11, 1900, the Prince Regent also approved the renaming of the place in "Bad Oberdorf".
The First World War and the interwar period
The death of the Prince Regent in 1912 and the First World War that began two years later marked a deep turning point. Josef and Cäcilia Holl were able to keep the business until 1923; then they gave up and put the bathroom and hotel up for sale. This marked the beginning of the era under the owners, the Gross family, who have managed the house to this day.
Andreas Gross bought the property on May 11, 1923 in the middle of the inflation period for ten million marks. Gross was a blacksmith by birth, but had married a landlord's daughter from Mering and was related by marriage to the brewery owner Zötler from Rettenberg , who had established contact with the Holl family. After the First World War he first ran the “Bären” inn in Ingolstadt , but had to buy a house in a different climate for health reasons. Andreas and Maria Gross soon expanded the property: the weekend cake sale enabled them to expand their property piece by piece. Maria Gross' furniture purchases at auctions shape the house to this day - she was always on the lookout for antiques that seemed appropriate to the company's namesake. Among other things, in the 1930s she acquired the entire equipment of the Chinese diplomatic mission.
In 1925 the hotel had 28 guest rooms and central heating . In the same year the sulfur mineral spring was declared a publicly used medicinal spring within the meaning of Article 20 of the Water Act. In 1926, Andreas Gross tried to get his house recognized as a mountain air spa hotel and convalescent home, so that patients could be instructed by insurance companies and authorities.
In 1928 a major renovation took place: the later central building was raised to three floors and a pub was built. This increased the hotel's capacity to 70 guest rooms, which, however, still did not meet the demand. Bathers who could not find accommodation in Gross' house were accommodated in various quarters in the village and came up to eat and bathe. In 1929, so-called “light baths” were added to the program.
In 1930 the establishment was renamed "Luitpoldbad". Otto Stein, who had previously headed a sanatorium in Munich, became permanent family doctor. The spa offers were expanded to include mud treatments and the use of a lounge area that was built east of the house. The bog was brought in from the chicken moss .
In 1932 the connecting road between the hotel and Jochstraße was built, which was later named after Andreas Gross. In the same year, the family acquired the Jochkanzel on Jochstrasse in order to build a panoramic restaurant there. According to the contract, construction should begin within five years. Since this was not implemented and the second son of the family, Albert, who should have run this establishment, fell in World War II , the Jochkanzel came back into the possession of the community in 1951.
In 1936 the hotel was expanded again so that it could now offer 140 guest beds and, for the first time, balconies in some rooms. In the same year there was a report in the Allgäuer advertising paper about a violent dispute between Andreas Gross and one of his guests - a brother of Joseph Goebbels . Apparently Gross finally complied with the circumstances of the time.
Alois Gross, born in 1914, completed an apprenticeship in cooking at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich and then worked on an Elbe steamer, in the Grand Hotel Londra in San Remo, in the "Waldorf" in London and in the "Central Station Hotel" in New York City . The second son, Albert, was also supposed to receive an international education, but that never happened. Both hotelier sons were immediately involved in the war from 1939. Albert died near Tonnerre in the summer of 1940 when his armored car was shot at.
The Second World War and the consequences
After the initial shock of the outbreak of war, which had led to mass departures, the hotel filled up again and stayed in operation as long as the German troops were successful. At the end of 1942, however, it was converted into a hospital . Until the end of the war, the building was used as the "Luitpoldbad reserve hospital". Alois Gross met his future wife Elisabeth Schneider, the daughter of regular guests of the hotel, during his stationing in Paris . He married her in 1944 and returned to the hospital in January 1945 with a "home shot". In order not to have to go to war again, he reamed the wound with a rusty nail. This plan worked - in contrast to Andreas Gross' idea of having groceries walled in in the basement of the building that would be used when the hotel reopened. The plan was betrayed and Andreas Gross was severely punished.
After the hospital was closed, the owner family was moved out. A rest home for US soldiers under the name "Mustang Manor" was set up in the buildings of the former hotel. In 1946 the property was given a new use. The Bavarian state turned it into a lung sanatorium for the State Insurance Swabia. This state expropriation of the Gross family was declared unjust in 1949. However, Andreas Gross did not live to see the new beginning on January 28, 1950.
the post war period
Alois, Elisabeth and Maria Gross renovated the building and set up an outdoor pool instead of the existing pond. One of only two asthma stations in Germany was also set up in the Luitpoldbad. While the invitation for needy Berliners, which Alois Gross issued in 1951, received a lot of media coverage, other ventures that had been promised publicity turned out to be failures. In 1952, for example, a carnival party with backdrops painted by Wolfgang Modersohn fell victim to the bad weather, and the head waiter broke his leg on a New Year's Eve slide from the dining room to the pub.
In 1951 a "Chinese bar" was set up. In 1952 the dining room was expanded by 50 seats by extending it towards the valley in a rounded shape. The hotel lobby was also enlarged. In 1953 an aerosol station was set up, and in 1954 a casino with dance floor and stage was set up in the basement instead of the pub. Here were, among others, Dieter Hildebrandt , the Münchner Lach & Schießgesellschaft and Marianne Koch on. In 1958, the lounge area above the park was torn down and rebuilt east of the outdoor pool. In 1959 the Andreas-Gross-Weg was inaugurated on the torrent towards Oberjoch . After Mansmann and Weiss, Fiedermutz became a spa doctor in 1960, who was to hold this post for over 40 years and was only replaced by Hildegard Britzelmeier in 2004. He practiced in the newly established doctor's building north of the main building. A gymnastics hall, a tennis court and a cosmetic studio were also put into operation.
In 1964, the rooms in the part of the building from 1928 were given bathrooms and balconies, and in 1969 an indoor swimming pool was put into operation. This construction turned out to be much more complex than planned, which is why the row of rooms above was initially provided with an emergency roof. The construction of a three-story room wing above the indoor pool was actually planned. This could only be realized in 1976.
In 1973 Elisabeth Gross was sidelined for a long time after an accident. Then Alois Gross' son Albert and his wife, Marion Gross, began to work in the hotel management.
In 1975 the house was recognized as a private hospital in accordance with Section 30 of the Trade Regulations. From 1977 the hotel was called "Prinz-Luitpold-Bad". In 1982 and 1983 the building wing above the dining room was rebuilt; 17 new rooms were created. After this renovation, all rooms had their own wet room.
When the peatland mining was prohibited in 1980, the Prinz-Luitpold-Bad was the first facility in Germany to be affected. By expanding the A 7 near Oy-Mittelberg , which ran through the middle of a moorland, this problem was solved. From 1985 the "Quelldorado", a wellness facility with whirlpool , sauna , solarium, etc. was set up in the former lounge hall .
From 1985 the hotel stayed open through the winter. In 1986 the former casino in the basement was converted into the Hofjagdstuben, which was lined with wood from seven demolished farmhouses. In 1987 the steam grotto was built, and a little later the hotel lobby was equipped with paneling from Lanrick Castle in Scotland . Among the furnishings for the castle bought in Munich was a nomad tent, which was used from 1992 as the “Aladdin's sun tent” for nudists. In 1995 the west wing of the hotel was rebuilt. Other parts of Lanrick Castle were used; In addition, a lead glass ceiling from 1880 was installed in the hall. It came from the Touring Club in Brussels . The former fisherman's parlor in the basement became the knight's parlor, which was partly equipped with components from the Luitpold steamer .
In 1997, the new health legislation reduced the number of overnight stays by spa guests by around 30%. In 1998 the outdoor pool was renovated. In 2000 the old Romanesque version of the sulfur spring had to be renewed on the instructions of the health department. In the same year, the Prinz-Luitpold-Bad served as the backdrop for several scenes from the film adaptation of The Woman's Nest by Hera Lind .
After the hotel had suffered multiple damage from landslides and downpours, the outdoor pool was spilled on Whitsun 2001 and had to be exposed again with an excavator. In 2003, Elmar Gunsch , Florian Meierott and Barbara Hennerfeind performed in the hotel as part of the series of events “A place becomes music” .
In 2006, Armin Gross, a representative of the fourth generation of the owner family, joined the management. He converted the pony pasture into a krolf facility on which the first German krolf championship was held in 2007. In 2010 Albert Gross published the house chronicle history and stories about the Prinz-Luitpold-Bad .
Known guests
Guests at the hotel included members of the Foreign Service, Karim Aga Khan IV , the Brenner family , Henry Vahl , Liselotte Pulver and Josef Ohlgießer , who also dedicated his own composition to the hotel. Carl Zuckmayer mentioned in a letter dated August 3, 1938 that his parents were staying in Luitpoldbad after their golden wedding. Stan Smith was once invited by a wealthy hotel guest, Otto Eitel from the USA, to play tennis with another hotel guest.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ life data for engraving
- ^ Albert Gross, history and stories around the Prinz-Luitpold-Bad , Bad Hindelang 2010, p. 22
- ↑ http://www.archive.org/stream/v1sitzungsberi1868bayeuoft/v1sitzungsberi1868bayeuoft_djvu.txt
- ↑ quoted from: Albert Gross, history and stories around the Prinz-Luitpold-Bad , Bad Hindelang 2010, p. 26
- ^ Carl Zuckmayer, Annemarie Seidel , Briefwechsel , Göttingen (Wallstein Verlag) 2003, ISBN 3-89244-646-6 , p. 94
Coordinates: 47 ° 30 ′ 16.1 ″ N , 10 ° 23 ′ 18.4 ″ E