Бад-Бентхайм: История и современность города в Нижней Саксонии

Place in Lower Saxony, Germany

Bad Bentheim (; ) is a town in the southwestern part of Lower Saxony, Germany, in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim on the borders of North Rhine Westphalia and the Netherlands roughly 15 km south of Nordhorn and 20 km northeast of Enschede. It is a state recognized thermal brine and sulphur spa town, hence the designation Bad (“Bath”). Also to be found in Bad Bentheim is the castle Burg Bentheim, the town's emblem.

The town limit is 49 km, with a north–south reach of 14 km and an east–west reach of 12 km. The area under Bad Bentheim's jurisdiction, along with all its constituent communities, has a total area of 100.16 km2.

Bad Bentheim, a town shaped by the Evangelical Church, belongs to Lower Saxony's district of Bentheim. It borders on two other towns in Lower Saxony, Schüttorf and Nordhorn as well as on the more characteristically Catholic towns of Gronau and Ochtrup in North Rhine Westphalia's Steinfurt and Borken districts respectively. Bad Bentheim lies right on the Dutch border, its immediate neighbours on the other side being de Lutte and Losser, both Catholic places in the province of Overijssel (Twente region). Not far away lie the Dutch cities of Almelo, Enschede and Hengelo, and on the German side Lingen, Rheine, Münster and Osnabrück.

The town comprises the centres of Achterberg, Bardel, Gildehaus, Hagelshoek, Holt und Haar, Sieringhoek, Waldseite and Westenberg.

Bad Bentheim's first documentary mention came about 1050 under the name Binithem. There are various etymologies put forth for the town's name. It could refer to the rushes (Binsen in German) that grew on boggy land in the area in earlier times. It is also supposed by some, as with the Dutch region of Twente, that the name could go back to the Tubanti. Bad Bentheim, a former count's residence, looks back on a history rich in tradition. For centuries, this market town was the hub of the like named county (Grafschaft) of Bentheim. In 1945, the British occupational authorities stripped “brown Bentheim” of its district seat and transferred it to the working class town of Nordhorn, which was more centrally located. The town's emblem is the mighty castle of the Counts of Bentheim, the Burg Bentheim, which was first mentioned in a document from 1116. About 1711, curative sulphur springs were discovered, from which grew the spa with its thermal brine and clinic. In 1895, Queen Emma of the Netherlands and her 15 year old daughter Wilhelmina spent several weeks at Bentheim's baths. Before this, both Otto von Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm I had stayed there. In Otto von Bismarck's honour, a sandstone statue in his likeness was raised on the square that also bears his name, Bismarckplatz, in Bentheim's inner town. It still stands today, right beneath the castle. Since 1865, Bentheim has held town rights. In the course of municipal reform in Lower Saxony, the town of Bentheim, the Samtgemeinde (a municipality made up of several centres) of Gildehaus (whose member communities were Gildehaus, Achterberg, Hagelshoek, Holt und Haar, Waldseite and Westenberg) and the communities of Bardel and Sieringhoek merged on 1 March 1974 to form the unified Town of Bentheim. Since 1979, it has been called Bad Bentheim. The constituent community of Gildehaus has been a state recognized health resort (Erholungsort) since 1982. After the Second World War, the whole area, along with many other border areas in Germany, would have been annexed by the Netherlands under the Bakker Schut plan in 1945, but this plan was scuttled by US objections. Bentheim's sandstone, known as Bentheimer Gold, which is or was quarried in the main town and Gildehaus, was shipped beyond the old county's borders between the 15th and 18th centuries into the Münsterland, to East Frisia, into the Netherlands and to Belgium and Denmark. A few examples of important buildings made of this sandstone are the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, the theatre and the Church of Our Lady in Antwerp, the Catholic Church in Århus, the Martini Church's tower in Groningen (completed in 1482) and the City Hall in Münster. Supposedly, the pedestal on which stands New York’s Statue of Liberty is even made out of Bentheim sandstone, but other German towns, among them Obernkirchen, claim that they furnished the stone for that undertaking.

The town of Bad Bentheim was granted its arms in 1661 by Count Ernst Wilhelm of Bentheim and Steinfurt (1643–1693). The coat of arms shows a golden monogram consisting of the letters E and G on a red background, surrounded by nineteen likewise golden balls. The letters stand for “Ernestus Guilelmus”, the Count's name in Latin. The golden balls stem from the district's arms, although it is unclear what they mean there. This same charge is also seen in several other coats of arms from Bentheim district, among them those borne by Nordhorn, Neuenhaus, De Wijk and Geldermalsen. In the early 19th century, the bearing of these arms was banned. Later, in the late 19th century, the arms consisted simply of 18 golden balls on a red background, without the monogram. In 1955, the town was granted approval by the Lower Saxony ministry of the interior to bear once again the arms originally bestowed upon the town by Count Ernst Wilhelm in the 17th century.

As with the old county, the town of Bad Bentheim has mostly been shaped by Protestant belief, held by 52.6% of the townsfolk (30 June 2006), of whom 36.7% are Reformed and 15.9% Lutherans. A further 21.5% are followers of the Roman Catholic faith. The other 25.9% either hold no religious beliefs or follow other faiths.

Bad Bentheim is roughly one hour's drive from Münster/Osnabrück International Airport (FMO) in Greven. A regional airport is found in Klausheide near Nordhorn, about 30 minutes’ drive away.

Bad Bentheim station lies on the Wiehengebirgs Bahn, which begins in Bad Bentheim, although connecting tracks continue west into the Netherlands. The local train on this line is the RB 61 (Bad Bentheim–Rheine–Osnabrück–Herford–Bielefeld). As for long distance rail travel, Bad Bentheim is served by the IC 77 (Amsterdam–Osnabrück–Hanover–Berlin). All the international trains have a standstill at the station of Bad Bentheim because the locomotive of the trains has to be changed as Germany and The Netherlands have different electric systems for their trains. These systems are not compatible.

There are bus services to Gronau (Westfalen) and Nordhorn.

The town lies on Bundesstraße 403 and is furthermore connected to the long distance road network through the Autobahnen A 30 (Bad Oeynhausen – Osnabrück – Hengelo) and A 31 (Emden – Oberhausen).

Bad Bentheim or the surrounding “county” is known for two breeds of domestic livestock, namely the Bentheim sheep and the Bentheim Black Pied pig.

A popular meeting and walking place in town is the Schloßpark beneath the castle. This is a geometrical 12 ha parkland laid out going by old records in the style of the princely gardens of the 18th century. In a large lake at the park's north end are found ducks that are often fed by visitors. Other animals, such as wild rabbits, may be spotted from time to time in the park's bushes. In summer there is a fountain in the Schloßpark, which, shoots up into the air from a flat, sandstone basin. In winter, the water is pumped out and the fountain does not run. This fountain is surrounded by symmetrically laid out rose beds, themselves enclosed by hedges. In winter, the townsfolk, especially the younger ones, come to the park to run their sleds down the steep slopes in the south part of the park, right beneath the castle. In late summer (on the last Saturday in August), the Bad Bentheim flea market is held here. In the large car park in the western part of the park, the summer and autumn fairs, and the town's shooting festival, are held annually. Near to this car park is the Bad Bentheim Sandstone Museum.

After the Second World War, the town of Bad Bentheim sought to improve once again the noticeably cooler relations with its neighbours to the west, that is to say, the Dutch. Prof. Dr. Hendricus Prakke, since 1966 an honorary citizen of Bentheim, strongly supported this quest. Prakke, who died in 1992, was a citizen of the Dutch town of Assen, with which Bad Bentheim has been intensively cultivating a partnership since 1959. Also Herr Dr. h. c. Hans Carl Deilmann was awarded the town's honours when his business, Deilmann AG (now KCA Deutag), employing more than 8,000 in the 1970s, took a leading part in the economic upswing in Bentheim and the old county. To honour Deilmann, Deilmannstraße in Bad Bentheim was named after him.