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The health resort in Bad Honnef
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Mediterranean Flair
In Bad Honnef, spring begins a month earlier than elsewhere in the Rhineland. Exotic flowers bloom in the gardens, magnificent Lebanon cedar trees flourish in the valley, and people flock to the marketplace cafés, giving the town a Mediterranean flair. The city has an unusually mild climate because the Siebengebirge hills protect it from the raw northerly and easterly winds. Referring to a city in southern France, the globetrotter Alexander von Humboldt once referred to Bad Honnef as “Germany's Nice on the Rhine”.
It was the climate that attracted the first tourists to Honnef in the early 19th century. The English Romanticists were among the first to discover this Middle Rhine valley with it numerous castles. It was through them that tourism in Germany got its start. Honnef’s climate soon became well known for the beneficial effects it had on people with lung maladies. The next logical step was to look for a freshwater spring in order to turn the city into an official health resort, or "Bad".
The “Drachenquelle” or “Dragon Spring” was discovered in 1897. Four years later the town opened a bath house and made plans for a sanatorium. Prior to this period, the town residents had lived primarily from growing grapes for wine production. From this point on, their focus began to shift to tourism. Honnef was renamed Bad Honnef.
A prominent Citizen
During the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer, a government opponent, moved to a district of Bad Honnef called Rhöndorf. Several years later, in 1949, Adenauer was elected the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. He continued to live here during his term in office, as it was only a 15-minute drive from the government headquarters in Bonn. Bad Honnef became well known and the government often brought international guests here for a visit. After Adenauer’s death, his house was turned into a museum.
Back to Tourism
Although many institutions have relocated to Berlin along with the federal government, the Academy for Deutsche Telekom Managers and the German Foundation for International Development have remained. Managers from advanced developing nations attend the latter organization for training sessions. The region around Bonn, with its excellent transportation connections, has also developed into a prime location for research and service centers. The Kongresspark (Convention Park) facilities and the International Technical University guarantee that Bad Honnef will retain its cosmopolitan flair. It's no coincidence that the promising tourism industry which began here 200 years ago is again becoming important.
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Maika Schmidt-Traub from Germany:
"It's a quiet place in the middle of a wine region, where you can really live well." (German)
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