Bad Schlema

Infobox Ort in Deutschland
image_photo =
Wappen = Wappen Bad Schlema.pnglat_deg = 50 |lat_min = 37
lon_deg = 12 |lon_min = 40
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Sachsen
Regierungsbezirk = Chemnitz
Landkreis = Erzgebirgskreis
Höhe = 357
Fläche = 15.53
Einwohner = 5451
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 08301
Vorwahl = 03772
Kfz = ASZ
Gemeindeschlüssel = 14 1 91 270
Straße = Joliot-Curie-Str. 13
Website = [http://www.kurort-schlema.de/ www.kurort-schlema.de]
Bürgermeister = Jens Müller
Partei = independent

Bad Schlema is a community in the district of Erzgebirgskreis in the Free State of Saxony in Germany and belongs to the Silberberg Town League ("Städtebund Silberberg"). Through town runs the Silver Road ("Silberstraße"). The community is developing its tourist industry, above all its spa facilities.

Geography

Bad Schlema’s constituent communities are Oberschlema, Niederschlema and Wildbach.

History

Today’s community of Bad Schlema is an amalgamation of the two formerly separate communities of Niederschlema and Oberschlema, which took place in 1958. Since 1994, the community of Wildbach has also been united with this newer community.

Both these roughly 800-year-old communities in the Schlema Valley became well known through the centuries for iron, copper, silver and uranium mining. At the time of industrialization, the Toelle, Ehrler, Leonhardt, Rostosky and Philipp factories in Niederschlema and the Wilisch, Leonhardt, Kenzler and Müller companies in Oberschlema were household names throughout Germany. After a means of manufacturing blue dye from cobalt was discovered by Christoph Schürer, there developed in Oberschlema the world’s biggest cobalt-blue dyeworks, with 42 buildings. After rich radon springs were opened up in the Marx-Semmler-Stolln (a hillside mine) in Oberschlema between 1908 and 1912, the world’s richest radium spa developed after 1918. Only 10 years later, it was counted among Germany’s most important spas (in 1943, there were more than 17,000 spa visitors). Once the uranium mining was taken over by the Soviet occupational forces after 1946, the spa and the community of Oberschlema were utterly obliterated by 1952. By 1990, the Soviet-German Wismut Corporation ("Sowjetisch-Deutsche Aktiengesellschaft Wismut", or SDAG Wismut) had mined almost 80 000 t of pure uranium from the Schlema Valley and the neighbouring Mulde Valley.

After mining came to an end, the mayor, Konrad Barth, organized Schlema’s revival as a spa town, which was realized in 1998 when the new "Kurhaus" (“spa house”) was opened. The newly opened radon springs afford ample bathing, now daily used by 1,200 guests at the "Actinon" bathhouse.

On 18 January 2005, Saxony’s state government bestowed upon the community the official designation "Bad" (literally “Bath”), after it had already been recognized as a radon spa since 29 October 2004. Bad Schlema thus became the first community to receive the "Bad" designation since 1990.

Population development

All following figures are for 31 December in the given year.: Source: "Statistisches Landesamt des Freistaates Sachsen"

Politics

Municipal partnership

Bad Schlema maintains a partnership with Rechberghausen in Baden-Württemberg.

Culture and sightseeing

Museums

* "Traditionsstätte des Sächsisch-Thüringischen Uranerzbergbaus" (Saxon-Thuringian Historic Site for Uranium Mining)

Music

*Silberbach-Chor (choir)

Famous people

* Karsten Speck (1960- ), Entertainer and actor
* Ricco Groß (1970- ), Biathlete
* Johannes Unger (1976- ), Organist

Further reading

* Oliver Titzmann: "Uranbergbau contra Radiumbad", Selbstverlag, 2002
* Oliver Titzmann: "Radiumbad Oberschlema. Die Geschichte eines Kurortes", Selbstverlag 1995

External links

[http://www.kurort-schlema.de/ Bad Schlema’s official website]