Bad Soden

For Bad Soden in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, see Bad Soden-Salmünster. For Bad Sooden in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, see Bad Sooden-Allendorf.

Bad Soden am Taunus (German pronunciation: [baːt ˈzoːdn̩ ʔam ˈtaʊnʊs], lit. 'Bad Soden on the Taunus'), commonly known as Bad Soden, is a town and spa in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, Hessen, Germany. It had a population of 22,563 as of 2017^[update], up from 21,412 in 2005.

Bad Soden
Town
Residential building in Bad Soden, designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Coat of arms
Location of Bad Soden within Main-Taunus-Kreis district
Bad Soden Show map of Germany Bad Soden Show map of Hesse
Coordinates: 50°08′N 08°30′E
Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Admin. region	Darmstadt
District	Main-Taunus-Kreis
Subdivisions	3 Stadtteile: Bad Soden, Neuenhain, Altenhain
Government
• Mayor (2023–29)	Frank Blasch[1] (CDU)
Area
• Total	12.5 km2 (4.8 sq mi)
Highest elevation	385 m (1,263 ft)
Lowest elevation	130 m (430 ft)
Population  (2023-12-31)[2]
• Total	23,126
• Density	1,900/km2 (4,800/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	65812
Dialling codes	06196, 06174 (Altenhain)
Vehicle registration	MTK
Website	www.bad-soden.de

Information

Bad Soden is a residential town for commuters working in Frankfurt am Main and other surrounding cities. It is known for its various springs, which contain carbonic acid gas and various iron oxides. The waters are used both internally and externally, and are widely exported. Soden lozenges (German: Sodener Pastillen), condensed from the waters, are also in great demand. Bad Soden has a well-appointed Kurhaus, an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, and a hospital. It also has a residential building by the architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Bad Soden has two Districts: Altenhein am Taunus and Neuenhein am Taunus.

Mayors

Mayors from 1893:^[3]

• 1893–1912: Georg Busz
• 1912–1920: Friedrich Höh
• 1920–1923: Niederschulte
• 1925–1937: Alfred Benninghoven
• 1937–1939: Jakob Rittgen
• 1939–1945: Karl Bohle
• 1945–1948: Kuno Mayer
• 1948–1957: Gilbert Just
• 1957–1967: August Karl Wallis
• 1967–1973: Helmuth Schwinge
• 1973–1977: Hans-Helmut Kämmerer
• 1977–1985: Volker Hodann
• 1985–1986: Hans Jörg Röhrich (official by the government)
• 1986–1992: Berthold R. Gall
• 1992–2004: Kurt E. Bender
• 2004–2018: Norbert Altenkamp
• 2018–present: Frank Blasch

Notable people

Otto Frank (1961)

• Elvira Bach (born 1951), artist and painter, she was born in Neuenhain (Taunus) and lives in Berlin since 1970
• Otto Frank (1889–1980), father of Anne Frank, worked in Bad Soden before moving to the Netherlands with his family
• Peter Lang (1878–1954), member of the parliament of the People's State of Hesse in the Weimar Republic
• Christian Seybold (1695–1768), artist of the era of Baroque; was baptized in Neuenhain (Taunus), lived until 1715 in Soden
• Georg Thilenius (1868–1937), ethnologist and anthropologist
• Sabine Winter (born 1992), table tennis player, was born in Bad Soden
• Edward Wunderly, physician and Milwaukee, Wisconsin politician, was from Bad Soden

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Bad Soden is twinned with:^[4]

• Rueil-Malmaison, France (1975)
• Kitzbühel, Austria (1984)
• Františkovy Lázně, Czech Republic (1992)
• Yōrō, Japan (2004)
• Franklin, United States (2016)

Gallery

• 
  The old Park
• 
  New park with Catholic Church
• 
  Protestant Church
• 
  "Paulinenschlösschen"
• 
  "Badehaus" - The bathhouse
• 
  The "Königsteiner Straße"
• 
  Quellenpark

References in Literature

In Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, the Scherbatskys retire to Bad Soden to cure Kitty's illness.

In Ivan Turgenev's "Spring Torrents," Dimitry Sanin takes a trip with his future lover, Gemma, and her current fiancé to Soden, "a small town about half an hour's distance from Frankfurt".

Featured heavily in Part 3 of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

See also

• Woco Group