Bad Bellingen

Bad Bellingen, a municipality of 4 504 inhabitants spread across 16.93 square kilometres in Germany’s Lörrach district, occupies a singular position on the Upper Rhine Plain at the foot of the southern Black Forest, directly adjoining the French border. Nestled between Müllheim to the north and Lörrach to the south, with Mulhouse barely 18 kilometres to the west, this community embraces both the lowland’s fertile expanses and the wooded slopes beyond the Rhine.

The landscape unfolds in four former villages—Bad Bellingen proper, Bamlach, Hertingen and Rheinweiler—each retaining its individual character even as they share a single municipal administration since 1 January 1975. Bellingen, the largest district with 1 926 residents over 4.26 km², merges its historic core with the spa quarter; Bamlach, home to 762 souls on 4.38 km², spreads among vineyard slopes; Hertingen’s 672 residents occupy 5.66 km² of farmland and forest; and the 1 144 inhabitants of Rheinweiler live within just 2.63 km² along the Rhine’s edge. These subdivisions correspond exactly to the erstwhile autonomous municipalities, each recognised as an “Ortsteil” under state law.

Origins reach back more than a millennium, when an Alemannic hamlet known as Bellikon first appeared in a royal charter of 1006. Its evolution from agrarian village to a fishing and vine-growing settlement was overseen by local lords for centuries. From 1418 until the Peace of Pressburg in 1805, the Barons of Andlau administered the area as part of Upper Austria, until Napoleonic realignments ceded it to the Grand Duchy of Baden.

The Second World War brought devastation: roughly two fifths of built fabric lay in ruins by 1945. Reconstruction after the conflict intersected with ambitious engineering projects. The Lateral Rhine Canal, initiated in 1928 but suspended during wartime, resumed on the Alsatian side, leaving portions of the lowland drained and fallow. Seeking to diversify the economy, local authorities authorised test drilling for oil. Instead of black gold, prospectors struck a thermal spring on 28 November 1956. That first bore, later named the Markusquelle, yielded water at 36 °C. Two more sources followed: the Leodegar Spring in 1972 at 35.5 °C, and the Eberhard Spring in 1974 at 40.7 °C. Together these sodium–calcium chloride springs joined the region’s established spa towns—Badenweiler, Bad Krozingen, Freiburg and Baden-Baden—in offering healing immersion.

In recognition of its new identity, the community formally adopted the prefix Bad on 14 October 1969, and transferred from the dissolving Müllheim district into Lörrach in 1972. The nascent spa’s earliest pools consisted of repurposed wine tubs. Over subsequent decades the Balinea thermal complex took shape, now featuring three heated pools, a water-treading facility, five saunas of varying temperatures, a steam bath, hot-water pool and a secluded grotto lined with Dead Sea salt. In the grotto’s dry atmosphere—just 25 percent humidity at 21 °C—forty-five-minute sessions reputedly aid respiratory and nervous conditions.

Fronting the spa, a monumental steel sculpture by Erich Hauser commands attention. Donated to the town on 14 June 1992 by native son Franz Mary, the abstract piece has become a local emblem of renewal, its polished surfaces capturing reflections of thermal steam and sunlight alike.

Religious life in Bad Bellingen balances Catholic and Protestant traditions. The parish church of St Leodegar serves the core district, while Bamlach hosts the parish of St Peter and Paul alongside the chapel of St Nikolaus in Rheinweiler. Both belong to the Schliengen–Bad Bellingen pastoral unit. A Protestant parish office maintains a presence in the spa town itself.

Each district bears vestiges of its medieval lordships. In Rheinweiler, first documented in 1097, the castle of the von Rotberg family stands as a reminder of feudal tenure. In the 14th century the Basel-based von Schaler family held the village, which passed to the Knights of Rotberg in 1434. Austrian forces under General Mörs in 1793 halted the Revolutionary French Army at the Battle of Rheinweiler, forestalling their crossing of the Rhine. The village then joined Baden under Pressburg. Rheinweiler’s 20th-century history took a tragic turn on 21 July 1971, when express train 370 “Switzerland Express” derailed at 1:10 p.m. on a curve, claiming 23 lives and injuring 121. Over-speed on a 75 km/h bend led German Federal Railways to introduce spot-train control and shorten safety-system response times, and a landmark Federal Court of Justice ruling reinforced operators’ safety obligations.

Bamlach, first mentioned in 1130, spent centuries under the Rotberg barons. Its rolling vineyards and orchard-studded countryside now host the Upper Rhine Spa Museum, established in 1991 to trace bathing culture from Roman antiquity to modern convalescence. Among its exhibits stands one of the original wine tubs that served as the first spa pools. Nearby, the Kapellenberg hill rises to display the chapel of Maria Hügel. Erected in 1866 atop an older Marian statue, destroyed in 1945 and restored six years later, it shelters a wooden likeness carved by Hugo Eckert. From the chapel’s vantage, on clear days observers may glimpse Hartmannswillerkopf in the Vosges.

Viticulture continues on Bamlacher slopes, yielding Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Müller-Thurgau and Pinot Noir. Hertingen, with its medieval origins and the deserted village of Kleinhertingen, retains an air of quietude. Its farmsteads and the Renaissance-style mill at Hertinger Mühle speak of centuries of rural enterprise.

Governance aligns Bad Bellingen with its neighbour Schliengen through a shared administrative community, with Schliengen as the executing municipality. The municipal council comprises 17 honorary councillors plus the mayor. The election of 9 June 2024 awarded seven seats each to the CDU/Independent and Free Voters lists (both 39.45 percent), and three to the SPD (20.83 percent). Since 2018 Carsten Vogelpohl of the CDU has served as mayor.

The municipal coat of arms, granted on 8 December 1978, features a shield bisected by a silver wavy band. Above, in blue, a fountain of silver surges from the wave; below, on green, a stylised golden grape cluster. The design unites the town’s twin pillars of spa and wine, with the Rhine’s currents flowing between.

Cross-border ties endure in formal partnerships with Petit-Landau in France’s Haut-Rhin and Reigoldswil in Switzerland’s Basel-Landschaft. Cultural life unfolds through events such as the Guggeball of the Guggemusik Rondo Bellinziano, the annual concert of the local music association, the Festival of Lights each late July, grass-track racing in Hertingen each August, the Grümpel tournament of the Bamlach/Rheinweiler sports club on the first July weekend, carnival guild evenings in February, and the Rheinauenlauf race every April.

Economically, the spas have eclipsed agriculture in prominence. Over 2 000 guest beds accommodate some 350 000 overnight stays annually, making tourism a principal source of revenue. Yet fields and vineyards still shape the countryside, while the Balinea baths draw wellness-seekers from across Europe.

Transport links reinforce the town’s accessibility. The Rhine Valley Railway (Mannheim–Basel) calls at Bad Bellingen and Rheinweiler, feeding hourly regional trains to Basel Badischer Bahnhof to the south and Freiburg im Breisgau to the north. Cyclists traverse the municipality via everyday routes and long-distance trails: the Baden Wine Cycle Route threads through Bamlach’s vineyards; the Rhine Cycle Route, part of EuroVelo 15 and Germany’s D-Route 8, follows the Rhine northward; and the Southern Black Forest Cycle Route curves along the riverbank. Road users access the A5 motorway—complete with a local service area—via junctions at Efringen-Kirchen (8 km) and Müllheim/Neuenburg (6 km), while the A3 federal highway skirts Hertingen en route between Freiburg and Lörrach. EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg lies about twenty minutes by car.

Educational provision includes a primary school in Rheinweiler and three municipal kindergartens distributed across the districts, ensuring that young families find both care and instruction close at hand.

Today, Bad Bellingen presents a cohesive tapestry woven from rural heritage, cross-border interactions and therapeutic waters. Its modest population and compact footprint belie a surprising diversity of experience: medieval castles and modern spa architecture; vine-covered slopes and lowland plains; festivals that anchor centuries-old customs and contemporary wellness offerings that draw an international clientele. Such breadth finds unity in the flowing thoroughfare of the Rhine and the warm springs that rise from its environs, binding vine and village in a shared narrative of resilience and renewal.