Bad Wörishofen
city in Germany
Bad Wörishofen (German pronunciation: [baːt ˌvøːʁɪsˈhoːfn̩] ) is a spa town in the district of Unterallgäu in Bavaria, Germany, known for the water-cure (hydrotherapy) developed by Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897), a Catholic priest who lived there for 42 years. Many of the resort hotels and boarding-houses in Bad Wörishofen offer their guests treatment using Kneipp's methods.
The new spa complex out of town is called Therme Bad Wörishofen. Time magazine called the town "the secret capital of health".
Geography
The town is located on the Wörthbach, a tributary of the River Mindel in Donau-Iller, which is a border region straddling Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. It is approximately 80 km / 50 miles west of Munich and 35 km / 22 miles east of Memmingen.
History
The first known reference to the place dates from 1067, where it is described as the lordship "Werenshova". The name is thought to mean "Homestead of Werin". For centuries Wörishofen was an agricultural settlement. Between 1719 and 1721 the Dominican Wörishofen Monastery was built under the direction of Dominikus Zimmermann.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bad Wörishofen” as city in Germany. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as city in Germany. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q504579. VIAF identifies the subject as 168499928. The Library of Congress control number is n84064078. Authority coordinates are 48.006, 10.597. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1821, 1897, 1067 and 1719.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bad Wörishofen”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bad Wörishofen primary sources, Bad Wörishofen archive and Wörishofen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bad Wörishofen”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bad Wörishofen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.