Karlsbad/Karlovy Vary
Karlsbad/Karlovy Vary
Etymology
The Czech name of the town is derived from the word ‘var’ (= boiling, hot; ‘vary’ = hot springs).
Location
Karlsbad is situated at 50° 14' north latitude, 12° 52' east longitude, 360–390 m above sea level, 130 km north-west of Prague/Praha.
Topography
The town lies at the confluence of the Eger (Ohře) and Tepl (Teplá) rivers, between the Ore Mountains and the Kaiserwald (Slavkovský les).
Political and administrative affiliation
Czech Republic. Karlovy Vary is the administrative centre of the Karlovy Vary Region (Karlovarský kraj).
Common symbolism
The coat of arms features three silver wavy bars on a red field, surmounted by a silver Bohemian lion facing left (first recorded on a council seal dating from 1507).
Middle Ages
According to legend, the thermal springs of Karlovy Vary were discovered by Emperor Charles IV whilst on a stag hunt. One piece of evidence suggesting that they were already known before the 14th century is the name ‘Tepla’, recorded around 1200, which refers to the Tepl River (‘hot river’). Karlsbad, which grew up around the springs and was named after the Emperor, was granted the rights of a royal town (Elbogen town charter) in 1370. In 1437, the town was pledged to the royal chancellor, Kaspar Schlick.
Modern times
Wenzel Payer is regarded as the physician who first discovered the healing properties of Karlovy Vary. In 1522, he recommended drinking the hot spring water and was the first to analyse the water of Karlovy Vary. Following the expropriation of the noble Schlick family in 1547, Karlovy Vary remained a Royal Chamber City. The town recovered only slowly from the devastation caused by a flood of the River Tepl in 1582 and a major town fire in 1604, as well as from the consequences of the plague epidemic of 1633–34 and the Thirty Years’ War. In 1707, Emperor Joseph I confirmed all of Karlovy Vary’s privileges. In the 18th century, Karlsbad experienced a major economic and cultural boom – the only setback being the town fire of 1759. Towards the end of the 18th century and during the first half of the 19th century, Karlsbad was the favourite spa resort of the Russian aristocracy.
In August 1819, the secret ‘Karlsbad Conferences’ took place in Karlsbad under the auspices of the Austrian Foreign Minister and later State Chancellor, Metternich. As a result, the Karlovy Vary Resolutions were enacted, setting out measures to monitor and combat liberal and nationalist tendencies within the German Confederation and severely restricting the sovereignty of the individual states.
The spa industry in Karlsbad, which had flourished considerably since the 18th century, was professionalised through the expansion of balneological research and widely promoted. The spa holiday, originally a privilege of the nobility, developed at the beginning of the 19th century into a status symbol of the emerging middle classes. Connection to the European railway network in 1870 brought a further increase in visitor numbers. The dispatch of Karlovy Vary mineral water, effervescent salt and effervescent soap spread the ‘fame’ of the spa town.
The First World War brought the heyday of Karlovy Vary’s spa industry to an end. In 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. Following the establishment of the First Czechoslovak Republic, there were fierce protest rallies calling for the right to self-determination for ‘German Bohemia’.
On 24 April 1938, Konrad Henlein announced the Sudeten German Party’s ‘Karlsbad Programme’ in Karlsbad; its eight points were deliberately designed to be unachievable, and it marked the first clear declaration of support for National Socialism. In early October 1938, the peripheral regions of Czechoslovakia, the ‘Sudetenland’, were annexed by the German Reich. On 1 May 1939, Karlsbad was separated from the district of Karlsbad and, together with the incorporated towns of Aich/Doubí, Altrohlau/Stará Role, Drahowitz/Drahovice, Espenthor/Olšová Vrata, Fischern/Rybáře, Meierhöfen/Dvory, Pirkenhammer/Březová and Weheditz/Bohatice, to form the municipal district of Karlsbad. Karlsbad was the administrative centre of the Eger administrative district, established on 1 May 1939 within the ‘Reichsgau Sudetenland’.
The Second World War brought spa operations to a standstill. Karlsbad became a military hospital town. Bombing raids in September 1944 and April 1945 destroyed the railway station and large parts of the town, although the spa district was spared.
On 8 May 1945, Karlsbad was handed over to the Czech authorities. On 11 May, the Red Army occupied the town. The German population was expelled. The spa facilities were nationalised.
Denominations
In the mid-16th century, the Reformation took hold in Karlovy Vary. It remained in force until the 1620s, when the Counter-Reformation began in Karlovy Vary. It was not until the mid-19th century that Protestant services were held again, at the insistence of spa guests.
Around the middle of the 19th century, the Jewish community of Karlovy Vary was established. It grew within a very short time to become the fourth largest in Bohemia and had 1,600 members by 1900. By 1930, the number of members had risen to 2,120.
Population
Population figures for the Karlsbad urban area[1]
| Year | Population |
| 1850 | 3,733 |
| 1869 | 7,887 |
| 1880 | 11,767 |
| 1880 | 13,225 |
| 1900 | 16,417 |
| 1910 | 20,122 |
| 1921 | 22,099 |
| 1930 | 23,901 |
| 1950 | 19,880 |
| 1961 | 24,419 |
| 1970 | 23,913 |
| 1980 | 20,966 |
| 1991 | 17,268 |
| 2001 | 15,908 |
According to the census of 14 April 1920, the district of Karlsbad was home to 72,471 Germans, 1,811 Czechs, 167 Jews, 63 others and 2,363 ‘foreigners’ in the district of Karlsbad; of these, 71,871 declared their religion to be Roman Catholic, 1,828 Protestant and 2,681 Jewish.[2]
According to the census of 1 December 1930, of the 23,901 inhabitants of the urban district of Karlsbad, 23,901 were Germans, 1,446 were Czechs and 1,309 were foreigners.[3]
Today, 50,172 people live in Karlsbad and the villages that have since been incorporated into the town.
Economy
The ‘white industry’ of spa tourism was the most significant economic factor in Karlovy Vary, as in the whole of Western Bohemia, during the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. Karlovy Vary has twelve mineral-rich springs, the strongest and best-known of which is the 72° hot spring. Even today, tourism remains the town’s largest economic sector, whilst the food and drink industries are also significant: mineral waters (Mattoni, Magnesia), Becherovka (first produced in the early 19th century as ‘Karlsbad Becherbitter’) and Karlovy Vary wafers are regarded as key products of the town. In the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the often elaborately painted porcelain from Pirkenhammer/Březova, Giesshübel/Stružná, Dallwitz/Dalovice, Aich/Doubí, Altrohlau/Stará Role and Schlaggenwald/Horní Slavkov) were exported all over the world. Karlovy Vary porcelain remains very famous to this day. Another economically significant enterprise is the Moser glassworks, which has been based in Karlovy Vary since 1893. The company is still called Moser today.
Special cultural institutions
Karlsbad has had a racecourse since the end of the 19th century, a golf course since 1904 and tennis courts since 1905. The Karlovy Vary Museum (Karlovarské muzeum) was founded in the 1860s. Today it has branches in Neudek/Nejdek, Joachimsthal/Jachymov, the mining town of Platten/Horní Blatná and Luditz/Žlutice. The Karlovy Vary Spa Orchestra has existed since 1806. From being an ensemble specialising in high-quality dance music (under Josef Labitzky), it developed into a recognised symphony orchestra under August Labitzky. The first theatre, the ‘Becher Theatre’, opened in 1788. The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has been held annually since 1946.
Art History
In addition to the colonnade architecture associated with medical spa resorts (e.g. the Mühlbrunn Colonnade by Josef Zítek, 1871–1875/83), the spa temples and bathhouses (e.g. the Military Bathhouse by Wenzel Hagenauer, 1852–1855; Bath III by Ludwig Renner, Gustav Hain and Eduard Labitzky, 1867; Elisabeth Bath/Bath V by Franz Drobny, 1904–1906), ‘conversation rooms’, theatres and churches also had to be built for the spa guests. Luxuriously appointed, palatial hotel complexes (e.g. the Grand-Hotel Pupp; the Hotel Imperial by Ernest Hébrard, 1910–1912; the Hotel Richmond by Gustav Hain and Eduard Labitzky, 1927) offered the wealthy middle classes, particularly from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, the opportunity to emulate the sophisticated lifestyle of the aristocracy. The Viennese architectural practice of Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer, whose centralised designs were found throughout the monarchy, built in Karlsbad, amongst other things, the new theatre (1886), the ‘Kaiserbad’/Bad I (inaugurated in 1895), parts of the Grand Hotel Pupp (1896–1913), the Sprudelkolonnade (1878–1879; dismantled in 1939 due to severe corrosion damage) and the Schützenhaus. The Viennese ‘Atelier Künstlerkompagnie’ (Gustav Klimt, Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch) was responsible for the theatre’s decorative design. Notable Art Nouveau buildings include: the Felix Zawojski House, built around 1900; the Main Post Office, constructed by Friedrich Setz between 1900 and 1904; and the Market Hall (1913). Architectural highlights of the 1970s included the Hotel Thermal (1967–1976) and the Gagarin Colonnade by Jaroslav Otruba (1971–1975). Due to their lack of integration with the historic spa architecture, these buildings came in for vocal public criticism from the late 1980s onwards.
The oldest surviving religious building is St Urban’s Church in the Fischern/Rybáře district, dating from the second half of the 13th century. The Romanesque St Leonard’s Church, of which only ruins remain, was also first mentioned in the 13th century.
Around 1500, St Andrew’s Cemetery Church – which was rebuilt in 1841 – was erected. The St Andrew’s Cemetery, which was established after the cemetery around St Mary Magdalene’s Church was closed and is now called ‘Mozart Park’, contains a number of interesting funerary monuments, including those for the Berlin architect Friedrich Gilly (1771–1800) and Mozart’s son Franz Xaver Wolfgang, who died in Karlsbad in 1844. The Protestant church was consecrated as a house of prayer in 1856 (architect: Gustav Hein) and was later rebuilt and extended on several occasions. Of artistic significance is the Catholic deanery church of St Mary Magdalene, built between 1732 and 1736 by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. The older English church in the Neo-Gothic style, designed by Oscar Mothes, stood until 1877; the brick building of the new Anglican church, designed by Josef Slowak of Karlovy Vary, was consecrated in 1877. The main building of the Russian Orthodox Church of St Peter and Paul was erected between 1893 and 1897 by the Franzensbad architect Gustav Wiedemann. The synagogue, built in the Moorish-Romanesque style, was constructed between 1875 and 1877 by Christoph Adolf Wolff of Stuttgart. It was destroyed during the Night of Broken Glass on 9 November 1938. In 1864, the new Karlovy Vary cemetery was established at the foot of the Dreikreuzberg. It is also the final resting place for a large number of those who died in the First and Second World Wars, including those who died in hospitals and military field hospitals – many of whom had been evacuated from Berlin in particular – as well as civilian war victims.
Culture of memory and remembrance
In addition to the Trinity Column on the market square, created by Oswald Josef Wenda in 1715–1716, Karlovy Vary boasts a number of monuments to famous spa guests, such as the bust of Peter the Great by Thomas Seidan (1877), the bust of Goethe by Adolf von Donndorf (1883), the Schiller monument by Friedrich Ohmann (1909), the Beethoven monument by Hugo Uher (1929), the Smetana bust by Josef Wagner (1950), the Dvořák statue by Karel Kuneš (1974), and the Karl Marx monument by Karel Kuneš (1988). In addition, a large number of commemorative plaques mark the visits of famous spa guests to the spa town. Viewing towers and memorials along the hiking trails in the surrounding forests (e.g. the Findlater Obelisk from 1804, Freundschaftshöhe) have, since their construction, served as starting and finishing points for spa guests’ walks.
Three monuments now commemorate the town’s founder, Emperor Charles IV: a sandstone sculpture created in 1739; the jubilee column commissioned by Josef Max to mark the city’s 500th anniversary, featuring a statue of the Emperor (1857); and the Charles IV monument by Otakar Švec (1955).
In 1953, the city of Wiesbaden took on the patronage of Karlovy Vary. Today, Wiesbaden is home to the Karlovy Vary Museum (Oranienstraße 3), run by the Karlovy Vary Heritage Association.
The name ‘Karlsbad’ is frequently used for promotional purposes: for example, the French spa town of Chaudes-Aigues advertises itself as ‘Le Carlsbad Français’, Bad Bertrich called itself ‘The Mild Karlsbad’, and Bad Mergentheim promoted itself as ‘The German Karlsbad’. ‘Carlsbad’ is the name – following the Bohemian model , a town with a mineral spring on the Pacific coast in the south of the US state of California has also been known as “Carlsbad” since the 1880s; likewise, since 1889, a town in New Mexico whose spring water has a similar composition to that of Karlsbader water has borne the same name. Finally, there is also a place called Carlsbad in Ontario.
Bibliography
- Commemorative volume for the Congress of German Naturalists and Physicians. Vol. 1. Karlsbad 1902.
- Milan Augustin (Karlsbad State District Archive), Ludwig J. Weigert (Karlsbad Local History Association) (eds.): Historical Writings on Karlsbad. 2 vols. A selection from *Historický sborník Karlovarska* I–V (1993–1997). Karlovy Vary 2002, 2010.
- Stanislav Burachovič: Karlovy Vary and its Local History Literature. Karlovy Vary 2000 (Small Karlovy Vary Monographs 1).
- Anton Gnirs: Topography of Historical and Art-Historical Monuments in the District of Karlsbad (Prague 1933). Edited by the Collegium Carolinum, revised by Anna Gnirs. Munich 1996 (Handbook of Sudeten German Art History 8).
- Peter Hilsch: Karlsbad. In: Joachim Bahlcke, Winfried Eberhard, Miloslav Polívka (eds.): Handbook of Historical Sites. Bohemia and Moravia. Stuttgart 1998 (Kröners Taschenausgabe 329), pp. 249–253.
- Dolf Köhler (ed.): Karlsbad. Documentation. The City and its Municipal Districts. Reports – Biographical Details – Statistics. Plus five articles on historical and local history topics. Edited by the Heimatverband der Karlsbader e. V. Wiesbaden, Grünwald near Munich 1981.
- Masumi Schmidt-Muraki: Karlsbad – Worldwide. From the ‘Karlsbader Erzählungen’. In: Karlsbader Zeitung. Issue 7, 46.1996, pp. 220–222.
- Heinz Schubert: Karlsbad. A World-Class Spa Reflected Through the Ages. Munich 1980.
- Mirjam Triendl-Zadoff: Next Year in Marienbad. Parallel Worlds of Jewish Cultures in the Modern Era. Göttingen 2007 (Jewish Religion, History and Culture 6), passim.
- Johannes Urzidil: Goethe in Bohemia. 2nd, expanded edition. Zurich, Stuttgart 1965.
- Anna Zídková: Fellner and Helmer in Karlovy Vary. Karlovy Vary 1996, passim.
Web links
- www.karlovyvary.cz/de/ (the town’s website, available in German and English, amongst other languages)
- www.herder-institut.de/bildkatalog/wikidata/Q384544 (Images of Karlsbad/Karlovy Vary from the image archive of the Herder Institute, Marburg)
Notes
[1] 1850–1970, according to the *Retrospective Encyclopaedia of Municipalities of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic* 1850–1970. Prague 1978; 1980–2001 according to the *Historical Encyclopaedia of Municipalities of the Czech Republic* 1869–2005, Vol. Prague 2006.
[2] Statistical Encyclopaedia of Municipalities in Bohemia. Official List of Localities in accordance with the Act [Statistical Encyclopaedia of Municipalities in Bohemia. Official List of Localities] dated 14 April 1920. Prague 1923, p. 256.
[3] Statistical Encyclopaedia of Municipalities in Bohemia based on the results of the census of 1 December 1930. Prague 1935, p. 391.
Citation
Elisabeth Fendl: Karlsbad/Karlovy Vary. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32225 (as at 17 March 2023).
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