Baden

/bahd"n/, n.

1. a region in SW Germany, formerly a state, now incorporated in Baden-Württemberg.

2. Baden-Baden.

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Former German state, southern Germany.

The name (meaning "baths") refers to the warm mineral springs, particularly in the town of Baden-Baden (pop., 2002 est.: 53,300), valued since Roman times. Baden first became a political unit when Frederick, son of the margrave of Verona, took the title of margrave of Baden in 1112. Subsequently split up many times, the territory was finally reunited under Margrave Charles Frederick in 1771. A centre of 19th-century liberalism, it was active in the revolutions of 1848–50. It joined the German Empire in 1871 and became part of the Weimar Republic in 1919. The southern part became a state of West Germany in 1949, while the northern part was incorporated into the West German state of Württemberg-Baden. Following a referendum, the two states merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952.

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▪ Austria

also called  Baden Bei Wien,  

      spa, eastern Austria. It lies along the Schwechat River, at the eastern edge of the Wiener Forest, south of Vienna. Settled in prehistoric times, it was a Roman watering place, or aquae, and was recorded in 869 as the seat of a Frankish imperial palace. Chartered in 1480, it was destroyed by the Turks in 1529 and 1683. It is famous for its warm sulfur-chlorine springs, which were visited every summer (1811–34) by Emperor Francis Joseph I. Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss, and other composers spent parts of their working lives in Baden. It was the headquarters of the Soviet occupation zone from 1945 to 1955. Other historic landmarks in the town are the 15th-century Gothic parish church of St. Stephan and the town hall (1815). Beginning in the late 20th century, Baden increasingly assumed the role of a suburb of Vienna. It is now one of several significant nuclei of employment, retail trade, and services within the Viennese metropolitan area. Pop. (2006) 25,217.

▪ Switzerland

 town, Aargau canton, northern Switzerland, on the Limmat River, northwest of Zürich. The hot sulfur springs, mentioned as early as the 1st century AD by the Roman historian Tacitus, still attract large numbers of people. The town, founded by the Habsburgs in 1291, was conquered in 1415 (with Aargau) by the Swiss Confederation. The Diet of the Swiss Confederation met at Baden from 1424 to 1712 in the old town hall (rebuilt 1497). Baden was the capital (1798–1803) of the former canton Baden. The town is dominated on the west by the ruined castle of Stein, a former Habsburg stronghold. To the northwest of the baths is a modern industrial quarter with electrical-engineering works and other factories. The population is predominantly German speaking and Roman Catholic. Pop. (2007 est.) 16,691.

▪ historical state, Germany

      former state on the east bank of the Rhine River in the southwestern corner of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg Land (state) of Germany. The former Baden state comprised the eastern half of the Rhine River valley together with the adjoining mountains, especially the Schwarzwald, which fills the great angle made by the river between Schaffhausen and Strasbourg.

      Ancient Baden was occupied by Celts and then by Germanic peoples and was conquered by Rome in the 1st century AD. In the 3rd century AD, however, the Romans yielded the region to the Alemanni, and by the 8th century the Franks had completely conquered the area, Christianizing it in the process. The title margrave of Baden originated in 1112. In 1218 the margraves, members of the house of Zähringen, acquired part of the countship of Breisgau and later added other lands west of the Rhine. In 1535 their territory was divided into the margravates of Baden-Baden in the south and Baden-Durlach in the north. Both margravates became Protestant during the Reformation, but Baden-Baden returned to Roman Catholicism in the 1570s. The dynastic rivalry between the two margravates further weakened them vis-à-vis neighbouring German states. Baden was terribly devastated during the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), and the towns of Pforzheim, Durlach, and Baden were destroyed during the expansionist wars waged by Louis XIV of France in the late 17th century.

      Louis William I, margrave of Baden-Baden from 1677 to 1707, was a distinguished commander in the imperial army in wars against the Turks and against the French; he built the palace of Rastatt. Charles III William, margrave of Baden-Durlach from 1709 to 1738, founded Karlsruhe as his capital. Baden was reunited under his grandson Charles Frederick, who was margrave of Baden-Durlach from 1738 to 1811 and of Baden-Baden from 1771, when its line became extinct. Under Charles Frederick, Baden enjoyed a long period of prosperity and happiness. Charles Frederick had to cede teritory west of the Rhine to Revolutionary France in the 1790s, however, and was constrained into an alliance with France in 1796. Baden thus became a satellite of France but was well compensated by its new ally for the possessions it had lost. Between 1803 and 1806, the French compensated Baden by extending its territory north as far as the Main River and south to Lake Constance (Bodensee). The margravate was thus enlarged to four or five times its former size. Accordingly, in 1803 Baden was made an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire and in 1806, upon the empire's dissolution, a grand duchy and a member of Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine.

      Baden as a unified state was recognized as a sovereign member of the newly formed German Confederation by the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15. The state also managed to keep most of the territorial gains it had achieved during the Napoleonic period. In 1836 Baden joined the Prussian Zollverein, or Customs Union. In 1818 the grand duke issued a constitution that made Baden one of the first German states to establish a representative assembly; however, later liberal reforms under Leopold, grand duke from 1830 to 1852, did not keep pace with radical demands that eventually precipitated a revolution led by Friedrich Hecker and Gustav von Struve in 1848. Prussian military force suppressed the revolutionary government and restored Leopold in 1849. Frederick I, grand duke from 1852 to 1907, was an ally of Prussia (except in the Seven Weeks' War in 1866) and helped to found the German Empire. The last grand duke of Baden, Frederick II, abdicated in 1918 at the close of World War I. Under the constitution of 1919, Baden ceased to be a grand duchy and became a Land of the German Reich. After World War II Baden was divided into American and French zones of occupation, and these eventually became administrative districts of the newly formed Land of Baden-Württemberg (q.v.).

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