Bad Camberg | |
|---|---|
 Old mayor’s house in Erbach | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
Location of Bad Camberg within Limburg-Weilburg district  | |
  Bad Camberg  Bad Camberg | |
| Coordinates:50°18′N8°16′E / 50.300°N 8.267°E /50.300; 8.267 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Hesse |
| Admin. region | Gießen |
| District | Limburg-Weilburg |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2022–28) | Daniel Rühl[1] (CDU) |
| Area | |
• Total | 54.64 km2 (21.10 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 209 m (686 ft) |
| Population (2022-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 14,294 |
| • Density | 260/km2 (680/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 65520 |
| Dialling codes | 06434, 06483 |
| Vehicle registration | LM, WEL |
| Website | www.bad-camberg.de |
Bad Camberg (German:[baːtˈkambɛʁk]ⓘ) is, with 14,500 inhabitants, the second largest town inLimburg-Weilburg district inHesse,Germany, as well as the southernmost town in theRegierungsbezirk ofGießen. It is located in the eastern Taunus in theGoldener Grund (“Golden Ground”) some 30 km north ofWiesbaden, 18 km southeast ofLimburg an der Lahn, and 44 km northwest ofFrankfurt, as well as on theGerman Timber-Frame Road. Bad Camberg is the central community of theGoldener Grund with good infrastructure, and a lower centre partly with a middle centre's function.
The recognizedKneipp resort is Hesse's oldest and Germany's third oldest. In the outlying centre of Oberselters is found amineralspring that gives forth the well knownSelterswasser, often known inEnglish as “seltzer”. The town's landmark is theKreuzkapelle.
Bad Camberg lies north of theTaunus’s main ridge, 18 km southeast ofLimburg an der Lahn, making it Middle Hesse’s southernmost town. The nearest cities are (distances given here are by road)Wiesbaden (31 km south),Frankfurt am Main (48 km southeast, 59 km byAutobahn),Wetzlar (49 km),Koblenz (72 km), andGießen (75 km).
The town’s elevation is 209 m. The Limburg-Weilburg district’s highest elevation, the Kuhbett (“Cow’s Bed”; 526 m), lies within the limits of the outlying centre of Erbach on the boundary with the community ofWeilrod in theHochtaunuskreis. The greatest elevation in the central community – also called Bad Camberg – is the Kapellenhügel (“Chapel Hill”), which is somewhat more than 300 m high.
Bad Camberg's neighbours are, clockwise from the north,Selters (Limburg-Weilburg),Weilrod (Hochtaunuskreis),Waldems (Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis),Idstein (Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis),Hünstetten (Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis) andHünfelden (Limburg-Weilburg). All but the two lying within Limburg-Weilburg lie not in theRegierungsbezirk of Gießen, but rather in theRegierungsbezirk of Darmstadt.
The town comprises sixStadtteile.
| Stadtteil | Population | Area | Wooded in km2 | in % | Pop. density |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bad Camberg (main town) | 6,903 | 19.91 | 10.89 | 54.7 | 346.7 |
| Erbach | 2,804 | 10.66 | 4.91 | 46.0 | 263.0 |
| Würges | 2,545 | 13.82 | 6.27 | 45.4 | 184.1 |
| Oberselters | 1,173 | 4.22 | 0.84 | 19.9 | 278.0 |
| Schwickershausen | 585 | 2.77 | 0.66 | 23.8 | 211.2 |
| Dombach | 382 | 3.26 | 1.38 | 42.3 | 105.5 |
| Totals | 14,397 | 54.64 | 24.95 | 45.7 | 263.5 |
To theLinear Pottery culture from theNew Stone Age (5000-3000 BC), which draws its name from theceramics that it produced, belong the oldestarchaeological finds in the Camberg area. While most groups at that time werehunter-gatherers, the Linear Pottery people were already producing their own food by raising crops (among othersemmer andeinkornwheats) andlivestock, the latter being mainlysheep,swine,goats and above allcattle; this covered up to 90% of the people'smeat requirements.
It is known how these cultures built houses. The houses were mostly 20 to 25 m long and 5 to 7 m wide, consisting of five rows of posts, the three inner ones bearing the roof's weight, and the two outer ones thewattle-and-daub walls’. These houses served to house people, supplies and animals, and they were always oriented in a certain direction (northwest-southeast or north–south). Within the settlements, irregular pits are encountered that, when houses were being built, were used as the houses’ excavations. They were then filled more and more with rubbish such ascharcoal, animal bones, ashes, stones and potsherds. In a few built-up areas in the town's main centre, the streets have cut across several garbage pits.[4] When opening up new cropfields, the farmers preferredloess.
The second wave of settlers has been determined to have come between 600 and 500 BC. Thebarrow fields on both sides of the road to Tenne (ahamlet) are from this time.[5]
On 6 February 1000, EmperorOtto III donated theCagenberg estate to theBurtscheidMonastery.[6] Cagenberg means Cargo's Mountain, Cargo being a short form of the name Garganhardt.[7] From the name Cagenberg developedCainburg,Camburg,Kamberg andCamberg, and by other sourcesCagenberc (1018),Kamberch (1156),Kahberg (1194)Kamberc (1197) and laterKaynburg. In 1281, KingRudolph I granted town rights on the model of the Imperial city ofFrankfurt am Main; these were renewed in 1300, 1336 and 1365.
Legend has it that afterEpiphany in 1357, all the Camberg townsfolk were drunk and asleep when robber knights fromWalsdorf came to try to rob the town. The town wall had not yet been finished and the knights therefore only needed to cross a hedge. However, there lived somemagpies, who noticed the attemptedrobbery and gave out an alarm call, waking the townsfolk up, who then fended the attack off, putting the Walsdorf knights to flight. To this day, the magpie is still regarded as the town's “unofficial heraldic bird”.
From 1535 to 1794, theAmt of Camberg was in force, to which all current constituent communities belonged under the common administration of the House of Nassau and by theElectorate of Trier. After a shortFrench occupation, the town was, as of 1806, part of theDuchy of Nassau. In 1866 it passed toPrussia. Since 1945, the town has been part of theGerman Federal state of Hesse.
In 1630 and again in 1659, greatwitch trials took place. Thirteen women and one man were found guilty and five women were put to death; one also died in custody. The others were released, often after having beentortured.
In 1810, Baron Hugo von Schütz zu Holzhausen, himself borndeaf, was first teaching deaf students in rooms at theAmthof, making him a pioneer in this field in Germany. In the years that followed, a scholastic institution grew out of these classes and in 1820 the “Ducal Nassau Deaf-Mute Institute”. Until 1875 it was housed in a side building of theGuttenberger Hof in the Old Town. As of 1894, however, the school had its own building which was built on a plot of land on Frankfurter Straße donated by the town of Camberg. Under the nameFreiherr-von-Schütz-Schule, it is still found there today.
In 1861, Moritz Lieber founded ahospital, theLieber'sches Hospital, on Gisbert-Lieber-Straße. It was dissolved in 1959. Today, theFreiherr-von-Schütz-Schule uses the building.
During theSecond World War, and especially in 1944, manyWehrmacht units were in the town. In 1942 alone, eightJewish inhabitants were deported and murdered.
This table shows how much land was held by each class in 1788 (shown by percentage):[8]
| Centre | Townsmen | Nobles | Church |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bad Camberg | 70.2 | 26.2 | 3.6 |
| Erbach | 80.2 | 18.8 | 1.0 |
| Würges | 65.2 | 34.8 | - |
| Oberselters | 72.4 | 24.3 | 3.3 |
| Schwickershausen | 83.9 | 16.1 | - |
| Dombach | 96.5 | 3.5 | - |
Camberg has been a Kneipp resort since 1927. In 1937 it was granted the titleAnerkanntes Heilbad (“Recognized Healing Bath”). Since 1977, Camberg has been aStaatlich Anerkanntes Kneippheilbad (“State-recognized Kneipp Healing Bath”). In 1981, on the occasion of the town's 700-year jubilee of the granting of town rights, Camberg was awarded the official designationBad (“Bath”, meaning a health resort). Ever since then, the town has been known as Bad Camberg. In 1973, the Hohenfeld Clinics were completed.[5]
In the 1970s there was administrative reform throughout Germany, which also had its consequences in the Bad Camberg area. On 13 August 1970, the “Municipal Working Community of theGoldener Grund” came into force. Its goal was to unite the communities of theGoldener Grund through a voluntary merger. Ten communities, today's six constituent communities along with theSelters constituent communities of Niederselters, Eisenbach and Haintchen as well as Hasselbach, now belonging toWeilrod, signed this. On 11 December 1969, the Hessian interior minister announced that suggestions for municipal rearrangements were to be worked out for all communities in the state. This envisaged Camberg, Würges, Erbach, Schwickershausen and Dombach being merged into the Town of Camberg, whereas Oberselters, along with Niederselters, Eisenbach and Haintchen, would form the Community ofSelters. The Dombach community representatives were of the opinion, however, that they should keep their village's autonomy until such time as the state chose to force an amalgamation. Also, the Würges community representatives feared that building projects in their village would be shelved and that Camberg would become the town's cultural hub.
In January 1971, the district of Limburg once again suggested the small solution. All the current constituent communities but Oberselters were to form the new Town of Camberg. Also brought into question, however, was whether Oberselters, Hasselbach,Walsdorf andSteinfischbach might be amalgamated with the Town of Camberg. The Oberselters community representatives favoured amalgamation, if it had to happen, with Camberg, whereas Hasselbach inclined towardsWeilrod. Walsdorf's and Steinfischbach's people had voted for Idstein and Waldems respectively so that the planned merger at the time agreed with the current town limits. The communities of Camberg, Erbach, Schwickershausen and Oberselters backed this merger, whereas Dombach first wanted to “wait and see”, and Würges wanted no voluntary amalgamation. TheBundesland of Hesse named 31 December 1971 as the latest possible deadline for voluntary amalgamation.
On 9 November 1971 came the signing of a boundary-changing agreement among today's five Camberg constituent communities other than Würges along with Eisenbach and Haintchen to found the new Town of Camberg. This agreement, however, was not recognized by the Hesse government, which demanded that Eisenbach, Haintchen and Oberselters be amalgamated with the community of Niederselters and suggested uniting Camberg with Erbach, Schwickershausen and Dombach. The communities complained before the Hessian Administrative Court (Hessischer Verwaltungsgerichtshof) to get it to uphold the merger of Oberselters, Eisenbach and Haintchen at 1 January 1972 anyway. The government was obliged to allow the amalgamation, but it wanted to revise the plan. There was, however, no actual hearing before the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgerichtshof) in Kassel and the appellate proceedings were suspended in May 1975.[9]
On 1 July 1974, Camberg, Würges, Erbach, Schwickershausen and Dombach were forcibly merged. The community of Oberselters joined.
From its first documentary mention in 1000, Camberg belonged to the County of Diez, which passed to the County of Nassau-Dillenburg in 1388. In 1420, theLords of Eppstein inherited half the town, while the other half was kept by Dillenburg. Eight years later, the Lords of Eppstein acquired a further fourth of Camberg. This was bought in 1453 by theCounts of Katzenelnbogen, who a year later also bought a further eighth from Dillenburg, although they sold this back to Dillenburg only a year later. In 1470, Katzenelnbogen passed to Hesse-Marburg and in 1508 Eppstein to the Counts of Königstein. When the Counts of Königstein died out in 1535, theElectorate of Trier occupied Camberg and acquired half the town. In 1557, the Treaty of Frankfurt added the Hessian fourth to Nassau-Dillenburg. From 1607 to 1628, one fourth, which had been Dillenburg domain before this and also was afterwards, belonged to Nassau-Hadamar. In 1652, the Dillenburg half went to Nassau-Diez, and in 1743 to theHouse of Orange-Nassau.
In 1802,Nassau-Weilburg took over the Electorate of Trier half. In 1806 arose, out of Orange-Nassau, Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-Weilburg, theDuchy of Nassau, thereby ending the town's manifold overlordships. In 1816, theAmt of Camberg was made part of theAmt of Idstein. In 1866 Nassau passed toPrussia, in which it belonged to the province ofHesse-Nassau, theRegierungsbezirk of Wiesbaden and the district of Untertaunuskreis. In 1886 Camberg became part of the new Limburg district. In 1945, the town was assigned to theUnited States Occupation Zone and thereby to Hesse. The town belonged then to theRegierungsbezirk of Wiesbaden until this was abolished in 1968, whereupon Camberg became part of theRegierungsbezirk of Darmstadt. In 1981, it became part of theRegierungsbezirk of Gießen. Camberg became part of Limburg-Weilburg district in 1974.
All Camberg's centres are mostlyCatholic. There are six Catholic parishes that have merged into the Bad Camberg pastoral area: St. Peter und Paul in Camberg, St. Mauritius in Erbach, St. Ferrutius in Würges, St. Antonius in Oberselters, St. Georg in Schwickershausen and St. Wendelin in Dombach. To the parish of St. Peter und Paul belong 3,600 Catholics, and thereby two thirds of the townsfolk. Saint Martin'sEvangelical Church (Martinskirche) has been in Camberg since 1890.
| Year | Population | Foreigners | in % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 1993 | 13,483 | 1,070 | 7.9 |
| Dec 1994 | 13,576 | 1,122 | 8.3 |
| Dec 1995 | 13,701 | 1,222 | 8.9 |
| Dec 1996 | 13,781 | 1,235 | 9.0 |
| Dec 1997 | 13,884 | 1,264 | 9.1 |
| Dec 1998 | 13,835 | 1,105 | 8.0 |
| Dec 1999 | 13,983 | 1,082 | 7.7 |
| Dec 2000 | 13,982 | 1,050 | 7.5 |
| Dec 2001 | 13,885 | 1,017 | 7.3 |
| Dec 2002 | 13,916 | 1,017 | 7.3 |
| Mar 2004 | 14,103 | 991 | 7.0 |
| Dec 2004 | 14,282 | ||
| Mar 2005 | 14,324 | 985 | 6.9 |
| Dec 2005 | 14,391 | 1,013 | 7.0 |
| Centre | 1910[11] | 1970 | 1974 | 1987 | 1998[12] | 2004[13] | 2005[13] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bad Camberg (main town) | 2,575 | 4,956 | 5,247 | 5,586 | 6,515 | 6,800 | 6,903 |
| Erbach | 1,114 | 2,111 | 2,257 | 2,468 | 2,869 | 2,805 | 2,804 |
| Würges | 926 | 2,101 | 2,185 | 2,147 | 2,453 | 2,530 | 2,545 |
| Oberselters | 587 | 1,017 | 1,002 | 1,221 | 1,178 | 1,173 | |
| Schwickershausen | 332 | 465 | 492 | 536 | 553 | 585 | 585 |
| Dombach | 238 | 225 | 259 | 307 | 366 | 385 | 382 |
| whole town | 5,772 | 11,457 | 12,045 | 13,977 | 14,281 | 14,391 |
| Mayor | Time in office | Party |
|---|---|---|
| Ernst Enzmann | 1974–1989 | CDU |
| Gerhard Reitz | 1989–2004 | SPD |
| Wolfgang Erk | 2005- | SPD |
Percentage results:
| Candidate | Party | 13 June 2004 | 27 June 2004 | 20 February 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfgang Erk | SPD | 49.1 | 50.4 | 63.11 |
| Harald Theuerkauf | CDU | 48.6 | 49.6 | 36.89 |
| Wolfgang Schiling | none | 2.3 | - | - |
These are the results by centre:
| Centre | Eligible voters | Valid votes | W. Erk | H. Theuerkauf |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bad Camberg | 5,089 | 2,597 | 1,686 | 911 |
| Erbach | 2,093 | 1,146 | 783 | 363 |
| Würges | 1,952 | 926 | 552 | 374 |
| Oberselters | 887 | 463 | 273 | 190 |
| Schwickershausen | 458 | 244 | 174 | 70 |
| Dombach | 307 | 179 | 119 | 60 |
| Postal vote | 769 | 731 | 380 | 351 |
| whole town | 11,555 | 6,286 | 3,967 | 2,319 |
The municipal election on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:
| Parties and voter communities | % 2006 | Seats 2006 | % 2001 | Seats 2001 | |
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | 47.1 | 17 | 47.9 | 18 |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany | 42.8 | 16 | 40.3 | 15 |
| GRÜNE | Bündnis 90/Die Grünen | 7.0 | 3 | 8.4 | 3 |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party | 3.0 | 1 | 3.4 | 1 |
| Total | 100.0 | 37 | 100.0 | 37 | |
| Voter turnout in % | 48.2 | 54.5 | |||
The next municipal election will be held in 2011.
The town'sarms show theObertorturm (“Upper Gate Tower”), Camberg's eastern towngate tower, with its gate. On the tower are two golden lions on a red field. The roof is blue. The golden lions on the red field stem from the arms borne by the County of Diez, to which Bad Camberg belonged. The background in the arms is red.
Bad Camberg maintains partnership arrangements with the following places:
On 9 January 1991 the town friendship agreement between Bad Sulza and Bad Camberg was ceremonially signed.
TheKreuzkapelle is the town's landmark. Today'schapel was built east of the town on a mountain in 1725 and can be seen from far away.
In the Old Town quite a number oftimber-frame houses are still to be found, some very elaborately decorated. The houses were mostly built between the 15th and 18th century. Many houses are grouped around themarketplace, which was a trading station on the High Road (Hohe Straße) fromCologne toFrankfurt.
The town's most popular sightseeing spot is the row of timber-frame houses that together make up theAmthof, the seat of the long defunctAmt. It stretches over a frontage of 155 m,[14] making it one of Hesse's biggest timber-frame structures. The representative building was built in 1605 on a former building's foundations. In the years that followed, up until 1669, it was further expanded and the three formerly separate buildings were melded into one great structure.
TheAmthof was seat and home to theOberamtmänner (highAmt officials) of theAmt of Camberg in the Electorate of Trier. Once theAmt was dissolved in 1815, it lost its importance. In 1942 the town acquired theAmthof and had it thoroughly restored in 1989. Today it is the town administration's seat.
Another important timber-frame building is the oldAmtapothecary’s shop, whose foundations go back to 1330, and which was newly built in 1492 as aBurgmannenhaus for the Hattsteins. From 1663 the house harboured an apothecary’s shop. Today’sGuttenberger Hof was first mentioned in 1336 as the family von Hattstein’s seat. It was overhauled and built into its current form in 1526. In 1767 ownership passed to the family von Guttenberg and in 1820 to common (that is to say, not noble) ownership. As of October 2007, theGuttenberger Hof is being restored.
Of the town’s old fortifications, only remnants are left. TheObertorturm (32 m tall, built about 1380) and theUntertorturm, the town’s two gate towers, are all that is left of the 13 towers that once girded the town.
Abutting theAmthof is theObertorturm, likewise one of the town’s landmarks, which also appears in the town’sarms. Right next to it stands theHohenfeldkapelle (chapel). The chapel is decorated with many fixtures from various centuries, among them plaques with grave inscriptions from the von Metternich undHohenfeld, von Schütz zu Holzhausen, von Bechtolsheim and von Spies-Büllesheim families, who were of importance in the town. Today, theObertorturm and theHohenfeldkapelle serve as the Town and Tower Museum.
TheUntertorturm is known locally as theSchiefer Turm von Bad Camberg (“Leaning Tower of Bad Camberg”), a name that owes itself to a lean of 1.44 m over a height of 21 m. On its base once stood three gates in a row. Its old cupola was destroyed in 1945 as theSecond World War neared its end.
St. Peter's and St. Paul's Catholic Church stands in the Old Town's northwest. A “Saint Peter’s Church” (St. Peter Kirche) in Camberg had its first documentary mention in 1156. The oldest part of today's church is the tower built in 1580. After the nave collapsed in the 18th century, a new church had to be built. It was built by the Dillenburg building inspector Johann Friedrich Sckell in theZopfstil (a lateRococo and earlyClassicism development), and is therefore one of the few examples of this building style in the region. The Electorate of Trier Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Maria von Herbain consecrated this church on 15 July 1781 in honour of the ApostlesPeter andPaul.[15]
Saint Martin's Evangelical Church and the parish house were built under the Reverend Ernst in 1896–1897. The Wiesbaden government building adviser Eggert developed the plans. Thearchitect L. Hofmann fromHerborn took on the leadership of the building work under the royal government's supervision.
The health resort park (Kurpark) in Bad Camberg was laid out as far back as the 18th century by the family Schütz von Holzhausen. The park lies right at the Upper Gate at the edge of the Old Town. Besides a Kneipp water treading pool, the stand of old trees and the water games, the park also offers aminiature golf course and severaltennis courts. In 2002, a herb garden exhibit of about 800 m2 was laid out in the health resort park.
In Bad Camberg theCamberger Kerb, a church consecration festival orkermis, has been being held each year since 1781 at the same time as the autumn market (Herbstmarkt). It is always held on the second weekend in October, although the actual church consecration festival is celebrated on 29 June (St. Peter's and St. Paul's). Since 2004, this has been held under a marquee on thePfortenwiesen (the old sporting ground). TheKerb is staged by theVerein zur Förderung des Brauchtums Camberger Kerb e. V. and a yearly committee called theKerbejahrgang.
The Lottermann family'sVW-Veteranen-Treffen, known worldwide on theVolkswagen scene, has been a tradition in Bad Camberg since 1979. Every four years, the oldest and rarest automobiles can be found here. The 8th rally was even held a second time, after the founder's death, thanks to the family's support, beginning 22 June 2007.
In the outlying centre of Oberselters, the springwater business “Oberselters” is located. Here mineral water is bottled under various brand names such asNassauer Land,Oberselters andBad Camberger Taunusquelle.
Furthermore, the firm HACA Leitern (ladders), knownEurope-wide, has its headquarters in Bad Camberg.
Health resort offerings comprise theHohenfeldklinik (psychosomatic medicine: 160 beds,internal medicine: 120 beds,orthopaedics: 87 beds) as a health clinic, aneurological rehabilitation clinic (150 beds), severalsanatoria, theKur-und Gesundheitszentrum (municipal bathing department with gymnastics for the sick) and several Kneipp water treading pools. In 2005, Bad Camberg recorded 176,663 overnight stays by resort guests. The average stay lasted 8.6 days.
Bad Camberg lies on theA 3 (Cologne–Frankfurt), which goes back to one of the world's oldest trade roads, and on theCologne-Frankfurt InterCityExpress line. Many inhabitants from the main town and the outlying centres commute to work in theFrankfurt Rhein-Main Region.
Already in theBronze Age, which in Germany began about 1750 BC, theHohe Straße (“High Road”) led through the Ems-Wörsdrainage basin, running fromConstantinople toBrussels. The feeder road from the town to the High Road was theLimburger Weg (first mentioned in 1355 asLympurger Weg), whose name was changed in 1959 toTaunusstrasse [de] (English:Taunus Street) and in 1979 toLahnstraße to avoid confusion withLimburger Straße. By the 18th century, the High Road was no longer used.
In 1934, the town of Camberg joined the company for preparing the Frankfurt-CologneAutobahn. ThisReichsautobahn (nowBundesautobahn 3/Europastraße 35) was built between 1937 and 1939. In theGoldener Grund, its route roughly follows the old High Road's.
Bad Camberg is linked to the Autobahn through the like-namedinterchange. This interchange was not in the original plans but was built later to let the communities in theGoldener Grund share in the transport and economic development. In 1954, theBad Camberg-Ostservice centre was opened on the Cologne-bound side of the Autobahn; a year later followedBad Camberg-West on the Frankfurt-bound side.[16]
In the 12th century, bit by bit, roads were also built in the valleys. This was due not only to the upswing in goods trading but also to the growing danger on the High Road. Thus came into being theEmstalstraße (“Ems Valley Road”), a part of the oldVia Publica between Brussels andPrague.
In 1768, theElectorate of Trier began expanding highways into boulevardlike roads, and so it also was for the road from Limburg to the border between Würges and Walsdorf, which was finished in 1780. This work on the road, which ran by theUntertortum west of what was then town limits, was after two or three years, owing to the great volume of traffic, once again utterly destroyed. Given this, the town proposed to have the road run from Erbach to theObertorturm, then through the town to theUntertortum and thence on to Würges. The proposal was, however, turned down. Owing to the Electorate of Trier Road-Building Ordinance of 1753, the citizens of theAmt of Camberg were obliged to perform compulsory labour on the road early in the year and in autumn. Wages and material costs for the bridgebuilding were borne by the Electoral Court Chamber (kurfürstliche Hofkammer), while the communities and theAmt were expected to lay on the materials. Only after theRevolution of 1848 was all compulsory labour abolished.
Out of this road developed the Imperial Long-Distance Road (Reichsfernstraße) 8 in the early 20th century, nowBundesstraße 8, which currently runs through Erbach, Bad Camberg and Würges and by Oberselters. For those first three places, a bypass road has been planned for more than thirty years.[17]
In 1876, the Eschhofen-Niederseltersrailway line was lengthened by roughly 5 km to Bad Camberg. Later, the line was expanded so that through trains can nowadays use the whole Limburg-Bad Camberg-Niedernhausen-Frankfurt/Wiesbaden line. To Frankfurt runsRMV line 20 (Main-Lahn-Bahn), and to Wiesbaden runs line 21 (Ländchesbahn).
Since December 2004, a townbus service has been running in Bad Camberg. There are two routes, LM-31 (railway station-inner town-Erbach) and LM-32 (railway station-inner town-Würges). Each takes a different route from the railway station to the inner town before running to Erbach or Würges.
In Bad Camberg there are threeprimary schools, theRegenbogenschule (“Rainbow School”) in Erbach, theAtzelschule in Bad Camberg and the Würges Primary School (Grundschule Würges) in Würges. TheTaunusschule Bad Camberg is acomprehensive school at which a finishing certificate (Hauptschulabschluss), a lower secondary certificate (Mittlere Reife) or anAbitur can be earned. TheFreiherr-vom-Schütz-Schule, which goes back to 1810 and now includes aboarding school, served seven Hessian districts as a school for the deaf.
In Bad Camberg there are sixkindergartens, three municipal and three sponsored by the Catholic Church.[18]
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