Wiesbaden

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Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden (vēsˈbäˌdən, vĭsˈ–), city (1994 pop. 270,873), capital of Hesse, central Germany, on the Rhine River, at the southern foot of the Taunus Mts. The city, an industrial center and a market for Rhine wines, is one of the most famous spas of Europe. Manufactures include metal goods, concrete products, and printed materials. There are also motion picture and television studios and publishing houses. Wiesbaden was founded as a Celtic settlement in the 3d cent. B.C. In the 1st and 2d cent. A.D. it was a popular Roman spa known as Aquae Mattiacorum; there are remains of the Roman water conduits and walls. It later became a free imperial city and passed to the county (later duchy) of Nassau in 1281. In 1806 the city was made the capital of Nassau and with it passed to Prussia in 1866. After World War I, Wiesbaden was the seat (1918–29) of the Allied Rhineland Commission. Noteworthy buildings in the city include the castle (1837–41), the Kurhaus (1905–7), and the State Theater of Hesse (1892–94).

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Wiesbaden

a city in the Federal Republic of Germany on the right bank of the Rhine, in Hessen Land. Population, 259,000 (1969). Wiesbaden is a transportation center, and it has a river port, Schierstein, with a freight turnover of more than 2 million tons a year. Industry is located mainly in the south, in the vicinity of Biebrich and Kastel, and it includes chemical, pharmaceutical, and machine-building enterprises (including electrical engineering equipment, precision mechanics products, and optical products), champagne production, and printing. The federal statistical administration, a library, and a main state archive are located in Wiesbaden.

The city is a well-known balneological and climatological health resort located at the foot of the Taunus Mountains at an altitude of 117 m. The climate is mild, warm (average annual temperature, 9.3° C), and moderately humid. The summer is warm (average July temperature, 19.5° C) and the winter mild (average January temperature, 0.2° C). The precipitation is about 700 mm a year. Therapy includes hot mineral springs (temperature about 66° C) containing chloride, sodium, and calcium and used for baths, inhalation, and drinking. Mud therapy and grape cure are also given. Wies-baden provides therapy for patients with diseases of the joints, peripheral nervous system, and digestive organs, as well as metabolic disorders and catarrhs of the upper respiratory tract. Wiesbaden has a balneological institute, sanatoriums, bathing establishments with swimming pools and divisions for mud therapy, inhalation rooms, hydropathic and electric therapy clinics, and boarding houses.

Wiesbaden

a city in W Germany, capital of Hesse state: a spa resort since Roman times. Pop.: 271 995 (2003 est.)