Badeplatz (1928)

From 1928, a representative forum for the spa industry was built in the central spa district of Bad Elster. Within this ensemble, the gallery (Wandelhalle) with the Moritz Spring was built first for the town's medicinal springs. It is clad in sandstone. This is an atypical stone for this region, the Vogtland. The two architects came from Dresden, in whose region the stone is often used. The south-east façade facing the park is characterised by a very clear structure with columns. The north-west façade is more broken up and is bordered by two tower-like building sections. The southern ‘tower’ is used as a drinking hall for the springs. 

Between autumn 1933 and summer 1934, several adjoining buildings were built to the north of the Gallery. The Café am Badeplatz impresses with its spaciousness. There are two large halls inside. Unfortunately, the former sliding windows have not been preserved due to the remodelling work.

The Mary's Spring building adjoins the café. On the outside, the figure of a water bearer is the most striking feature. This is golden and stands out particularly clearly against the forest in the background. The Mary's Spring building is the only one made of brick. It is said that due to the very cold winter of 1933/34, the remaining buildings were made of wood.

This would also apply to the very impressive colonnade. It protects the spa guests from the sun, wind and rain. Shops are inserted along its entire length. Its function is to shield the bathing area from the main street. 

Another building is the music pavilion, which is used for outdoor spa concerts. 

Bad Elster was declared a Saxon royal state spa in 1848. Since then, various prestigious buildings have been constructed, such as the Kurhaus as a social centre, the theatre and the baths. The entire bathing area in the centre of the spa town was redesigned between 1928 and 1934. The older wooden buildings, which had also been built for the springs, were demolished. The new building for the spring Moritzquelle was constructed from 1928 until August 1929. The remaining areas followed in 1933 and were finished in the summer of 1934: a spring house called Mary's Spring, the adjoining colonnade with shops, a large café and a music hall for public concerts. How much these buildings from 1933 were influenced by the Nazi state, is hard to say. The style is still a lot orientated towards the International Modernism. The Nazi regime did not tolerated this idea in architecture. However, the magazine Deutsche Bauzeitung from November 11, 1934, p. 911 , particularly emphasised that "the call of the new (German9 Reich..." (Der Aufruf des neuen Reiches) ensured that the facilities could have been built just  because of the new political system since 1933. From a political point of view, the buildings are associated with the dictatorship's presciptions of architecture. But perhaps it just had to be emphasised sufficiently, as the style cannot really be assigned to the Nazis' neo-classical understanding of architecture and still bears too many traces of modernism.

Between 1953 and 1954, the interior of Mary's Spring was greatly altered due to flooding and a change in the supply of spring water. The charm of the 1950s is palpable. The chalice lamps, the railings and colours. The colonnades were extensively renovated again in 1956. Despite the alterations, the buildings appear as a unit and give the spa district a kind of forum function - to architecturally emphasise the central location of the spa resort.

• www.fotografie-architektur.de Bad Elster
• Deutsche Bauzeitung, 1934