Ziehen Sie sich bitte aus!

The attendant stared at me as I fumbled to figure out what she meant. We had just returned from a long hike that included a stop at one of the local wine vintners for a sampling. An afternoon at the spa sounded like the perfect way to round out the day. I had not expected – and was not prepared – for this sort of challenge.

Our favorite hike near Badenweiler is the four-mile loop to the small wine town of Britzingen, situated on the Baden Wine Road. Entering these wooded hills, dark and dense with deciduous and pine trees, it is obvious how the Schwarzwald was named. The foot trail drops out of the hills to overlook vistas of the Rhine valley. Vineyards carpet the hills broken only by the small towns that crop up above the vines. In Britzingen, the local wine cooperative is a great place to stop, rest, and sample this area’s viniculture. The trail then returns to Badenweiler through the vineyards of the Markgräflerland.

After a long hike or a bicycle ride, the spa is an anticipated treat. The list of services is large and can be a bit confusing, but the Roman-Irish steam bath (Römisch-Irisches Dampfbad) with the soap and brush massage Seifenbürstenmassage) are the highlight of any visit. The entrance price for this treatment includes admission to the various pools and vapor rooms on the ground floor. The steam bath, saunas, and massage are upstairs, where I was trying to understand what the attendant was requesting.

"Ziehen sie sich bitte aus!" she insisted, this time pointing at a sign stating Textile Frei Zone!It turns out that this part of the spa (the upstairs steam bath and sauna) is strictly no clothing and always mixed company. So, we removed our clothing and the attendant gave us a number along with general instructions on the process.

After a shower, we entered the first sauna: the warm air room (Warmluftraum  This is a large tiled room with wooden benches in a stadium like arrangement, which is a moderately hot 50°C dry sauna. After twenty minutes - the recommendation for the times in each room are posted on the wall - we proceeded to the next room (Heissluftraum), also a dry sauna and considerably warmer at 70°C. Ten minutes later, we entered the steam sauna (Dampfraum). This is as hot as the first dry sauna room, but seemingly much hotter thanks to the copious steam at 95% humidity. After ten minutes, we returned to the main room to take another shower and enter a warm holding pool filled with carbonated water. 

After a few moments, our attendant called my number and I was asked to enter a small area partitioned off from the rest of the room. The attendant instructed me to lie on my stomach and gave me the choice of a brush: soft, medium, or hard. She then applied soap to my back and began to vigorously brush my entire body, from head to toe, front and back. This is an invigorating experience, if sometimes a bit painful (visitors wishing a more relaxing Swedish massage should instead request the Wohlfühlmassage). After a shower to rinse off the soap, it’s back to another round of the saunas, a shower, and back into the sparkling water pool in the main area.

The last step in the treatment is a plunge into a cold bath (12°C). The attendants then wrapped us in large, fresh sheets, and guided us to the resting room (Ruheraum), a large room adjacent to the main filled with palm trees and a number of Roman style day beds. Visitors are left for a one-half hour nap before being woken by the attendants.

After a day at the spa, it’s a short, rubber-legged walk across the street to the Markgräfler Winzerstuben for a traditional Baden meal. The cuisine of Badenweiler, while traditionally German, takes on an Alsatian character. There is less of the southern German emphasis on sausage and grilled meats and a greater preference for smoked meats, fish, and fresh produce.  The local Schwarzwälder Schinken, a specialty of this area, is a dry cured ham that is pine smoked at a low temperature. Other local favorites include Sülze, chunks of pork suspended in spiced aspic and served with a vinegar sauce, and Schäufele, a delicately smoked, moist ham served with herbed sauerkraut and potatoes. In the spring, Spargel or white asparagus is ubiquitous.

The Markgräflerland Winzerstuben wine list reflects the importance of viniculture to the people who live in this area of Germany. It includes about thirty-five wines from the Baden area, including details on the producer, the grape variety, alcohol content, residual sugar content, and acidity. There are over ten varieties of grapes grown in the Baden area, but the specialty of the Markgräflerland’s lime soils is Gutedel, also known as Chasselas. This is a light and delicately scented wine that accompanies the local cuisine perfectly. Locals boast that it’s possible to consume a liter of Gutedel without ill effect.

Badenweiler is situated in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, midway between Freiburg (Breisgau) to the North and Basel, forty kilometers to the south in Switzerland. From Freiburg, the Baden Wine Road Badische Weinstraße) provides a scenic entry into this area, punctuated with many picturesque small towns. Each town has at least one tasting room for the local wines and sometimes a large Winzergenossenschaft, the local wine growers’ cooperative.  The road to Badenweiler continues due west and enters the foothills of the Schwarzwald, blanketed with the Markgräflerland Vineyards.

Nestled in a plateau in the densely forested foothills of the Schwarzwald, Badenweiler has been bestowed with a particularly attractive climate that has attracted visitors from the time of the Romans. It’s an easy jump of the imagination to understand how the mild climate and abundant thermal springs drew them here in the first and second century. They decided to stay and built a great system of heated baths here that are considered to be the largest and best preserved of their kind north of the Alps.

Dominating the town from above are the ruins of on old fortification (Schlossberg) built in the 11^th century by the Dukes of Zähringen. It was destroyed in 1678 by the French, but now provides an easy hike with panoramic view of the city, the vineyards, and the Rhine river valley.

Like the spa, the town of Badenweiler strives to maintain order and cleanliness, while also keeping Schwarzwald traditions alive. Badenweiler’s reputation rests on its renown throughout Germany as a popular Sanatorium. This popularity continues today, attracting the wealthy and more conservative of Germany to Badenweiler. Yet, the town remains a real bargain for travelers, as accommodations are among the best in Europe and also very affordable.

For many years, Badenweiler prospered under Germany’s liberal health care and wellness benefits. In recent years, cutbacks in those benefits have resulted in fewer visits to Badenweiler. The townspeople are aware of the challenges they face and are seeking new ways to keep their town prosperous and viable. Yet, as everywhere else in Germany, there’s a debate about the quality of life and tradition versus economic progress. Recently, a golf course was proposed that would complement the active lifestyle that Badenweiler likes to promote. The proposal became a heated debate within the community with economic development coming face to face with the Greens’ desires to maintain Badenweiler’s pastoral setting. So far, the golf course has not been allowed to move forward, but it has become clear that the world around Badenweiler is changing, and the way Badenweiler reacts to those changes will be a case study for many small communities across Germany.

As I shared a glass of wine with the family owners of the Markgräflerland, it became clear that the people of Badenweiler would continue to put their traditions first and find ways to keep the town alive and vital, as they have done for hundreds of years. While the golf course may not be the answer, change is coming to Badenweiler. So far, Badenweiler has managed to merge the old with the new into a pleasant marriage. As I finished my wine, contemplating these changes, the waitress asks “Ein Wein?” Now that’s a question I’m quite clear about.