Weser-Therme

The Weser-Therme is a thermal brine bath on the Kurpromenade in Bad Karlshafen, a baroque spa town in northern Hesse where the Diemel meets the Weser. According to German Wikipedia, used here as a second source, a new brine spring was tapped at a depth of 1,150 metres in 2004 and the bath opened on 18 December 2004 at a cost of around 20 million euros, first under the name Kristalltherme Weserbergland as part of the Kristallbäder group. After a dispute over lease payments the town of Bad Karlshafen took over operation itself from 1 October 2009 through its subsidiary Bäderbetriebe Weserbergland GmbH, and the bath has carried its present name since then. The same source gives the salt content of the thermal brine healing water at source as 23 per cent.

The operator states that the pools are filled with thermal brine from a state-recognised healing spring and that the salt content in the bathing area ranges from 1.5 to 12 per cent. Three indoor pools carry 1.5, three and five per cent brine at water temperatures of 33, 35 and 36 degrees Celsius respectively, all at a uniform depth of 1.30 metres and fitted with seated and standing massage jets; the 1.5 per cent pool has a waterfall and a passage through to the open air. Four freshwater whirlpools run at 35 degrees, and a separate parent-and-child area has a freshwater pool 30 centimetres deep at 35 degrees. Outdoors there is a 1.5 per cent brine pool at 33 degrees with a current channel, massage showers and loungers and access to the thermal garden on the river, together with two 12 per cent brine pools at 32 degrees. Water gymnastics is offered three times a day at no extra charge and without booking.

The sauna area, which the operator says was awarded the SaunaPremium rating in 2023, is textile-free. Indoors are the Dornröschen sauna at 80 degrees, the Dr. Eisenbart sauna at 105 degrees, the lemon sauna at 85 degrees and the Hildegard von Bingen sauna at 80 degrees, with fixed infusion times, alongside a steam bath at 46 degrees, a mild Saba cabin at 60 degrees, a snow cave at minus 10 degrees, an Ottoman hamam whose central marble stone is heated to 30 degrees, a three per cent brine pool at 33 degrees, a whirlpool at 35 degrees, foot basins, a plunge pool, an ice crusher and cascade showers. The outdoor sauna garden lies directly on the Weser and holds a salt sauna at 90 degrees, a eucalyptus sauna at 80 degrees and a boat sauna named Jacques Galland at 80 degrees moored on the river.

The bath opens Sunday to Thursday from 09:00 to 22:00 and on Friday and Saturday from 09:00 to 23:00. Beyond bathing and sauna the house runs a wellness department with massages, treatments in the Ottoman hamam and cosmetics, a restaurant and a shop selling brine products including brine salts, soap and thermal brine healing water. Individual attractions are taken out of service for short maintenance windows, which the operator announces on the relevant pages.