page_title: Bad Salzuflen
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bad Salzuflen / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Katzenturm in Bad Salzuflen
context_page_description: Bad Salzuflen is a town and thermal spa resort in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. At the end of 2013, it had 52,121 inhabitants.
context_section_description: The first mention of the settlement of Uflon comes in the middle of the eleventh century and of a place of salt nearby. In Old High German "Uflon"means The Woods/Forest. This later evolved into Uflen,  Mitteluflen and Dorf Uflen. Therefore the entire name means The salt baths in the woods.
  It was the use of the Pauline salt source in the Middle Ages that led to the establishment of the first Saline. These salt workshops were located at a place which is still called the Salt Yard or Salzhof and the well is represented in the town's coat of arms. Thanks to the lucrative salt trade and the promotion of the town to a city by the Counts of Sternberg, it was fortified with a circular wall and four gates. The Schliepsteiner gateway lies to the north (toward Exter), Heßkamper gateway to North East (toward Wüsten), Arminius to the southeast (toward Schotmar) and Herford Gateway to the West (toward Herford) with three fortified towers which also included the Katzenturm which can still be seen today. Until the Thirty Years' War, trading flourished with the white gold and brought great wealth to the town. The old houses, the sumptuous Bürgerhäuser and the Town Hall built in 1545/47 bear witness to this.  The oldest surviving building in the city today is a three-storey Traufenbau of 1520.
  Bad Salzuflen was made famous by its cures. With its three drinking water, three thermal and three salt springs it had the status of a Lippischer State bath. Although the founding of the royal Solebads was made nearly 100 years ago, Salzuflen only received the additional name "Bad" on 14 April 1914.
  Bad Salzuflen was one of the few cities in the Middle Ages that did not suffer from financial difficulties because of its salt production, its topographical position and its thriving commercial development. This is proven today by the many beautiful houses with their typical architectural style for that time. The high healing properties of the water meant that new bath houses were built and other sources were drilled, such as the Leopoldsprudel whose sacred well is in the midst of today's spa gardens. The development of the resort led to significant changes in the cityscape. The saltworks on the Salzhof discontinued salt production and is now the "town square" where the weekly market and town festivals take place. The Gradierwerke developed into a place that people with respiratory diseases retreated to. Over time, the long-established industry sectors disappeared and were replaced by the trading and spa industry, which benefited the numerous inns of the city.
  The economic boom in the 19th Century was also closely followed by the founding in 1850 of the Hoffmann starch factories that later rose to be the biggest European starch producers. The strategic location of Bad Salzuflen was rather insignificant and so was preserved largely during the Second World War from Allied bombing raids, and survived the war relatively unscathed after the war ended.
  Between 1909 and 1924, the Bad Salzufler und Schötmarschen Straßenbahn GmbH plied their trade between those towns. From 1963, the Herford Light railway ran between the towns of Wallenbrück, Spenge, Herford, Vlotho, Weserhafen and the west of Herford.
caption: Der Katzenturm
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