page_title: Heilbad Heiligenstadt
section_title: Name of the town
hierarchical_section_title: Heilbad Heiligenstadt / History / Name of the town
caption_attribution_description: English: Bronze sculpture of Theodor Storm in Heiligenstadt. – The picture was first published in b/w in the book "Die Südharzreise" ("The South Harz Journey"), by SuKuLTuR, Berlin, in 2010. The entire book was released under CC by-nc-sa 3.0, all pictures have been re-licensed under CC by-sa, see user page for details. – Picture taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.
context_page_description: Heilbad Heiligenstadt is a spa town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Eichsfeld district.
context_section_description: Despite the official designation of the town as a spa in 1929 and a 1950 decision by the town council to append the word Soleheilbad (salt-water spa) to its name, it remained officially "Heiligenstadt" during the East German  years. In 1990 the city government still used only Heiligenstadt.
  However, the post office used Heilbad Heiligenstadt, as did postcard companies and the local savings bank. In fact between 1950 and 1990, the town had the distinction of being referred to in three different ways: as Heiligenstadt, Heilbad Heiligenstadt, or Heiligenstadt (Eichsf.) (for Eichsfeld).
  In 1990, the town council and especially the mayor began expanding the spa business and it took on increasing importance. In addition, after German reunification, there were several Heiligenstadts in Germany. Initially the government declined to rename the town Heilbad Heiligenstadt because of a lack of evidence that it was a spa, but the town lodged an appeal and used the one and a half years before an official visit and the relative lack of oversight immediately after reunification to create spa facilities and integrate the word Heilbad into official usage. Permission for the renaming was then granted since the town was evidently a spa and using that name.
caption: Statue of Theodor Storm in front of the Storm Literary Museum
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