Bathing and Gambling
Wiesbaden has long been famous for its thermal springs and spa. Use of the thermal springs was first documented by the Romans. The business of spring bathing became important for Wiesbaden near the end of the Middle Ages. By 1370, sixteen bath houses were in operation. By 1800, the city had 2,239 inhabitants and twenty-three bath houses. By 1900, Wiesbaden, with a population of 86,100, hosted 126,000 visitors annually. Famous visitors to the springs included Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Wagner, and Johannes Brahms. In those years there were more millionaires living in Wiesbaden than in any other city in Germany.
Gambling followed bathing en suite and in the 19th century Wiesbaden was famous for both. Its casino ("Spielbank") rivalled those of Bad Homburg, Baden-Baden and Monaco. In 1872, the Prussian-dominated Imperial government closed down all German gambling houses. The Wiesbaden casino was reopened in 1949.
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Famous quotes containing the words bathing and/or gambling:
“I know, you have forgotten those June nights on the Riviera, where we sat ‘neath the shimmering skies, moonlight bathing in the Mediterranean! We were young, gay, reckless! The night I drank champagne from your slipper—two quarts. It would have held more, but you were wearing inner soles!”
—Irving Brecher, U.S. screenwriter, and Edward Buzzell. J. Cheever Loophole (Groucho Marx)
“Someone once asked me why women don’t gamble as much as men do, and I gave the common-sensical reply that we don’t have as much money. That was a true but incomplete answer. In fact, women’s total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)