West German Spa Seeks Younger Crowd, Points to Cultural Events : Baden-Baden Working Hard to Regain Its Glitter

When the celebrated English courtesan and singer Cora Pearl was refused admission to the opulent casino here, the Duke of Morney, interior minister and a half-brother of the French Emperor Napoleon III, offered her his arm, and she marched in triumphantly.

That’s the kind of place Baden-Baden was in the last century, when it was the most renowned spa in the world, the “summer capital of Europe.”

The Prince of Wales, who was to become King Edward VII, liked to take the waters with his women friends. The Russian writers Feodor Dostoevsky and Ivan Turgenev spent melancholy hours losing at the gaming tables, then described the experience in their novels. The German composer Johannes Brahms wrote his glorious First Symphony while visiting Baden-Baden.

But between the World Wars, the whims of fashion shifted dramatically, and inland spas lost out with the international glitterati to seaside resorts, particularly those on the Riviera. Spas came to be perceived as musty meeting places for the elderly; the younger generation preferred sea, sun and sand.

Now Baden-Baden is trying to rebuild its reputation as the most fashionable spa in Europe and trying to attract a younger crowd.

“We are emphasizing our reputation as a renowned health resort,” Deputy Mayor Klaus Klein said the other day over coffee. “Nowadays, younger people are health-conscious once again, and we provide every facility along those lines.”

City officials like Klein, as well as the hotel owners, also want to capitalize on Baden-Baden’s artistic history.

“We provide a whole array of cultural events every day of the year,” said Klein, “so that when it rains, our guests have other things to do. How many cities of 50,000 boast two symphony orchestras?”

Local officials see Baden-Baden as a kind of European medical center, where guests can be treated for everything from rheumatism to more serious disorders. The spa’s waters are reputedly especially beneficial for those with liver, gallbladder and stomach disorders. They are relatively high in salt, potassium and magnesium, among other chemicals.

Amid all the health facilities stands the Baden-Baden gambling casino, the social focus of the spa. Its director, Baron Hartmann Von Richthofen, nephew of the Red Baron of World War I aerial combat fame, said: “We have the advantage of many years of tradition here. I truly believe our casino is the most beautiful in Europe.”

The Romans discovered the warm mineral springs here while establishing a series of military outposts along the Rhine Valley. But the site did not really blossom until the early 19th Century, when Prince Karl Friedrich ordered the area developed as a resort. Then the name of the town was changed to Baden-Baden to distinguish it from all the other Badens, or baths, in the area.

In 1872 the city suffered a severe setback when German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck banned gambling. Baden-Baden tried to overcome this handicap by emphasizing the curative powers of the waters, but the competition grew fierce after the French opened casinos in Monte Carlo, Deauville and Biarritz. Then came fashion’s shift to the sun.

The Nazis brought a shortlived resurgence to Baden-Baden in the 1930s. Later, the postwar years brought another boom. Some of Europe’s most exclusive and expensive shops were opened. The spa attracted such celebrities as actress Marlene Dietrich, singer Josephine Baker, heart surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard, actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., boxer Jersey Joe Walcott, the Shah of Iran and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Entertainment stars have come to perform in the city’s radio and TV studios, to stop by the casino or baths--among the recent visitors was Tina Turner--and this has helped Baden-Baden recapture some of its sheen.

One of the spa’s goals is to draw more Americans, who come in growing numbers--30% to 40% of summertime visitors to the celebrated Brenner’s Park Hotel, Baden-Baden’s finest, are from the United States--but have long resisted the European penchant for taking the so-called mineral-bath cure.