The terms wellness, spa hotel and wellness holiday are not always taken seriously and are in part regarded as newfangled marketing buzzwords. That is no surprise, because the word wellness is not protected. Only gradually are firm criteria developing that a spa hotel should fulfil in order to call itself one with confidence.
In this article we want to introduce you to the background of a very special spa hotel in Bad Kissingen that can look back on a long and highly interesting history: at the Residence von Dapper wellness was already being offered when the term was still entirely unknown.
The history of the house of Dapper begins at the end of the 19th century, when the physician Carl Franz Dapper commissioned the Bad Kissingen architect Carl Krampf to build the “Sanatorium von Dapper”. It was to become one of the largest cure complexes in the region and to attract illustrious guests.
The sanatorium consisted of several buildings placed on park-like grounds and linked to one another, weatherproof, by arcades. A truly stately estate, which accordingly was as a rule reserved for very illustrious guests. Its architecture too, with façades in the neo-Renaissance manner and picturesque turrets, reflected the aspiring and prosperous society of the time.
Otto von Kapff, son of one of the senior physicians and raised in one of the houses on the grounds, reports that even the furniture of the private apartment had to meet a high representative standard — and a grand piano could not be missing, since it quite often happened that one of the cure guests dropped by for tea.
The success of the sanatorium and its cure facilities can be read from Doctor Dapper himself. He enjoyed high standing both through his publications and above all through his work as a spa physician, and was raised to the nobility in 1913.
The international fame of the house and its staff brought patients and guests from the highest aristocratic circles and leading figures from business, politics and the military. Among the great names who visited Dapper during its heyday are the princes Erich and Alexander von Thurn und Taxis, Grand Duke Michael of Russia, Princess Johanna von Bismarck, Empress Auguste Viktoria and the composer Richard Strauss. Later in the Federal Republic, too, prominent figures such as Federal President Theodor Heuss repeatedly found their way to Bad Kissingen.
Today the former main building of the renowned sanatorium still stands, and the cure business takes place in it once more — but now under a new name and with thoroughly modern auspices. It is the Residence von Dapper spa hotel.