Seventeen seventy-nine marked a pivotal moment. It was the year botanist Friedrich Ehrhart discovered a unique sulfur spring. This spring became known as the Limmer Brunnen.
The Limmer Brunnen in Hanover wasn’t just any water source. It was a healing spring nestled in Limmer Holz. This small forest area was in the Limmer district. Its water was special. Similar to Bad Nenndorf and Bad Eilsen, it was a cold, earthy-saline sulfur water.
Around the Limmer Brunnen’s location, various facilities began to emerge. This happened from the 18th century onward. A bathing facility was established. It was particularly popular among ordinary people. The adjacent park-like area became a protected landscape. This protected area is known today as Limmer Brunnen.
Let’s jump to 1793. The various inflows of the Limmer Brunnen were first combined into a brick basin. A first bathhouse was built there in 1794. By 1795, a summer restaurant was added. It served the common people. Court physician Gerhard Ludwig Hurlebusch was connected to the Limmer Brunnen. From 1791, he also headed Hanover’s maternity hospital.
Around 1800 and 1801, the bath operations were placed under the Upper Court Building and Garden Department. Christian Friedrich Stromeyer also oversaw them. He was the “Brunnenkommissar”. Stromeyer trained in England. He initially settled in Hanover as a court surgeon. In 1807, a guest and lodging house was built for distinguished guests. During the French period, it was used for entertainment and roulette. It was even rumored to be a brothel. Another simpler guest and lodging house was built around 1807. It was open year-round. It catered to less wealthy spa guests. It offered a dance hall and bowling alley for entertainment.
The Limmer Brunnen enjoyed its heyday until the first decade of the Kingdom of Hanover. After Stromeyer’s death in 1824, the business consistently lost money. The Ministry of the Interior considered selling the facility. However, the kingdom’s sovereigns prevented this for social reasons. First Ernst August and then George V.
After the German War, the Battle of Langensalza, and Prussia’s annexation of the kingdom in 1866, the “Prussian State Spa” was sold in 1872. Private owners repeatedly changed. The facility was structurally altered and expanded. For example, Villa Beckedorf was relocated to the Limmer Brunnen in 1883. Hanover’s court architect Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves originally built it in 1823. It served as a garden house for the chambermaid von Beckedorf. The villa is now Hanover’s oldest classical building.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Limmer Brunnen administered up to 14,000 baths annually. These were “sulfur brine baths”. They were half-enriched with highly concentrated brine from the Egestorffhall saltworks. The construction of the Linden branch canal hindered further development of the spa. Yet, people still enjoyed the health-promoting medicinal baths. This continued during the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era, and the early Federal Republic of Germany. Bathing operations ceased in 1961.
Even before the Federal Republic was founded, the British Zone’s hall sports championships were held in the “Kurhaussaal Limmerbrunnen” in November 1947.
By 2012, water no longer flowed. The spring’s exact location could only be guessed. Today, the Limmer Brunnen remains a testament to Hanover’s history. It stands as a reminder of a time when healing waters drew people seeking wellness. It symbolizes the evolving landscape of Limmer and its contribution to Hanover’s story.