The settlement of
Vrienwalde in the
Margraviate of Brandenburg was first mentioned in a 1316 deed and appeared as a
town in 1364. From 1618, the Freienwalde
manor was directly held by the Brandenburg
prince-electors (
Kurfürsten). From 1701, Bad Freienwalde was part of the
Kingdom of Prussia, and from 1871 also the
German Empire. From 1815 to 1947, it was administratively part of the
Province of Brandenburg. A
mineral spring was discovered in 1683. The
alchemist Johann Kunckel brought it to the attention of the "Great Elector"
Frederick William of Brandenburg, who,
gout-ridden, arrived in Freienwalde the next year. Recorded by the physician
Bernhardus Albinus in 1685, the
Kurfürstenquelle became the foundation of Freienwalde's rise as a spa town. Frederick William's son King
Frederick I of Prussia had a first
maison de plaisance erected by the architect
Andreas Schlüter. The development was further promoted, when in 1799 the small
Neoclassical Freienwalde Castle was built according to plans by
David Gilly as a summer residence of Princess
Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, the widow of King
Frederick William II of Prussia. Its park was redesigned by
Peter Joseph Lenné in 1822. The industrialist and politician
Walther Rathenau acquired the palace in 1909, it was nationalised after his assassination in 1922. Freienwalde achieved the official status of spa town (
Bad) in 1925. During the final stages of
World War II, on 11 March 1945, it was visited by
Adolf Hitler in his last visit on the war front. On 16–20 April 1945, fights between the
1st Polish Army and
9th German Army took place in the area, won by the Poles. From 1947 to 1952 of the State of
Brandenburg, from 1952 to 1990 of the
Bezirk Frankfurt of
East Germany and since 1990 again of Brandenburg. ==Notable people==