Many inquiries to the town archive concern the topography of Bad Homburg, i.e. streets, squares or buildings. For research on this subject area, researchers have access to valuable and highly interesting archival documents, particularly building files from the 19th and 20th centuries, but also photographs, postcards, town and building plans.
In order to facilitate access to these sources, the city archive has set up two Internet applications in cooperation with the Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies in Marburg, which are backed up with databases that are gradually being filled with information on individual buildings. These websites are also intended to provide a platform on which citizens can contribute their own information on individual buildings.
Building on the "Places of the Cure" website, the "Digital Building Book" was developed in cooperation between the Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies and the Bad Homburg City Archive. The database-supported Internet application provides detailed information on more than 600 main buildings and over 900 outbuildings, mainly from the four decades before the First World War.
In contrast to the "Places of the Cure", the "Digital Building Book" focuses on the sources for the individual buildings. In addition to the building descriptions of the Prussian cadastral administration and the municipal building files, contract books, building plans, photos and postcards were evaluated.
The "Homburg Spa and Bathing Lists" are a database-supported Internet application that provides digital access to the extensive guest lists that were published in printed form by the spa administration of the town of Homburg v. d. Höhe from 1834 to 1918. They list the people staying in a particular hotel or private accommodation and their dates of arrival, usually with brief information on their place or country of origin, social status, profession and any accompanying family members or servants. They thus offer a reflection of the sophisticated meeting place of the international social elite of the time.
The database allows both a targeted search for individuals ("Search in the spa and bathing lists") and a more exploratory approach to the material ("Explore the spa and bathing lists").
