Hersbruck Will Shut Its Therme Sauna Over a 2.1 Million Euro Loss; Mettmann Reopens Its Pool Sauna
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The Bavarian town expects to cover a 2.1 million euro loss at its Fackelmann Therme this year. Mettmann has reopened its pool sauna after four years, and Bad Staffelstein is building a sauna for about 190 people.
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The town of Hersbruck in Bavaria will close the sauna, thermal area and restaurant at its Fackelmann Therme by the end of March 2027 at the latest, after the pool’s yearly losses nearly doubled. The town told inFranken.de that only the sports pool, used mainly by schools, clubs and swim courses, will stay open, along with the outdoor pool next door.
Hersbruck has covered an operating loss at the therme every year since it opened in 2004, the town said. Nordbayern reported a loss of 1.2 million euros (about $1.3 million) in 2025 and an expected 2.1 million euros (about $2.3 million) this year. The town’s finance administrator, Wolfgang Klebl, put it down to weak summer revenue, higher energy costs, and repairs and maintenance. An expert report commissioned two years ago put the repair backlog at 10 million euros (about $11 million) or more.
Mayor Robert Ilg told the Nürnberger Nachrichten that, with everything else the town is required to fund, ever-larger subsidies are no longer justifiable. The therme’s board voted unanimously for the partial closure after weighing alternatives, and the town council backed it. Eighty-four people work at the therme, from part-timers to full-time staff, and the town hasn’t said how many the two remaining pools will need.
Regulars are pushing back. An online petition collected more than 2,000 signatures within days, and its organizers have proposals for keeping the sauna running, the Nürnberger Nachrichten reported on November 6.
Mettmann turns its pool sauna back on
Super Tipp reported on November 3 that the sauna at the indoor pool in Mettmann, east of Düsseldorf, would reopen on November 6 after about four years. It had been shut since October 2022 to save energy. A town committee voted in May to reopen it after residents kept asking, and a broken toilet pushed the restart back four days.
The pool runs a Finnish sauna at 194°F, a milder bio sauna at 122°F and a 122°F steam room, for up to 30 people at a time, with footbaths, a plunge pool and a planted outdoor area. It is set to open three days a week until the Easter holidays, and the town will review visitor and operating figures after the first season.
Public pools elsewhere face the same squeeze. French villages are fighting to keep their pools funded, and a SaunaNews count of government records in six countries found bathhouses closing while new saunas open.
Bad Staffelstein builds a sauna for 190
Obermain Therme in Bad Staffelstein is going the other way. The therme, run by a public body of the town and the Lichtenfels district, is enlarging its sauna area to about 226,000 square feet, adding about 65,000 square feet of new grounds.
The plans include the Tapahtuma, a sauna for about 190 people with light and fog effects built for aufguss shows and events, and the Tuli, a sauna lined with Finnish kelo wood around a central fireplace. The therme hasn’t announced an opening date. Rooms like it fall under Germany’s revised aufguss guideline, which doubles the water limit for saunas that pass a room test.
