title: Bad Köstritz
text: # Bad Köstritz
  
  Bad Köstritz is a town in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the White Elster river, 7 km northwest of Gera. Bad Köstritz is known for the Köstritzer brewery and its Schwarzbier (black beer).
  
  ## History
  
  The settlement was first mentioned in 1364 as Kostricz, a place of Slavic foundation. There has been a castle since the middle of the 13th century. The city has emerged from two medieval manors.
  
  Within the German Empire (1871–1918), Köstritz was part of the Principality of Reuss-Gera. Köstritz Castle, a four-winged building around a courtyard built between 1687 and 1704, was the seat of a side wing of the ruling House of Reuss, named counts and (from 1806) princes Reuss-Köstritz. The castle was demolished in 1972 under the government of East Germany, with only the gatehouse left. Today, a modern hotel has been built on the site. In January 2023 Bad Köstritz absorbed the former municipality Hartmannsdorf.
  
  ## Local council
  
  Election in May 2014:
  
  * CDU: 9 seats
  * The Left: 3 seats
  * Free voters (FWG): 4 seats
  
  ## Sights
  
  * Heinrich Schütz House
  * Municipal park
  
  ## Sons and daughters of the town
  
  * Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672), German composer of the early Baroque
  * Heinrich IX, Count Reuss of Köstritz (1711–1780), founder of the middle branch family Reuss-Köstritz
  * Julius Sturm (1816–1896), important German poet of late Romanticism, pastor in Köstritz 1856–1885, honorary citizen of Köstritz 1885
  * Gustav von Hüfner (1840–1908), German chemist
  * Heinrich Sturm (1860–1917), German jurist, politician and from 1908 to 1917 mayor of Chemnitz
  