Bernhard Adler

After a brief stint, practicing as a physician in Vienna, Adler was appointed city physician in 1783, shortly afterwards to the Kreisphysikus and in 1793 to the well doctor. He is considered to be the founder of the spa town of Franzensbad, which developed with the support of Heinrich Franz von Rottenhan near the village of Schlada. The name Kaiser-Franzensdorf, named after the Austrian Emperor Franz II of Habsburg-Lorraine (1768-1835), was renamed Kaiser-Franzensbad in 1807, and was named after the end of the First World War and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy from 1918 onwards Franzensbad. After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the town was renamed into its Czech version, Františkovy Lázně.

In 1808, Adler had acquired the Gasquelle, from time immemorial called "the Polterer", the cold spring and the Louise source, along with the salt source in 1816 and the meadow source in 1820. He promoted the expansion of existing spa facilities and the accommodation for those seeking healing and promoted the transformation of the swampy moorland with paths and footbridges to well-known sources, from which, according to ancient law, water was drafted and brought to Eger. When Adler wanted to limit this right to the creation of the house, in 1791 the Egerer Weibersturm was created. The women who earned their livelihood with the scooping, transport and sale of the water in Eger, resisted bitterly against his plans. They felt their water bearing rights were threatened and obstructed his plans.[2] The town council of Eger intervened and made the extension as a health resort possible.[3]

The result was a demanding recreation area, with easy access from the city of Eger. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was one of his most famous guests of the early days, whose visits to Franzensbad with Johannes Urzidil were extensively reported in the book Goethe in Böhmen (1932, revised 1962 and 1965), and Ludwig van Beethoven, accompanied by Antonia Brentano and her family. Numerous aristocrats, especially Russian aristocrats, were patients in Franzensbad with doctors Anton Alois Palliardi, Paul Cartellieri, Lorenz von Köstler, and Josef Cartellieri, which bolstered the reputation of Franzensbad as an exclusive resort. Its reputation began to fade after the end of the First World War. Adler died 1810 as Royal Imperial Council.[1]

Coat of arms in honor of the founder and the sponsor

Kaiser-Franzensbad, the bathing triangle of what is now Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně, the three famous spa resorts of the Egerland, received full city rights in 1865 and adopted the former town seal as a town guard. The coat of arms recalled Adler and Heinrich Franz Graf von Rottenhan (1737-1809), the promoter of the construction of the health resort by the regional government in Prague in the time of its origin.

The coat of arms of the town of Franzensbad, which dates back to its granting of town privileges in 1852, is diagonally divided. The right half shows in green a corrugated bar, symbolizing a silver wavy river, which from the right upwards several rays as source flows. The left half shows, as a tribute to Adler, a black eagle, which holds in the catches the Rod of Asclepius as a sign of the healing arts. In the lower half is a red rooster, in memory of Heinrich Franz Graf von Rottenhan († 1809), a large landowner in West Bohemia, Colonel Burggraf of the Kingdom of Bohemia and Minister of Justice, as well as his recognition for his benevolent cooperation in founding of Franzensbad.

The inscription on the coat of arms is: "CONCORDIA PARVAE RES CRESCUNT" (by Eintracht) and has similarity with the coat of arms of the Frankish noble family Rottenhan. In 1902, in the middle of the colonnade of the Colonnade, in honor of Adler, a monument erected was by Karl Wilfert the Elder was erected in front of the middle pavilion of the Colonnade.