Bad Dürkheim (German pronunciation: [ˌbaːt ˈdʏʁkhaɪm] ⓘ)[3] is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration.

It is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and the site of the discovery of the element caesium, in 1860.

Bad Dürkheim's Ortsteile are Grethen, Hardenburg, Hausen, Leistadt, Seebach and Ungstein including Pfeffingen.

This time, though, reconstruction was swifter, and Count Johann Friedrich of Leiningen granted Dürkheim town rights again as early as 1700.

In the late 18th century, as the French Revolution was beginning to spread into southwest Germany, Dürkheim, as the Canton of Durkheim (without the umlaut), became part of the Department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German).

After the Napoleonic Wars, it ended up along with the rest of the Electorate of the Palatinate's territory on the Rhine's left bank in the Kingdom of Bavaria.

In 1860, Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff discovered the metallic element caesium in the mineral water from the Durkheim springs.

After 1933 the number of Jews in Bad Dürkheim reduced drastically, due to the economic boycott, constantly increasing repression and dehumanization (1933: 184, 1937: 98, 1938: 40).

In Rhineland-Palatinate's administrative reform, Hardenburg and Leistadt were amalgamated with Bad Dürkheim on 7 June 1969, as was Ungstein along with its outlying hamlet of Pfeffingen on 22 April 1972.

[citation needed] In September 2023, 73.7 percent voted against renaming street names whose namesakes had a close connection and ideological proximity to National Socialism.

[8] Between 1540 and 1776, the arms featured a cross and a crozier above the escutcheon, indicating Limburg Abbey's ownership of the town.

In the town’s woodlands, nobles built the hunting lodges (Jagdschlösser) Kehrdichannichts (whose name means “Do-not-mind-anything”), Murrmirnichtviel (“Do-not-grumble-at-me-much”) and Schaudichnichtum (“Do-not-look-about”).

The Heidenmauer (“Heathen Wall”) is the remnants of a great Celtic settlement with a 2.5 km-long ringwall, which was built about 500 BC.

In the wake of a fire on 7 April 2007, in which great parts of the facility were destroyed, the outdoor inhalatorium has reopened as of June 2011.

The foremost outing and hiking destinations in the Palatinate Forest are the Isenachweiher (a small reservoir) and the Drachenfels (despite its name, a hill), but especially, near the ruins of the Weilach estate, the Teufelsstein ("Devil’s Rock" – another hill) and the Heidenfels ("Heathen Crag"), as well as the Kupferfelsen ("Copper Crags") near the former forester's house Lindemannsruhe.

Above all, Bad Dürkheim is well known for the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt, whose name literally means “sausage market”, although it is in fact the world's biggest wine festival, drawing more than 600,000 visitors each year.

Every year in August, the Riesenroulette – “Giant Roulette Wheel” – is set up in the spa park as part of the Kurparkgala.

With 855 ha (3.3 square miles) of vineyards under cultivation, the town is the Palatinate’s third biggest winegrowing centre.

The Pfälzische Nordbahn from Neustadt an der Weinstraße to Monsheim serves the town at a terminal station (although the right-of-way branches both ways after a short distance).

The excursion train, the Elsass-Express (“Alsace Express”), also begins its run here, taking passengers all the way to the Alsatian town of Wissembourg just inside France.

Until 1981, there was also a gondola lift that whisked riders from the Wurstmarkt grounds to the Teufelsstein (“Devil’s Stone” – a mountain).

On cable television, the public-access channel Offener Kanal Neustadt und Weinstraße can be received.

On 23 November 2008, the Palatinate's first Protestant urn graveyard was consecrated in Bad Dürkheim's outlying centre of Seebach.