Bad Ems

Bad Ems or Ems, town, west central Germany, in Rhineland-Palatinate, on the Lahn River, near Koblenz. It has been a popular spa, known for its therapeutic mineral waters, since the late 17th century. The Punctation of Ems, which protested the interference of the papacy in the affairs of the German Roman Catholic church, was formulated in Bad Ems by an ecclesiastical delegation in 1786. The Ems Dispatch, or Ems Telegram, a communication artfully edited (1870) by Prince Otto von Bismarck as head of the Prussian cabinet, helped to precipitate the Franco-Prussian War. Population (1997) 10,118.