In a book published in 1737, the Lower Silesian doctors Sigmund Hahn and Johann Sigmund Hahn propagated the healing power of cold water for internal and external use. Nevertheless, more than 100 years passed before hydropathy or hydrotherapy became established as a healing method. Sebastian Kneipp and Vinzenz Prießnitz, who ran a very successful cold water spa in Gräfenberg near Vienna from the 1830s, played a major role in this. As Prießnitz's healing method became increasingly popular in Europe, the spa and bathing city of Wiesbaden, whose spa doctors were initially skeptical about cold water therapy, could not ignore this trend in the long term. Especially not after Duke Adolph zu Nassau spoke positively about hydrotherapy and credited the "Priessnitz method" with the disappearance of nagging headaches.

The first cold-water spa was founded in the Nero Valley in 1851, and a second large cold-water spa, the "Naturheilanstalt Dietenmühle", opened its doors in 1861. The "Lindenhof" in Walkmühlstraße followed in 1889. Over the years, both the cold-water spa in the Nerotal and the Dietenmühle expanded their range of treatments, moving away from the "pure" teachings of Vincent Priessnitz and also offering thermal baths and electromagnetic treatments. In this way, the "Kurhaus Bad Nerotal" was able to maintain its operations until 1957.