† Westfalen-Therme Founder Heribert Stork Passes Away at 77
Only ten days after his 77th birthday, Heribert Stork, founder of Germany’s Westfalen-Therme in Bad Lippspringe, passed away last Friday. At the end of September, the pioneer and visionary of the German bathing industry, together with his son Robin Stork (Managing Director of the Stork Group), still attended the opening of the new sauna area “WALDgarten” (cp. EAP 6/2020). Stork leaves behind his wife Regina and his two children Nadine and Robin.
In 1987 Heribert Stork opened the Westfalen-Therme in the East Westphalian spa town of Bad Lippspringe and ten years later the belonging “Vital Hotel”. In total, the Paderborn entrepreneur was responsible for the planning, financing, construction and operation of four thermal spa operations and three hotels in Germany. The Ostsee-Therme at Timmendorfer Strand, the Sachsen-Therme in Leipzig and the Rhein-Main-Therme near Frankfurt are also part of the portfolio of the group of companies, the management of which Heribert Stork had gradually handed over to his son Robin and co-director Norbert Leibold over the years. The industry mourns the loss of an esteemed entrepreneur whose life’s work has decisively formed Germany’s position as a spa and thermal baths location. (eap)
