Mühlhausen (; officially Mühlhausen/Thüringen) is a town in the northwest of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen.
Mühlhausen was first mentioned in 967 and became one of the most important cities in central Germany in the late Middle Ages. In the mid-13th century, it became a Freie Reichsstadt, an independent and republican self-ruled member of the Holy Roman Empire, controlling an area of approximately and 19 regional villages. Due to its long-distance trade, Mühlhausen was prosperous and influential with a population of 10,000 around 1500. Because it was spared from later destruction, Mühlhausen today has a great variety of historical buildings with one of the largest medieval city centres remaining in Germany, covering a surface of more than 50 hectares within the inner city wall and approximately 200 hectares overall. There are eleven Gothic churches, several patricians’ houses and a nearly completely preserved fortification.
Johann Sebastian Bach worked as the city's organist in 1707–08. The theologian Thomas Müntzer, a leading person in the German Peasants' War, gave sermons here and was executed outside the city walls. John A. Roebling, the constructor of the Brooklyn Bridge, and Friedrich August Stüler, an influential architect in mid-19th-century Prussia, were born in Mühlhausen.
Mühlhausen is within the Thuringian Basin, a flat and fertile area, on the Unstrut river on the eastern edge of the Hainich hills.
History
Middle Ages According to legend, in the 5th century Attila stayed at "Burg Mulhus" as a guest of his Thuringii allies before moving on to the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Within the north-eastern parts of the city centre around St. George's Church, sizeable archaeological finds have been made, relating to a large settlement of the Thuringii/Francia period (from the 6th to the early 10th century), which can be seen as the origin of the later city. Mühlhausen itself was first mentioned in 967 was part of a territory given by Otto II to his wife Theophanu. It belonged to the ab initio, i.e. there was no territorial lord other than the German emperor and the area was not the emperor's own property, so that it did not go to his son after his death but reverted to his successor as emperor, even if he was from another family. The emperors had a in Mühlhausen, which they often visited from Otto III to Henry III during the 10th and 11th centuries. The election of Philip of Swabia in 1198 ended with a homage in Mühlhausen, attended by Walther von der Vogelweide.
In 1135, Mühlhausen was first referred to as a villa which can be seen as the beginning of the evolution from a settlement to a city. During the early 12th century, the "old town" was set up around the along the , an important trade route between the Kassel and the Erfurt regions. The fortifications were erected after 1170, eventually including 52 towers. In the early 13th century, the "new town" north of Schwemmnotte river followed with a regular grid around St. Mary's Church and with as main streets. The Teutonic Knights received St. Blaise's Church (Divi-Blasii) in 1227 and St. Mary's Church in 1243 from the emperor, which ensured them influence in the city and high revenues. The largest monastery of Mühlhausen was the 1227-founded at , a Magdalenians monastery. It held large estates in the region and its buildings were demolished in 1884. The Franciscans came to the city in 1225 and built their monastery around today's Corn Market Church and the Dominicans established a monastery in 1289 near ; their church was demolished after a fire in 1689, only some walls remained. Jews have lived in Mühlhausen at least since the late 13th century; the runs parallel to in the new town. During the Black Death Jewish persecutions in 1349, many Mühlhausen Jews were killed.
In the mid-13th century, the citizens emancipated more and more from the emperor's rule. For example, Conrad IV had to concede the established wall between the city and the (emperor's court) and later in the 13th century, the citizens destroyed the court. From 1251, Mühlhausen was referred to as a and became the second most powerful city in Thuringia after Erfurt. The "Mühlhausen Law Book" (1224) is the oldest book of law in the German language and regulated the law of the city. In 1308/09, Mühlhausen allied with Erfurt and Nordhausen against the Wettins, who tried to get these three major Thuringian cities under their rule. The alliance lasted nearly 200 years and was successful. After 1348, Mühlhausen did not have to pay any more taxes to the emperor, so that its independence was complete. The three cities pursued their own territorial policy (e.g. by buying castles) to protect their trade routes against robbery, which brought them constantly into conflict with local nobles. Another aspect of the territorial policy was buying land and villages around the city, making use of any opportunity that presented itself, for example if local rulers (counts, monasteries etc.) needed money. Mühlhausen bought 19 still existing and 43 later abandoned villages and an area of in this way, covering the north-western part of today's district Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis. The villages had to pay taxes to Mühlhausen and were secured by the Mühlhausen , a moat of length with several towers () to observe the region.
The economic heyday between the mid-13th and the early 16th century was a result of long-distance trade with textiles, woad and other goods. In 1286, Mühlhausen had joined the Hanseatic League. By the mid-15th century it was one of the largest cities in Germany.
Early modern period
The Reformation brought disturbances to Mühlhausen. The monk and peasant leader Heinrich Pfeiffer from Reifenstein Abbey preached at St. Mary's in February 1523 for the first time, followed by Thomas Müntzer in August 1524. Both had not only religious demands (they were members of the Anabaptist movement) but also political ones, aimed against the privileges of the magistracies and their oligarchic rule over the city. The city council was deposed and replaced by an "Eternal Council" (). During the German Peasants' War 1524/25, the city's monasteries were looted and the Bildersturm devastated the churches. After the emperor's army defeated the uprising, Müntzer, Pfeiffer and other leaders were executed. Müntzer's execution on 27 May 1525 took place right outside the city. Furthermore, the city had to pay a fine of 40,000 guilders to the empire and partially lost its independence, because the Hessians and both lines of the Wettins (Ernestines and Albertines) were appointed to control the city government. By contrast to these three rulers, Mühlhausen remained Catholic and became a secret member of the Nuremberg League, an alliance of Catholic territories in the empire, founded in 1538. After the three rulers realized that in 1542, the Reformation was introduced by force in Mühlhausen by Justus Menius. The Schmalkaldic War resulted in the defeat of the Hessians and the Ernestines by the emperor in 1547 and partially returned the city's independence. In foreign policy it had to coordinate with the Albertines and it had to pay taxes to the empire. After 1710, Hanover was Mühlhausen's protecting power.
Johann Sebastian Bach was organist of the church Divi Blasii from 1707 until 1708. Among the works Bach composed while living in the town was an elaborate, festive cantata, Gott ist mein König, BWV 71, for the inauguration of the new council in 1708.
Internal dissensions and destruction caused during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) helped in bringing about Mühlhausen's decline. In addition, Leipzig's rise as a trade fair town and new long-distance trading routes like also contributed by decreasing the city's trade and damaging the finances of the city. The German mediatization led to the formal loss (that had de facto already occurred) of Mühlhausen's independence in 1803, as the city became part of Prussia. During the Napoleonic Wars it was part of the Kingdom of Westphalia from 1807 until 1815, when it became part of Prussia again according to the decisions of the Congress of Vienna.
Since 1815 After 1815, Mühlhausen was part of the newly created Prussian Province of Saxony, where the Mühlhausen district was established. In 1831, the Mühlhausen-born civil engineer John A. Roebling, later constructor of the Brooklyn Bridge, emigrated to the United States. The era of industrialisation and urbanisation reached Mühlhausen relatively late, around 1870, when the city was connected to the railway by a line from Gotha to Leinefelde. In 1892, Mühlhausen became an independent city district. In 1898, the municipal power station was founded and the tramway network started its operation in Mühlhausen. Major industries were textiles and engineering.
Between 1910 and 1917, the provincial hospital of Pfafferode was built on the western edge of the city, one of the largest hospitals in the Prussian Province of Saxony. The Great Depression after 1929 hit Mühlhausen very hard and led to massive unemployment. In 1935, the Nazi armament campaign resulted in the building of a large military complex with several barracks with the deliberate side effect of boosting the city's weak economy. The synagogue was damaged during the Kristallnacht in November 1938, but as one of only a few in Germany, it was not completely destroyed and still stands today. At the Pfafferode hospital, nearly 2,000 patients were killed or died during the Nazi period (Action T4), most of them were mentally or physically disabled. From 1944 to March 1945, a women's forced labour camp was located directly outside Mühlhausen (a branch of the Buchenwald camp), producing arms. The women were deported in April 1945 to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The US Army arrived in Mühlhausen on 4 April 1945 and the city was handed over without a fight. On 5 July 1945, the Soviet Army took over the city, which became part of the GDR in 1949.
In 1975, the 450th obit of Thomas Müntzer, the city was officially renamed Thomas-Müntzer-Stadt Mühlhausen. Müntzer and the German Peasants' War received a lot of attention from the GDR government and East-German historians; they referred to it as Frühbürgerliche Revolution (early bourgeois revolution) and included it in their Marxist conception of history. Many exhibitions were set up (including some of the museums in Mühlhausen and the Bauernkriegspanorama near Bad Frankenhausen) and events celebrating the historical connection took place. After German reunification, the focus on Müntzer and the Peasants' War ended. The city name was changed back to plain "Mühlhausen" in 1991.
After reunification, many factories in Mühlhausen were closed, leading to another deep economic crisis with high unemployment rates during the 1990s and early 2000s. On the other hand, the city's architectural heritage was rediscovered and the restoration of the historic city centre began.
Geography and demographics
Topography