Mühlhausen
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Mühlhausen () is a city in the north-west of
Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
, Germany, north of
Niederdorla Niederdorla is a village and a former municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany. It is the geographical center of Germany. Its nearest main city is Erfurt, which also is the capital city of Thuringia. Since 31 Decembe ...
, the country's
geographical centre In geography, the centroid of the two-dimensional shape of a region of the Earth's surface (projected radially to sea level or onto a geoid surface) is known as its geographic centre or geographical centre or (less commonly) gravitational centre. I ...
, north-west of
Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
, east of
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
and south-east of
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
. 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 The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
, 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 A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
.
Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
worked as the city's organist in 1707–08. The theologian
Thomas Müntzer Thomas Müntzer ( – 27 May 1525) was a German preacher and theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Martin Luther and the Roman Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer w ...
, a leading person in the German Peasants' War, gave sermons here and was executed outside the city walls.
John A. Roebling John Augustus Roebling (born Johann August Röbling; June 12, 1806 – July 22, 1869) was a German-born American civil engineer. He designed and built wire rope suspension bridges, in particular the Brooklyn Bridge, which has been designated as ...
, the constructor of the
Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
, and
Friedrich August Stüler Friedrich August Stüler (28 January 1800 – 18 March 1865) was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterpiece is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Schloss. ...
, an influential architect in mid-19th-century
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
, were born in Mühlhausen. Mühlhausen is within the
Thuringian Basin The Thuringian Basin (german: Thüringer Becken) is a depression in the central and northwest part of Thuringia in Germany which is crossed by several rivers, the longest of which is the Unstrut. It stretches about from north to south and around ...
, a flat and fertile area, on the
Unstrut The Unstrut () is a river in Germany and a left tributary of the Saale. The Unstrut originates in northern Thuringia near Dingelstädt (west of Kefferhausen in the Eichsfeld area) and its catchment area is the whole of the Thuringian Basin. ...
river on the eastern edge of the
Hainich Hainich is a forested hill chain in the state of Thuringia in Germany, between the towns of Eisenach, Mühlhausen and Bad Langensalza. Hainich covers an area of around 160 km² (61,8 sq mi), of which, since 31 December 1997, half has be ...
hills.


History


Middle Ages

According to legend, in the 5th century
Attila Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European traditio ...
stayed at "Burg Mulhus" as a guest of his
Thuringii The Thuringii, Toringi or Teuriochaimai, were an early Germanic people that appeared during the late Migration Period in the Harz Mountains of central Germania, a region still known today as Thuringia. It became a kingdom, which came into co ...
allies before moving on to the
Battle of the Catalaunian Plains The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields), also called the Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Châlons, Battle of Troyes or the Battle of Maurica, took place on June 20, 451 AD, between a coalition – led by the Roman general ...
. 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 Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...
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 Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (''der Rote''), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Ita ...
to his wife
Theophanu Theophanu (; also ''Theophania'', ''Theophana'', or ''Theophano''; Medieval Greek ; AD 955 15 June 991) was empress of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage to Emperor Otto II, and regent of the Empire during the minority of their son, Emperor Ott ...
. 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 Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of ...
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 Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170c. 1230) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs (" Sprüche") in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundr ...
. 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 Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
and the
Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
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 The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
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
Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
s 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 There were a series of violent attacks, massacres and mass persecutions of Jews during the Black Death. Jewish communities were falsely blamed for outbreaks of the Black Death in Europe. Violence were committed from 1348 to 1351 in Toulon, Barcelo ...
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 Conrad (25 April 1228 – 21 May 1254), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was the only son of Emperor Frederick II from his second marriage with Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem. He inherited the title of King of Jerusalem (as Conrad II) up ...
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 Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
. 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 Nordhausen may refer to: * Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany ** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district **Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city * Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen) * Narost ...
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 Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) the districts Eichsfeld, Kyffhäuserkreis, Sömmerda, Gotha, Wartburgkreis and the district Werra-Meißner in ...
. 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 ''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from ...
and other goods. In 1286, Mühlhausen had joined the
Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...
. By the mid-15th century it was one of the largest cities in Germany.


Early modern period

The
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
brought disturbances to Mühlhausen. The monk and peasant leader from Reifenstein Abbey preached at St. Mary's in February 1523 for the first time, followed by
Thomas Müntzer Thomas Müntzer ( – 27 May 1525) was a German preacher and theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Martin Luther and the Roman Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer w ...
in August 1524. Both had not only religious demands (they were members of the
Anabaptist Anabaptism (from New Latin language, Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re- ...
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 ''Beeldenstorm'' () in Dutch and ''Bildersturm'' in German (roughly translatable from both languages as 'attack on the images or statues') are terms used for outbreaks of destruction of religious images that occurred in Europe in the 16th centu ...
'' 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 Justus Menius (13 December 1499 – 11 August 1558) was a German Lutheran pastor and Protestant reformer whose name is Latinized from ''Jost'' or ''Just'' (i.e. ''Jodocus'') ''Menig''. Early life Menius was born in Fulda to poor but respectab ...
. The
Schmalkaldic War The Schmalkaldic War (german: link=no, Schmalkaldischer Krieg) was the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (simultaneously King Charles I of Spain), commanded by the Duk ...
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 Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
was Mühlhausen's protecting power.
Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
was organist of the church
Divi Blasii , native_name_lang = German , image = Blasiikirche Mühlhausen (Thüringen).jpg , caption = Side view, facing southeast , pushpin map = Thuringia#Germany , pushpin label position = , map c ...
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 The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
(1618–1648) and the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
(1756–1763) helped in bringing about Mühlhausen's decline. In addition,
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
'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 Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
. During the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
it was part of the
Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a kingdom in Germany, with a population of 2.6 million, that existed from 1807 to 1813. It included territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the ...
from 1807 until 1815, when it became part of Prussia again according to the decisions of the
Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
.


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 John Augustus Roebling (born Johann August Röbling; June 12, 1806 – July 22, 1869) was a German-born American civil engineer. He designed and built wire rope suspension bridges, in particular the Brooklyn Bridge, which has been designated as ...
, later constructor of the
Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
, 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 Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...
to
Leinefelde Leinefelde-Worbis is a town in the district of Eichsfeld, in northwestern Thuringia, Germany. The town was formed on March 16, 2004, from the former independent towns Leinefelde and Worbis along with the municipalities of Breitenbach and Wintz ...
. 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 The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
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 () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...
'' 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 (German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of t ...
), 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 Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...
camp), producing arms. The women were deported in April 1945 to
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concent ...
. The
US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
arrived in Mühlhausen on 4 April 1945 and the city was handed over without a fight. On 5 July 1945, the
Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...
took over the city, which became part of the GDR in 1949. In 1975, the 450th obit of
Thomas Müntzer Thomas Müntzer ( – 27 May 1525) was a German preacher and theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Martin Luther and the Roman Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer w ...
, 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 Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
conception of history. Many exhibitions were set up (including some of the museums in Mühlhausen and the '' Bauernkriegspanorama'' near
Bad Frankenhausen Bad Frankenhausen (officially: Bad Frankenhausen/Kyffhäuser) is a spa town in the German state of Thuringia. It is located at the southern slope of the Kyffhäuser mountain range, on an artificial arm of the Wipper river, a tributary of the Uns ...
) and events celebrating the historical connection took place. After
German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
, 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

Mühlhausen is situated in the flat landscape of the
Thuringian Basin The Thuringian Basin (german: Thüringer Becken) is a depression in the central and northwest part of Thuringia in Germany which is crossed by several rivers, the longest of which is the Unstrut. It stretches about from north to south and around ...
, a very fertile area covering the northern centre of Thuringia at an elevation of approximately 215 metres above sea level. To the north and west, the terrain gets hilly, whereas to the south and east lie wide agricultural areas, much like most of the municipal territory itself. Furthermore, there are two forests within the territory: the ''Stadtwald'' (as part of the
Hainich Hainich is a forested hill chain in the state of Thuringia in Germany, between the towns of Eisenach, Mühlhausen and Bad Langensalza. Hainich covers an area of around 160 km² (61,8 sq mi), of which, since 31 December 1997, half has be ...
) in the west and the ''Mühlhäuser Hardt'' between the Windeberg district and Menteroda. Both are broadleaf forests with
beeches Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...
prevalent. The Hainich hills south-west of Mühlhausen became Thuringia's only
National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
in 1997 because of their old near-natural beech forests. The highest hills within the Mühlhausen terrain reach approximately 400 metres of elevation. The main river crossing the city in northwest–southeast direction is the
Unstrut The Unstrut () is a river in Germany and a left tributary of the Saale. The Unstrut originates in northern Thuringia near Dingelstädt (west of Kefferhausen in the Eichsfeld area) and its catchment area is the whole of the Thuringian Basin. ...
. Furthermore, there are many small tributaries running from the western hills through Mühlhausen to the Unstrut like the Schwemmnotte, which is dividing the inner city. Germany's accurate geographical centre is located only south of the city in the neighbouring municipality of
Niederdorla Niederdorla is a village and a former municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany. It is the geographical center of Germany. Its nearest main city is Erfurt, which also is the capital city of Thuringia. Since 31 Decembe ...
, where a monument can be found at this spot.


Climate

The average annual temperature in Mühlhausen is . With an annual precipitation of only , the climate in Mühlhausen is relatively dry, compared to other regions in Germany.


Administrative division

Mühlhausen abuts the following municipalities (all of them are part of the
Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) the districts Eichsfeld, Kyffhäuserkreis, Sömmerda, Gotha, Wartburgkreis and the district Werra-Meißner in ...
):
Anrode Anrode is a former municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany. It was created in January 1997 by the merger of the former municipalities Lengefeld, Bickenriede, , Hollenbach and Zella. On 1 January 2023 it was disband ...
, Unstruttal and Menteroda in the north,
Obermehler Obermehler is a village and a former municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany. Since December 2019, it is part of the town Nottertal-Heilinger Höhen. History Within the German Empire (1871-1918), Obermehler was ...
and Körner in the east, Vogtei in the south and
Rodeberg Rodeberg is a municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Rus ...
in the west. In the direction of Ammern (part of Unstruttal) there is no interruption in the build-up area, the ''Ruhrstraße'' forms an urban municipal border here. The city itself (in addition to the core town) includes the following villages (population as of March 2021): The former municipality
Weinbergen Weinbergen is a former municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany. It was created on 30 June 1994 in the course of a territorial reform by the merger of the municipalities of Bollstedt, Grabe, Höngeda and S ...
which consisted of the villages Bollstedt, Grabe, Höngeda, and Seebach was merged into Mühlhausen in January 2019.


Demographics

Mühlhausen had approximately 10,000 inhabitants during the late Middle Ages around 1500, which made it the second-largest number within today's Thuringia, after
Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
, the current capital. The early modern period brought stagnation to the city, so that the population was still 10,000 around 1800. Mühlhausen fell back behind the new ducal residence cities like
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
,
Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...
or Altenburg in this period and lost its former importance. Furthermore, the traffic routes changed during the 19th century and Mühlhausen lost its good connections. Industrialization started later than in other German cities. Nevertheless, the population grew to 14,000 in 1850, 23,000 in 1880 and 35,000 in 1910, which was a significantly lower rate of growth than in other cities of comparable size during that period of rapid urbanisation in Germany. By 1940, the population had increased to 42,000 and with German refugees from eastern Europe, the peak was reached around 1950 with a population of 52,000. Since that time, the population has decreased to 43,000 in 1988, 39,000 in 2000 and 33,000 in 2012 (the statistical adjustment during the 2011 Census led to a loss of 3,000 persons). The average decline in population between 2009 and 2012 was approximately 0.38% p.a, whereas the population in bordering rural regions has been shrinking with accelerating tendency. Suburbanization played only a small role in Mühlhausen. It occurred after the reunification for a short time in the 1990s, but most of the suburban areas were situated within the administrative city borders, others were Unstruttal and
Weinbergen Weinbergen is a former municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany. It was created on 30 June 1994 in the course of a territorial reform by the merger of the municipalities of Bollstedt, Grabe, Höngeda and S ...
. The birth deficit was 203 in 2012, this is −6.1 per 1,000 inhabitants (Thuringian average: -4.5; national average: -2.4). The net migration rate was +1.2 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2012 (Thuringian average: -0.8; national average: +4.6). The most important regions of origin of Mühlhausen migrants are rural areas of Thuringia as well as foreign countries like Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. Like other eastern German cities, foreigners account for only a small share of Mühlhausen's population: circa 1.6% are non-Germans by citizenship and 4.2% overall are classified as migrants (according to the 2011 EU census). Differing from the national average, the largest groups of migrants in Mühlhausen are
Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...
and
Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
. Due to the official atheism of the former GDR, most of the population is non-religious. 19.8% are members of the
Evangelical Church in Central Germany The Evangelical Church in Central Germany (German: ''Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland''; ''EKM'') is a United church body covering most of the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia and some adjacent areas in Brandenburg and Saxony. ...
and 10.3% are Catholics (according to the 2011 EU census).


Culture, sights and cityscape


Museums

There are several museums in Mühlhausen: * The ''Müntzergedenkstätte'' inside St. Mary's Church was opened in 1975 and shows an exhibition about
Thomas Müntzer Thomas Müntzer ( – 27 May 1525) was a German preacher and theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Martin Luther and the Roman Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer w ...
and various other items of cultural history. * The ''Bauernkriegsmuseum'' inside the Corn Market Church shows an exhibition about the ''Bauernkrieg'' (German Peasants' War) and its importance for German history. * The ''Museumsgalerie'' inside the All Saints Church hosts some art exhibitions: a permanent one with Thuringian art of different epoques and temporary ones of modern art. * The ''Museum am Lindenbühl'' exhibits the municipal history of Mühlhausen and the regional history of north-western Thuringia including natural history and archaeology. * The ''Wehrgang'' is part of the medieval city wall, accessible next to the Frauentor gate. It gives access to a large stretch of the city walls and the towers.


Cityscape

The historic city centre of Mühlhausen consists of three parts. Within the inner city wall are the ''old town'' (south of Schwemmnotte river around Untermarkt and St. Blaise's Church) and the ''new town'' (north of Schwemmnotte river around Obermarkt and St. Mary's Church). The former suburbiums of Mühlhausen are situated between the inner and the outer city walls. Like the inner city, they are of medieval origin, but in contrast from the core, this area was overbuilt often during the city's later history and today shows a mixture of old and new buildings. Within the inner city walls, most buildings date back to the Middle Ages. In the late 19th and the 20th century, the city grew into all directions and a relatively low density of buildings is typical for Mühlhausen, so that the built-up area is very large in relation to the number of inhabitants. Characteristic for Mühlhausen's buildings is the predominant use of one kind of material –
Travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a p ...
. It was found near the city in large quantities and is both light and solid, so that the Gothic churches with their filigree masonries and other important buildings could be built relatively cheaply. Nevertheless, many older citizens' houses were half-timbered constructions, with only the ground-floors made of stone.


Sights and architectural heritage


Churches and synagogue

Mühlhausen is primarily known for its large number of intact
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
churches:


= Inside the inner city walls

= * '' St. Blaise's Church'' is the main church of the medieval Old Town at Untermarkt. It was built during the 13th century in early-Gothic style and is one of the most important 13th-century church buildings in Germany. It was first mentioned in 1227. The
Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
, owners of the church, had it expanded after 1270 using architects/builders from
Maulbronn Maulbronn () is a city in the district of Enz in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. History Founded in 1838, it emerged from a settlement, built around a monastery, which belonged to the Neckar Community in the Kingdom of Württemberg. In ...
and
Walkenried Walkenried () is a municipality in the district of Göttingen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the southern Harz, approx. 15 km south of Braunlage, and 15 km northwest of Nordhausen. Walkenried was the seat of the ''Samtgem ...
.
Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
worked here in 1707–1708 as organist. Today, it is the main
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
of Mühlhausen. * '' St. Mary's Church'' is the main church of the medieval New Town at Obermarkt. It was built in the early 14th century in high-Gothic style and is Thuringia's second-largest church after
Erfurt Cathedral Erfurt Cathedral (german: Erfurter Dom, link=no, officially ''Hohe Domkirche St. Marien zu Erfurt'', English: Cathedral Church of St Mary at Erfurt), also known as St Mary's Cathedral, is the largest and oldest church building in ...
, sporting Thuringia's highest steeple (). In 1975, the church was deconsecrated and is used as a museum today. * ''All Saints Church'' at Steinweg was built in the late 13th century and has been a museum since 1989. * ''St. Anthony's Chapel'' at Holzstraße was built in the 13th century and is a hostel today. * ''Corn Market Church'' at Kornmarkt was built as a Franciscanian monastery c. 1250. The monastery was abandoned in 1568. In 1702–22 the church was redesigned in the
baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
. The last service was held here in 1802 after which the church became a warehouse. Since 1975 it has been used as a museum. * ''St. James's Church'' at Jakobistraße was built in the 14th century and hosts the city library today. * ''St. Kilian's Church'' at Kiliansgraben was built during the 14th/15th century and hosts a theatre today. * ''St. Peter and Paul's Church'' between Steinweg and Mönchgasse was the church of the Dominican monastery, built in the early 14th century and demolished after a fire in 1689. Today, there are only a few walls remaining. Divi-Blasii-Kirche Mühlhausen.jpg, St. Blaise's Church Thueringen-Muehlhausen-Kirche-St-Marien bearbeitet.jpg, St. Mary's Church Allerheiligenkirche Mühlhausen von Süden.JPG, All Saints Church Turm Kornmarktkirche Mühlhausen.jpg, Corn Market Church Jakobikirche Mühlhausen-Thüringen 01.png, St. James's Church Kilianikirche Mühlhausen2.JPG, St. Kilian's Church


= Outside the inner city walls

= * ''St. George's Church'' at Sondershäuser Straße was built in the 14th century and is a Protestant parish church today. * ''St. Martin's Church'' at Kiliansgraben was built in the 14th century and is a Protestant parish church today. * ''St. Nicholas' Church'' at Bastmarkt is a Protestant parish church and was built in the early 14th century in Gothic style as the largest church outside the inner city walls. * ''St. Peter's Church'' at Petristeinweg was built between 1352 and 1356 and is a Protestant parish church today. * ''St. Boniface's Church'' at Blobach was built in 1851 in
Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
and hosts a Catholic kindergarten today. * '' St. Joseph's Church'' at Karl-Marx-Straße was built in 1903/04 in Gothic Revival style. Today, it is the Catholic parish church. Georgikirche Mühlhausen 1.jpg, St. George's Church Mühlhausen St. Martini 148.JPG, St. Martin's Church Nicolaikirche Mühlhausen.JPG, St. Nicholas' Church Petrikirche Mühlhausen.JPG, St. Peter's Church Josefskirche Mühlhausen Ostseite.JPG, St. Joseph's Church Bonifatiuskirche Mühlhausen.jpg, St. Boniface's Church


= Synagogue

= The Mühlhausen Synagogue at Jüdenstraße was first mentioned in 1380. Today's building is of younger origin: it was established in 1840/41 after the
emancipation of the Jews Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, e.g. Jewish quotas, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It incl ...
in
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
. The Synagogue was damaged during the pogrom of ''Kristallnacht'' in 1938, but it was one of only a few in Germany that survived the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
period and
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In 1998, it was reconsecrated and it is in use by the Jewish Community of Thuringia. It is also open for visitors.


Secular buildings

* The ''inner city walls'' were built during the 12th century with a length of , a height of and a thickness of . They are mostly intact, with the exception of the most of the gates, laid down during the 19th century to improve traffic access. The only existing gates are the ''Frauentor'' in the west (inner and outer one), out of an original total of 23 gates. Next to the inner Frauentor stands the ''Rabenturm'', which is accessible via the ''Wehrgang-Museum''. * The ''Rathaus'' (town hall) at Ratsstraße is unusual, because it is not located in a square, not even on a main street but more inside a city block. It stretches across Ratsstraße with an arch. It was built after 1310 and several times expanded on until 1596. * The ''Brotlaube'' (bread storage) is a large building at Obermarkt, first mentioned in 1304 and rebuilt after a fire in 1689. It was the market hall of the bakers. The façade mainly dates to 1722. * The Order of the Teutonic Knights had two courts in Mühlhausen. The one in the old town at Untermarkt was rebuilt in 1720 and hosts the superintendenture today. The one in the new town next to St. Mary's Church was rebuilt during the 16th century. It was the residence of Thomas Müntzer and later the birthplace of
Friedrich August Stüler Friedrich August Stüler (28 January 1800 – 18 March 1865) was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterpiece is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Schloss. ...
. * The ''Pfafferode Hospital'' is a large hospital complex within a park, built between 1910 and 1917 at the western edge of the city and is a typical example of the early-20th-century sanatorium architecture in Germany. * The ''Brunnenhaus Popperode'' is a small
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
building in the south-western periphery of Mühlhausen, built in 1614. The well was first mentioned in 1199 as part of the Medieval city's water supply. * There are also many architecturally interesting citizens' and patricians' houses within the centre of Mühlhausen, especially along the Steinweg street and at the Untermarkt square. File:Vor dem Frauentor Mühlhausen.JPG, Inner city walls with the ''Frauentor'' on the right and the ''Rabenturm'' on the left File:Rathaus Mühlhausen3.JPG, Town hall File:Brotlaube Mühlhausen.JPG, ''Brotlaube'' File:Müntzerhaus Mühlhausen.JPG, Court of the Teutonic Knights in the new town File:Muehlhausen untermarkt ds wv 09 2009.jpg, Some citizens' houses at Untermarkt File:Holzstraße Mühlhausen.JPG, Smaller houses at Holzstraße


Economy and infrastructure

During recent years, the economic situation of the city has improved: the unemployment rate in the Unstrut-Hainich district declined from 21% in 2005 to 10% in 2013 with higher rates in the city than in the bordering rural municipalities. Still, Mühlhausen itself has one of the highest unemployment rates in Thuringia.


Agriculture, industry and services

Agriculture still plays an important role in the Mühlhausen region today. Approximately 55% of the municipal territory is in agricultural use, mostly for growing cereals and vegetables. The region is a centre of the food industry in Germany, especially in the production of conserves like
pickles Pickles may refer to: Dogs * Pickles (dog) (died 1967), a dog that found the stolen World Cup trophy in 1966 * Pickles (pickleball), a dog often cited as the name origin for the sport of pickleball * Mr. Pickles, the titular demonic dog in ...
,
sauerkraut Sauerkraut (; , "sour cabbage") is finely cut raw cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria. It has a long shelf life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid formed when the bacteria ferm ...
,
apple sauce Apple sauce or applesauce is a purée (not necessarily served as a true sauce) made of apples. It can be made with peeled or unpeeled apples and may be spiced or sweetened. Apple sauce is inexpensive and is widely consumed in North America and s ...
, cherries and other fruits and vegetables. A well-known product is the ''Mühlhäuser Pflaumenmus'' (Mühlhausian plum jam), which has been produced here since 1908. Production of textiles, machines and electrical engineering were major manufacturing industries in Mühlhausen. Nevertheless, most factories were closed after German reunification in 1990. Since that time, Mühlhausen has had some problems finding a new economic core. Compared to other cities in Thuringia, the economic situation is relatively poor. In 2012, there were only 23 companies with more than 20 workers in the industrial sector, employing a total of 1,800 persons and generating an annual turnover of €314 million. As district capital, Mühlhausen is a regional service hub in retail, health care, cinemas, education, government etc. One of the largest employers is the
Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
, but the closure of the barracks is planned for 2015 with a direct loss of more than 800 jobs in the city. Tourism does not play an important role yet, although the city has many historic sights and the
Hainich National Park Hainich National Park (german: Nationalpark Hainich), founded on December 31, 1997, is the 13th national park in Germany and the only one in Thuringia. One of the main objectives of the park is the protection of an ancient native beech forest. In ...
is only away. In 2012, there were 52,000 overnight visitors staying for a total of 118,000 nights in Mühlhausen.


Transport

Mühlhausen is connected to the railway by a station at the Gotha–Leinefelde line, opened in 1870. There are some regional express trains to
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
and to
Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ...
/
Glauchau Glauchau (; hsb, Hłuchow) is a town in the German federal state of Saxony, on the right bank of the Mulde, 7 miles north of Zwickau and 17 miles west of Chemnitz by rail ( its train station is on the Dresden–Werdau line). It is part of the ...
(via
Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...
,
Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
,
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
,
Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...
and
Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...
) running every two hours and some local trains to
Leinefelde Leinefelde-Worbis is a town in the district of Eichsfeld, in northwestern Thuringia, Germany. The town was formed on March 16, 2004, from the former independent towns Leinefelde and Worbis along with the municipalities of Breitenbach and Wintz ...
and Erfurt (unlike the express via Kühnhausen), running every one to two hours. Former local railway connections to Sondershausen in the east and
Treffurt Treffurt () is a small town in the western region of the Wartburgkreis district which belongs to the federal state of Thuringia. The former municipality Ifta was merged into Treffurt in January 2019. The town lies near the Werra and is surrounded ...
in the west were discontinued. Mühlhausen is the largest city in Thuringia without a direct connection to the
Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
. The
Bundesautobahn 4 is an autobahn that crosses Germany in a west–east direction. The western segment has a length of , the part in the east is long. Works to continue the A 4 are in progress, but currently no plans exist to fill the gap completely. T ...
near
Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
is to the south and the
Bundesautobahn 38 is an autobahn in Germany. It connects the A 7 near Göttingen with Leipzig. In ''Die Südharzreise'', David Woodard discusses Bundesautobahn 38 in comparison to Route 11 in Paraguay and U.S. Route 66.Woodard, D., "Autobahn 38, Ruta XI, R ...
near
Leinefelde Leinefelde-Worbis is a town in the district of Eichsfeld, in northwestern Thuringia, Germany. The town was formed on March 16, 2004, from the former independent towns Leinefelde and Worbis along with the municipalities of Breitenbach and Wintz ...
is to the north. The connection to the city is via the
Bundesstraße 247 ''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...
(which is the most important route) to Leinefelde in the north and
Bad Langensalza Bad Langensalza (; until 1956: Langensalza) is a spa town of 17,500 inhabitants in the Unstrut-Hainich district, Thuringia, central Germany. Geography Location Bad Langensalza is located in the Thuringian Basin, the fertile lowlands alon ...
(with further connection to Erfurt and Gotha) in the south, the Bundesstraße 249 to
Eschwege Eschwege (), the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany. In 1971, the town hosted the eleventh '' Hessentag'' state festival. Geography Location The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river W ...
in the west and Sondershausen in the east and secondary roads to
Bleicherode Bleicherode () is a town in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Wipper, 17 km southwest of Nordhausen. On 1 December 2007, the former municipality Obergebra was incorporated by Bleicherode. The ...
in the north, Eisenach in the south and Küllstedt in the north-west. Municipal traffic is mainly via the ring road along the inner city walls, where the load is high on the eastern side at Kiliansgraben. Therefore, a bypass road east around Mühlhausen is in planning to keep the transit traffic out of the city. This is part of a larger set of measures to improve the connections of Mühlhausen by extending the B 247 between Leinefelde, Mühlhausen and Bad Langensalza. The next local airport is the Erfurt-Weimar Airport, approximately to the south-east and the next major airport is the
Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
, approximately to the south-west. Biking is getting more and more popular since the construction of quality cycle tracks began in the 1990s. The ''Unstrut Trail'' and the ''Unstrut-Werra Trail'' are long-distance biking trails. Both connect points of touristic interest, the former along the
Unstrut The Unstrut () is a river in Germany and a left tributary of the Saale. The Unstrut originates in northern Thuringia near Dingelstädt (west of Kefferhausen in the Eichsfeld area) and its catchment area is the whole of the Thuringian Basin. ...
river from the Eichsfeld north-west of Mühlhausen to the
Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale (german: Sächsische Saale) and Thuringian Saale (german: Thüringische Saale), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, ...
river near
Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. ...
, the latter on an abandoned railway track through the Hainich hills from Mühlhausen to
Treffurt Treffurt () is a small town in the western region of the Wartburgkreis district which belongs to the federal state of Thuringia. The former municipality Ifta was merged into Treffurt in January 2019. The town lies near the Werra and is surrounded ...
in the
Werra The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the ...
valley. The Mühlhausen tramway network was established in 1898 and discontinued in 1969. Since that time, there has been a bus network for local transport within the city and to neighbouring communities.


Education

There are two '' Gymnasiums'' in Mühlhausen: one state-run and one Protestant. There was a school of education in Mühlhausen until 1990, when it was merged into the later
University of Erfurt The University of Erfurt (german: Universität Erfurt) is a public university located in Erfurt, the capital city of the German state of Thuringia. It was founded in 1379, and closed in 1816. It was re-established in 1994, three years after Germ ...
.


Politics


Mayor and city council

The first freely elected mayor after German reunification was Hans-Dieter Dörbaum, who served from 1990 to 2012. Since 2012, Johannes Bruns of the
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...
(SPD) has been mayor. The most recent mayoral election was held on 15 April 2018, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Johannes Bruns , align=left,
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...
, 6,917 , 62.7 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Ines Goldmann , align=left, Christian Democratic Union , 2,042 , 18.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Charlott Zitschke , align=left,
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
, 1,489 , 13.5 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Björn Kirchner , align=left,
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
, 576 , 5.2 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 11,024 ! 98.6 , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 155 ! 1.4 , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 11,179 ! 100.0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 27,957 ! 40.0 , - , colspan=5, Source
Wahlen in Thüringen
The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows: ! colspan=2, Party ! Lead candidate ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , align=left, Volker Bade , 8,453 , 18.7 , 2.3 , 7 , ±0 , - , , align=left, Citizens' List for Mühlhausen , align=left, Stefan Sippel , 8,266 , 18.3 , 2.9 , 7 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...
(SPD) , align=left, René Seyfert , 7,158 , 15.8 , 12.5 , 6 , 4 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alternative for Germany (AfD) , align=left, Ronny Hermann Poppner , 6,806 , 15.1 , New , 5 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, The Left (Die Linke) , align=left, Steffen Thormann , 5,504 , 12.2 , 6.6 , 4 , 3 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) , align=left, Micha Hofmann , 3,827 , 8.5 , 2.2 , 3 , 1 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left,
Free Voters Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...
(FW) , align=left, Thomas Ahke , 3,678 , 8.1 , New , 3 , New , - , bgcolor=, , align=left, Free Democratic Party (FDP) , align=left, Bastian Boelecke , 1,527 , 3.4 , 0.9 , 1 , 1 , - ! colspan=3, Valid votes ! 15,206 ! 97.6 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=3, Invalid votes ! 373 ! 2.4 ! ! ! , - ! colspan=3, Total ! 15,579 ! 100.0 ! ! 36 ! ±0 , - ! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout ! 30,268 ! 51.5 ! 10.7 ! ! , - , colspan=8, Source
Wahlen in Thüringen


Twin towns – sister cities

Mühlhausen is twinned with: *
Tourcoing Tourcoing (; nl, Toerkonje ; vls, Terkoeje; pcd, Tourco) is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord. Located to the north-northeast of Lille, adjacent to Roubai ...
, France *
Eschwege Eschwege (), the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany. In 1971, the town hosted the eleventh '' Hessentag'' state festival. Geography Location The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river W ...
, Germany *
Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...
, Germany *
Kronstadt Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for "crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of ...
, Russia * Saxonburg, United States


Notable people

* Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen (? – after 1420), 14th century
Talmudist The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the center ...
* Joachim von Burck (1546–1610), composer * Johannes Eccard (1553–1611), composer and kapellmeister *
Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau (17 July 1769 – 17 May 1857) was a German people, German natural scientist, naturalist and List of explorers, explorer, physician, draftsman and engraver. He was a member of the Order of St. Vladimir an ...
(1769–1857), scientist, doctor, draftsman and member of the first Russian sailing expedition around the world *
John Adolphus Etzler John Adolphus Etzler (1791–1846?) was a German engineer and inventor who immigrated to the United States in 1831 with a vision of creating a technological utopia. He was traveling with a group from Prussia, who included younger engineers John A ...
(1791–1846?), American author, socialist theorist *
Friedrich August Stüler Friedrich August Stüler (28 January 1800 – 18 March 1865) was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterpiece is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Schloss. ...
(1800–1865), architect * John (Johann) August Roebling (1806–1869), civil engineer famous for the design of the
Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
*
Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers (26 December 1816 in Mühlhausen – 18 June 1853 in Berlin) was a German botanist. This botanist is denoted by the List of botanists by author abbreviation, author abbreviation Walp. when Author citation (botany), citing a ...
(1816–1853), botanist * (1807–1878), composer * (1811–1886), composer * Paul Mankiewitz (1857–1924), bank manager * (1926–1994), author * Werner Leich (1927–2022), Lutheran bishop


References


External links


Official city website

District website

National Park Hainich

Thuringia Tourism
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Muhlhausen Free imperial cities Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis Members of the Hanseatic League Holocaust locations in Germany