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. 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.

thumb|left|The Mühlhausen territories on a map of 1725

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.

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): Anrode, Unstruttal and Menteroda in the north, Obermehler and Körner in the east, Vogtei in the south and Rodeberg 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):

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Village !! Population !! Incorporated in

|-

| Bollstedt || align="right" | 1,001 || 2019

|-

| Eigenrieden || align="right" | || 2024

|-

| Felchta || align="right" | 626 || 1994

|-

| Görmar || align="right" | 943 || 1994

|-

| Grabe || align="right" | 645 || 2019

|-

| Hollenbach || align="right" | 310 || 2023

|-

| Höngeda || align="right" | 723 || 2019

|-

| Saalfeld || align="right" | 162 || 1994

|-

| Seebach || align="right" | 655 || 2019

|-

| Windeberg || align="right" | 237 || 1992

|}

The former municipality Weinbergen which consisted of the villages Bollstedt, Grabe, Höngeda, and Seebach was merged into Mühlhausen in January 2019. In January 2023 Mühlhausen absorbed the village Hollenbach from the former municipality Anrode. In January 2024 it absorbed the village Eigenrieden from the former municipality Rodeberg.

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, 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, Gotha 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.

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 and Ukrainians.

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 and 10.3% are Catholics (according to the 2011 EU census).

Culture, sights and cityscape

Museums

thumb|Municipal museum at Lindenbühl

There are several museums in Mühlhausen:

  • The Müntzergedenkstätte inside St. Mary's Church was opened in 1975 and shows an exhibition about Thomas Müntzer and various other items of cultural history.

Cityscape

upright=2|thumb|The city's skyline is dominated by St. Mary's steeple, the highest one in Thuringia.

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. 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 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.

As district capital, Mühlhausen is a regional service hub in retail, health care, cinemas, education, government etc. One of the largest employers was the Bundeswehr, but the closure of the barracks in 2015 lead to a 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 is only away. In 2012, there were 52,000 overnight visitors staying for a total of 118,000 nights in Mühlhausen.

Transport

thumb|Mühlhausen station

thumb|Tram at Untermarkt in 1959

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 and to Zwickau/Glauchau (via Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar, Jena and Gera) running every two hours and some local trains to Leinefelde and Erfurt (unlike the express via Kühnhausen), running every one to two hours. Former local railway connections to Sondershausen in the east and Treffurt in the west were discontinued.

Mühlhausen is the largest city in Thuringia without a direct connection to the Autobahn. The Bundesautobahn 4 near Eisenach is to the south and the Bundesautobahn 38 near Leinefelde is to the north. The connection to the city is via the Bundesstraße 247 (which is the most important route) to Leinefelde in the north and Bad Langensalza (with further connection to Erfurt and Gotha) in the south, the Bundesstraße 249 to Eschwege in the west and Sondershausen in the east and secondary roads to Bleicherode 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, 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 river from the Eichsfeld north-west of Mühlhausen to the Saale river near Naumburg, the latter on an abandoned railway track through the Hainich hills from Mühlhausen to Treffurt in the Werra 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.

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 (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

| 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

| 1,489

| 13.5

|-

| bgcolor=|

| align=left| Björn Kirchner

| align=left| Independent

| 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 (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 (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, France
  • Eschwege, Germany
  • Münster, Germany
  • Kronstadt, Russia
  • Saxonburg, United States

Notable people

thumb|150px|[[Johann Sebastian Bach monument next to St Blaise's Church where he worked in 1707–1708]]

  • Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen (? – after 1420), 14th century Talmudist
  • Joachim von Burck (1546–1610), composer
  • Johannes Eccard (1553–1611), composer and kapellmeister
  • Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau (1769–1857), scientist, doctor, draftsman and member of the first Russian sailing expedition around the world
  • John Adolphus Etzler (1791–1846?), American author, socialist theorist
  • Friedrich August Stüler (1800–1865), architect
  • John (Johann) August Roebling (1806–1869), civil engineer famous for the design of the Brooklyn Bridge
  • Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers (1816–1853), botanist
  • (1807–1878), composer
  • (1811–1886), composer
  • Christian Wilhelm Alheit (1817–1882), missionary to South Africa
  • Paul Mankiewitz (1857–1924), bank manager
  • (1926–1994), author
  • Werner Leich (1927–2022), Lutheran bishop

References

  • Official city website
  • District website
  • National Park Hainich
  • Thuringia Tourism