page_title: Mühlhausen
section_title: Early modern period
hierarchical_section_title: Mühlhausen / History / Early modern period
context_page_description: Mühlhausen is a city in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, 5 km north of Niederdorla, the country's geographical centre, 50 km north-west of Erfurt, 65 km east of Kassel and 50 km 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 220 square kilometres 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.
context_section_description: 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" (Ewiger Rat). 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 Via Regia 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.
caption: Mühlhausen in 1650
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