Nordhausen

Nordhausen was a free imperial city at the southern foot of the Harz. In 1306 it joined a Thuringian alliance with Erfurt and Mühlhausen; in the fourteenth century its citizens faced pressure from the counts of Hohnstein.

The three cities joined the Hanseatic League in 1430. Nordhausen embraced the Reformation in 1523, when Thomas Müntzer stayed there, although its cathedral chapter remained Catholic. The Thirty Years' War ended its prosperity. Prussian troops occupied the city in 1802, ending its free status; in 1807 it passed to the Kingdom of Westphalia.