Eisleben

Eisleben was first recorded as the market of Islebia in 997. It became a centre of the Mansfeld lands, where mining brought growth and a new town was founded for miners in the fourteenth century. The counts of Mansfeld ruled here for centuries. Eisleben is especially associated with Martin Luther, who was born here in 1483 and returned to the town to settle a dispute shortly before his death in 1546.

The Reformation divided the ruling family: one branch of the counts remained Catholic while others supported Luther. The Peasants' War devastated the district, and Count Albert of Mansfeld signed the Augsburg Confession in 1530. Heavy debts later forced the counts to surrender some of their possessions. When the last ruling line died out in 1780, Eisleben came directly under Saxony; after the Napoleonic Wars it passed to Prussia.