Goslar

Goslar lies at the northern foot of the Harz, below the Rammelsberg, whose silver, copper and lead ore, first mentioned about 979, drew an imperial palace and then a city. In 1290 the council gained the main reeve's rights, making Goslar a free imperial city, which it remained until 1802. The council was built from the guilds of merchants, minters, shopkeepers, bakers, shoemakers and butchers, and the miners and foresters of the mountain village were tied to the city. Emperor Louis IV gave the city feudal rights in 1340, and about then its municipal law was written down in five books, spreading to other towns that turned to Goslar's court for judgments.

The Black Death struck in 1348, 1376 and 1377 without a single pogrom. Goslar belonged to the Hanse from 1267 to 1566, mainly using it as a political tool against its neighbours, and its copper, silver and beer exports gave it wealth. After 1360 the mines nearly stopped as water flooded the shafts, and the council tried drainage in 1407, 1418 and 1432 before Claus von Gotha's pumping engine, the Heinzenkunst, brought a partial success in the 1450s. Robber knights and feuds pushed the city to build up its walls until 1519.

About 1520 Goslar was prosperous again, but its mines drew the covetous Duke Henry the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who in 1527 repaid the pledge of the mining jurisdiction and took the Rammelsberg. Riots in 1527 destroyed the monasteries outside the walls, and in 1540 the imperial ban was laid on the city. The Reformation had been introduced in 1526, and Nikolaus von Amsdorf, called in 1528, drew up the first church order in 1531. Joining the Schmalkaldic League in 1536 gave brief respite. After Charles V's victory at Mühlberg in 1547 the duke prevailed, and in 1552 the city lost the mines. Great fires burned the town in 1728 and 1780, and it lost its imperial status in 1802.