Nordhausen

Nordhausen stands south of the Harz, where a royal estate developed into a fortified town. Emperor Frederick II granted it the status of a free imperial city in 1220, and its citizens later established a council and town hall. Churches and a collegiate foundation shared the city with merchants and craftsmen, while walls guarded its independence.

Nordhausen was among the early cities to embrace the Reformation. Protestant preaching began at Saint Peter's Church in 1522, and the council officially adopted the new faith in 1524; Thomas Müntzer also spent time here in 1523. Fires, plague and the Thirty Years' War brought hardship, but the city retained its independent imperial status until Prussian troops occupied it in 1802 during the dissolution of the old imperial order.