Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg grew beneath the castle hill where an imperial foundation of canonesses guarded the memory of the Saxon royal house. Emperor Otto I endowed the abbey, and its abbesses exercised authority over the town below. Market, mint and toll rights helped the settlement prosper; the old and new towns were united behind a common wall in 1330.

The citizens sought more independence and joined the Hanseatic League in 1426. Their struggle with Abbess Hedwig culminated in armed conflict in 1477. Supported by her brothers, the dukes of Saxony, she overcame the town's resistance; its Roland, a symbol of civic rights, was pulled down and its privileges surrendered. Quedlinburg left the Hanseatic League, though merchants and craftsmen continued to build substantial timber-framed houses. The Reformation reached the abbey's territory in 1539. In 1698 its protectorate passed from Saxony to Brandenburg-Prussia, while the abbesses retained a measure of authority. The imperial foundation was dissolved in 1802 and its lands incorporated into Prussia, bringing the long rule of Quedlinburg's abbesses to an end.