Schweinfurt

Schweinfurt stands on the Main in Franconia. As an imperial city it governed its own affairs while surrounded by stronger territorial neighbours. In 1397 King Wenceslaus granted the city privileges relating to use of the river, and in the fifteenth century it acquired nearby estates and villages.

Schweinfurt adopted the Reformation in 1542. During the Second Margrave War it was occupied and almost entirely destroyed in 1554; after the destruction the council prohibited Jewish residents from resettling. Rebuilding followed, and in 1652 the city physician Johann Laurentius Bausch and three other doctors founded a learned society that became the Leopoldina academy. Imperial city status ended in 1802 when Schweinfurt passed to Bavaria.