Photo: Tino SielandTown hall in MühlhausenWith eleven Gothic churches, a nearly complete city wall, the Old Synagogue, and a town hall housing the archive of the free imperial city, Mühlhausen provides an opportunity to explore various historical epochs ¬including that of the Reformation.

The radical Protestant reformer Thomas Müntzer preached in the city’s St. Mary’s Church and, during the German Peasants’ War, made the city a focal point of German history. Following his studies in Leipzig and Frankfurt an der Oder as well as pastoral ministries in several communities, Müntzer left Allstedt in 1524 and came to Mühlhausen. After an attempt to alter the city’s balance of power failed that September, he was forced to leave Mühlhausen.

Müntzer must leave the town

In February 1525, he was back in the city and preaching at St. Mary's Church about the return of the faithful to 'God's order'. Müntzer became the intellectual leader of the radical Protestant reformers involved in the German Peasants’ War. Müntzer was captured after the insurgents’ defeat near Bad Frankenhausen and then executed outside the gates of Mühlhausen.