A little town with a lot of history

First things first, let’s head to the town hall. Not on official business, but because the brightly coloured Gothic stone doorway with its stout columns is too striking to just walk past. Inside, creaking wooden stairs lead to the upper floor, past stained-glass windows into the great hall. An impressively painted barrel vault covers the hall, where a grand piano awaits its next performance. Nowadays, Mühlhausen’s town hall hosts cultural events and receptions, but 500 years ago people were striking more combative tones here.

Tables were pounded as they planned the uprising, their fighting spirits all fired up. On 17 March 1525, Thomas Müntzer, the preacher from St Mary’s Church in Mühlhausen, convened the ‘Eternal Council’, which was meant to represent all sections of society and put an end to the patricians’ exclusive control of the town. Only two months later, the plan came to a bloody end at the Battle of Bad Frankenhausen. A huge painting from the 1960s on the wall of the great hall gives us some idea of what the events in the town hall might have looked like. Gesticulating opposition members from the town’s underclasses, overturned chairs, heated discussion – and at the centre of it all Müntzer, who seems to be drawing a vision in the air with his hands. So now we’re right in the middle of the Peasants’ War in Thuringia. And all we wanted was to go for a bit of a walk around the town.

Looking at the old quarter makes us swoon with nostalgia

But that’s what this town is like, you’ll encounter stories from history at every turn. Oh Mühlhausen! What a jewel we have discovered in you! It is as if some toymaker had plonked down an idealised medieval town by the Unstrut river in northwestern Thuringia. Perfectly restored half-timbered houses with red tiles huddle around St Mary’s Church, its Gothic towers so tall and pointed that you need to tilt your head right back to be able to see them jut heavenwards. The lanes are delightfully twisted, as are the cobblestones over which our heels are clacking. 

So what about modern life? Oh, that’s here as well. On Steinweg, a road that runs right through the middle of the town, people shop at the baker’s and the pharmacy and drink cappuccinos outside the San Marco ice-cream parlour. The whole setup is almost entirely enclosed by a sturdy town wall, with a walkway on which we’re about to have a little tour. The view from up here across the old quarter with its steep red-tiled roofs and romantic little gardens is enough to make us swoon with nostalgia.

“Mühlhausen is the second-largest heritage site in Thuringia,” enthuses town guide René Jahn, who accompanies us. “And it has been restored in an exemplary manner since German reunification.” The 60-year-old former builder is so fascinated by history that he recently retrained as a guide. He is keen to show us all the tiny details that we would otherwise have missed. Such as the signatures of the stonemasons scratched into the church portals. Or the idyllic course of the Schwemmnotte. That is the name of the little stream which keeps popping up in between the timber-framed buildings and which used to power 15 mills in the town once upon a time. Or, rising above the sea of roofs, the somewhat tilted twin towers of the Church of St Blasius. 

“The ground subsided under the weight of the towers,” explains René. That didn’t stop a young Johann Sebastian Bach from taking the job of organist at the Gothic church in 1707. René tells us that the current organ is only 66 years old, but that it was built in line with Bach’s ideas. At the suggestion of Albert Schweitzer, who, we are surprised to hear, was not only a doctor and a philosopher, but also an acclaimed organist who was a leading light of the organ reform movement. This 20th century movement campaigned for the return of pipe organs that were not restricted to the romantic but muffled sound that was the fashion of the time, but could also be clear and vibrant, as was required in order to play the polyphonic music of the baroque era.

Mühlhausen, adorned with towers – the description still rings true

To find out how well that went at St Blasius’ Church we could attend the half-hour organ recital that takes place at midday every Wednesday between the Harvest Festival and Whitsun. Unfortunately it is Tuesday today, so we simply stroll on. There are another ten medieval churches we could visit. That may sound a lot, but isn’t really when compared to the 59 towers that once used to vie for space in the town. It used to be known as ‘Mulhusia turrita’ – Mühlhausen, adorned with towers. We think that description still fits pretty well.

As we push open the heavy doors of the Church of St James we are greeted by female laughter. Instead of choir stalls the nave is lined with tall bookshelves. Modern iron staircases lead up to suspended floors on which there are more shelves. Two woman are shifting armchairs. St James’s Church was deconsecrated a long time ago, and has been used as the town library since 2004. “That should do it!”, gasps head librarian Henrike Degenhardt as she assesses the seating arrangement. There’s a literary reading tomorrow. Her friend Heike Strecker nods. She owns the bookshop at St Mary’s Church, but she prefers to hold her readings in the library. It has more space than her shop, where she doesn’t only sell books, but also stationery, gifts, and freshly brewed speciality coffees. 

Curious, we decide to pop in the next morning. Heike Strecker is just giving some homemade meringue cake to a courier who has delivered book parcels. “We’ve got a great community in Mühlhausen,” she gushes. “The people stick together.” Could that be the spirit of the former free imperial town? A town that was proud of its autonomy and only had to take orders from the emperor himself? Where Thomas Müntzer plucked up the courage to go into battle against the godless princes? “Talking of the Peasants’ War,” says the bookshop owner. “Have you been to the Brauhaus zum Löwen?” Apparently the historical inn is serving Freedom beer.

And so our visit to Mühlhausen ends in front of yet another medieval church. In the shade of the lime trees we settle down at one of the inn’s outside tables. Landlord Marco Fongern serves us ‘Fünfzehn 25’ (1525), a beer he had brewed to commemorate the anniversary year of the Peasants’ War. It is strong, top-fermented and full-bodied – “Just what they would have wanted 500 years ago, when beer used to be thin and sour,” Marco comments on the recipe. We raise our glasses. To freedom. And to Mühlhausen.

 

State Exhibition 2025:
Tickets for the exhibition venues in Mühlhausen

The St. Marien | Müntzer Memorial Museum presents rural society in the 16th century. The Peasants‘ War Museum Kornmarktkirche presents the events of 1524/25, while the Museum of Cultural History focuses on the reception and interpretation of the Peasants’ War from the early modern period to the present day.

Tickets for Mühlhausen (April 26 - October 18, 2025) can be booked here:

(Ticket vendor: Tourist information Mühlhausen)

 

Guided tours of Mühlhausen's old town:
Focus on ‘500 years of Reformation and Peasants’ War’ 

As part of the state exhibition ‘freiheyt 1525 - 500 years of the Peasants’ War‘ from April 26 to October 19, 2025, a public guided tour of the old town is offered every 1st Sunday of the month at 11:00 a.m. with a focus on “500 years of the Reformation and the Peasants” War’.

Tickets for the Old Town tours can be booked here:

(Ticket vendor: Tourist information Mühlhausen)

Text: Annette Rübesamen/ CMR Cross Media Redaktion GmbH
Header picture: Gert Krautbauer is a well-known photographer from the Munich metropolitan region.