Everything about Mulhouse totally explained
|alt moy=240 m
|alt mini=232 m
|alt maxi=338 m
|hectares=2,218
|km²=22.18
|sans=(
Mulhousiens) 110,359
|date-sans=1999
|dens=4,976|date-dens=1999
|}}
Mulhouse (;
Alsatian:
Milhüsa or
Milhüse, pronounced [mɪlˈyːzə]; ; for example
house of mills) is a city and
commune in eastern
France, close to the
Swiss and
German borders. With 271,000 inhabitants in the
metropolitan area in
2007 it's the largest city in
Haut-Rhin, and the second largest in
Alsace after
Strasbourg. Its designated local development area consists of 16 communes, but its
conurbation is substantially larger than that.
Administration
Mulhouse is the chief city of an
arrondissement of the
Haut-Rhin département, of which it's a
sous-préfecture. Although the city is by far the most populous in Haut-Rhin, its
préfecture (capital) resides in the smaller commune of
Colmar.
History
The first written records of Mulhouse date from the
12th century. It was part of the southern Alsatian county of
Sundgau in the
Holy Roman Empire. From 1354–1515 Mulhouse was part of the
Décapole, an association of ten
Free Imperial Cities in Alsace. The city joined the
Swiss Confederation as an associate in 1515 and was therefore not annexed by France in the
Peace of Westphalia in 1648 like the rest of the Sundgau. It was then considered a free republic associated with the Swiss Confederation until it was annexed by France on
January 4,
1798, during the
French Directory period.
After the
Franco-Prussian War and the
unification of Germany, Mulhouse was annexed to the
German Empire as part of the territory of
Alsace-Lorraine (1870-1918). The city was occupied by French troops on
8 August 1914 at the start of
World War I, but they were forced to withdraw two days later in the
Battle of Mulhouse. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France in 1918. It was occupied and annexed by
Nazi Germany after the
Battle of France in 1940, until restored to France at the close of the war in 1945.
The town's development was stimulated first by the expansion of the
textile industry and
tanning, and subsequently by
chemical and
engineering industries from the mid
18th century. In consequence Mulhouse has enduring links with
Louisiana, from which it imported
cotton, and also with the
Levant. The town's history also explains why its centre is relatively small.
Geography
Two rivers run through Mulhouse, the
Doller and the
Ill, both tributaries of the
Rhine.
Districts
Medieval Mulhouse consists essentially of a lower and an upper town.
- The lower town was formerly the quarter of merchants and craftsmen. It developed around the Place de la Réunion (which commemorates its reunion with France). Nowadays this area is pedestrianised.
- The upper town developed from the 18th century on. Previously, several monastic orders were established there, notably the Franciscans, Augustinians, Poor Clares and Knights of Malta.
- The Nouveau Quartier (New Town) is the best example of urban planning in Mulhouse, and was developed from 1826 on, after the town walls had been removed (as they were in many French towns). It is focused around the Place de la République. Its network of streets and its triangular shape are a good demonstration of the town's desire for a planned layout. The planning was undertaken by the architects G. Stolz and Félix Fries. This quarter was taken up by rich families and the owners of local industries, who tended to be liberal and republican in their opinions.
- The Rebberg district consists of grand houses inspired by the colonnaded residences of Louisiana cotton planters. Originally, this was the town's vineyard (the word reb meaning vine). The houses here were built as terraces in the English style, a result of the town's close relationship with Manchester, where the sons of industrialists were often sent to study.
Principal places of interest
Hôtel de Ville (16th century). The town hall was built in 1553 in the Rhenish Renaissance style. Montaigne described it as a "palais magnifique et tout doré" ("a splendid palace gilded all over") in 1580. It is known for its trompe l'oeil paintings, and its pictures of allegories representing the vices and virtues.
Workers' quarter (mid 19th century), inspired by districts in Manchester .
Place de la Bourse and the building of the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, in the Nouveau Quartier (19th century)
Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse (featuring the Schlumpf collection)
French National Railway Museum
Museum of Electricity (Electropolis)
Museum of Printed Textiles (Musée de l'Impression sur Étoffes)
Botanical gardens and zoo
Principal economic activities
Automobile industry (Peugeot's Mulhouse factory is the largest employer in Alsace)
Chemical industry (ICMD)
Electronics (Clemessy)
Engineering (SACM - Wärsitlä)
Transport
Mulhouse is served by Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg International Airport.
Mulhouse has its own SNCF station with a direct connection to Basel in Switzerland.
Transport within Mulhouse is provided by a tram network
, which opened on May 13, 2006(External Link) and is due to be further extended by 2008.
Miscellaneous
Births
Mulhouse was the birth place of:
Jean de Beaugrand (1584-1640), lineographer and mathematician
Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777), mathematician, physicist and astronomer
Charles Frédéric Girard (1822-1895), biologist specializing on ichthyology and herpetology
Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), French military officer best known for being the focus of the Dreyfus affair
Georges Friedel (1865-1933), mineralogist, son of Charles Friedel
Pierre Weiss (1865-1940), physicist
Alfred Werner (1866-1919), Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1915
Artur Dinter (1876–1948), writer and Nazi politician.
Friedrich Wilhelm Levi (1888-1966), mathematician
William Wyler (1902-1981), award-winning motion picture director
Karl Brandt (1904-1948), Nazi German personal physician to Adolf Hitler and head administrator of the T-4 Euthanasia Program.
Katia and Maurice Krafft, volcanologists
Christiane Scrivener (born 1925), EU-Commissioner
Huguette Dreyfus (born 1928) harpsichordist
Pierre Chambon (born 1931), biologist
François Florent (born François Eichholtzer, 1937), actor, founder of the Cours Florent
Mireille Delunsch (born 1962), soprano
Paul Meyer (born 1965), clarinetist
Vitaa (born 1983), singer
Mayors of Mulhouse
Jean-Marie Bockel (since 1989)
Joseph Klifa (1981-1989)
Emile Muller (1956-1981)
Twin towns
Walsall, United Kingdom, since 1953
Antwerp, Belgium, since 1956
Kassel, Germany, since 1965
Bergamo, Italy, since 1989
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America
Chemnitz, Germany, since 1990
Giv'atáyim, Israel, since 1991
Timişoara, Romania, since 1991 (Coopération décentralisée)
El Khroub, Algeria, since 1999 (Coopération décentralisée)
Sofara, Mali, since 2003 (Coopération décentralisée)Further Information
Get more info on 'Mulhouse'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://mulhouse.totallyexplained.com">Mulhouse Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
