| Mulhouse | |
| Commune Status: | Subprefecture and commune |
| Image Flag: | DrapeauMulhouse.svg |
| Image Coat Of Arms: | Coat of Arms of Mulhouse.svg |
| Arrondissement: | Mulhouse |
| Canton: | Mulhouse-1, 2 and 3 |
| Insee: | 68224 |
| Postal Code: | 68100, 68200 |
| Mayor: | Michèle Lutz[1] |
| Party: | LR |
| Term: | 2020 - 2026 |
| Intercommunality: | Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération |
| Coordinates: | 47.75°N 7.34°W |
| Elevation M: | 240 |
| Elevation Min M: | 232 |
| Elevation Max M: | 338 |
| Area Km2: | 22.18 |
| Urban Pop: | 246,692 Metro 6,394,037 Oberrhein |
| Urban Area Km2: | 239.1 |
| Urban Pop Date: | 2017 2021 |
| Dialling Code: | 0389, 0369 |
Mulhouse (in French pronounced as /myluz/; Alsatian: Mìlhüsa in Swiss German; Alemannic; Alsatian pronounced as /mɪlˈhyːsa/; pronounced as /de/, meaning "mill house") is a city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France), close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace after Strasbourg.
Mulhouse is known for its museums, especially the French: [[Cité de l'Automobile]] (also known as the French: Musée national de l'automobile, 'National Museum of the Automobile') and the French: [[Cité du Train]] (also known as French: Musée Français du Chemin de Fer, 'French Museum of the Railway'), respectively the largest automobile and railway museums in the world. An industrial town nicknamed "the French Manchester",[2] Mulhouse is also the main seat of the Upper Alsace University, where the secretariat of the European Physical Society is found.
Mulhouse is a commune with a population of 108,312 in 2019.[3] This commune is part of an urban unit also named Mulhouse with 247,065 inhabitants in 2018.[4]
Additionally Mulhouse commune is the principal commune of the 39 communes which make up the French: [[agglomeration communities in France|communauté d'agglomération]] of French: [[Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération]] (m2A, population 280,000 in 2020).[5]
Mulhouse commune is a subprefecture, the administrative centre of the Arrondissement of Mulhouse. It is one of the most populated sub-prefectures in France.
See also: Timeline of Mulhouse and Republic of Mulhouse. In 58 BC a battle took place west of Mulhouse and opposed the Roman army of Julius Caesar by a coalition of Germans led by Ariovistus. The first written records of the town date from the twelfth century. It was part of the southern Alsatian county of Sundgau in the Holy Roman Empire. From 1354 to 1515, Mulhouse was part of the Zehnstädtebund, 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. An enclave in Alsace, it was a free and independent Calvinist republic, known as Stadtrepublik Mülhausen, associated with the Swiss Confederation until, after a vote by its citizens on 4 January 1798, it became a part of France in the Treaty of Mulhouse signed on 28 January 1798, during the Directory period of the French Revolution.
Starting in the middle of the eighteenth century, the Koechlin family pioneered cotton cloth manufacturing; Mulhouse became one of France's leading textile centers in the nineteenth century. André Koechlin (1789–1875) built machinery and started making railroad equipment in 1842. The firm in 1839 already employed 1,800 people. It was one of the six large French locomotive constructors until the merger with Elsässische Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Grafenstaden in 1872, when the company became Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques.[6]
After the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Mulhouse was annexed to the German Empire as part of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine (1871–1918). The city was briefly 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. French forces then reoccupied the city again on 19 August, before retreating again on 28 August having suffered heavy casualties. Alsatians who celebrated the appearance of the French army were left to face German reprisals, with several citizens sentenced to death. After World War I ended in 1918, French troops entered Alsace, and Germany ceded the region to France under the Treaty of Versailles. After the Battle of France in 1940, it was occupied by German forces until its return to French control at the end of World War II in May 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. Mulhouse was for a long time called the French Manchester. Consequently, the town 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.
Two rivers run through Mulhouse, the Doller and the Ill, both tributaries of the Rhine. Mulhouse is approximately 100km (100miles) from Strasbourg and Zürich; it is 350km (220miles) from Milan and about 340km (210miles) from Frankfurt. It is close to Basel, Switzerland and Freiburg, Germany. It shares the EuroAirport international airport with these two cities.[7]
Medieval Mulhouse consists essentially of a lower and an upper town.
Mulhouse's climate is temperate oceanic (Köppen: Cfb), but its location further away from the ocean gives the city colder winters with some snow, and often hot and humid summers, in comparison with the rest of France.
The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Mulhouse proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Mulhouse absorbed the former commune of Dornach in 1914 and Bourtzwiller in 1947.
As early as the mid-19th century, Mulhouse was known as "the industrial capital of Alsace", the "city with a hundred chimneys" (cité aux cent cheminées) and "the French Manchester".[8]
Between 1909 and 1914 there was an aircraft manufacturer, Aviatik, in Mulhouse.[9]
The École nationale supérieure de chimie de Mulhouse, the first school of Chemistry in France, is located in the city.[10]
Mulhouse is served by EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, located 25km (16miles) south of the town.
Gare de Mulhouse is well connected with the rest of France by train, including major destinations such as Paris, Dijon, Besançon, Belfort, Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier and Lille. Some trains operate to destinations in Switzerland, in particular proximity Basel, Bern and Zürich. There is also a train service to Frankfurt am Main in Germany, and a Eurocity service that connects Brussels, Luxembourg, Strasbourg and Basel calls at Mulhouse.
Regional services connect Mulhouse to Colmar, Strasbourg, Basel, Belfort, Kruth and Freiburg im Breisgau.
Transport within Mulhouse is provided by Soléa and comprises a network of buses together with the city's tram network, which opened on 13 May 2006. The tramway now consists of three tram lines and one tram-train line.
Motorway A36 is the main axis connecting the city with the west of the country, to cities such as Dijon, Paris and Lyon. The A35 is the main north–south axis, connecting cities such as Strasbourg and Basel.
Mulhouse is one of the nation's hubs for women's volleyball. ASPTT Mulhouse won multiple titles at the National level. The team plays its home games at the Palais des Sports.
Additionally, FC Mulhouse Basket is based in Mulhouse.
Mulhouse was the birthplace of:
Other residents include:
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France.
Antwerp, Belgium, since 1956
Bergamo, Italy, since 1989
Giv'atayim, Israel, since 1991
Timișoara, Romania, since 1991
Jining, China, since 1996