Mulhouse | |
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Subprefecture and commune | |
Coordinates: 47°45′N7°20′E / 47.75°N 7.34°E | |
Country | France |
Region | Grand Est |
Department | Haut-Rhin |
Arrondissement | Mulhouse |
Canton | Mulhouse-1, 2 and 3 |
Intercommunality | Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération |
Government | |
• Mayor (2020–2026) | Michèle Lutz [1] (LR) |
Area 1 | 22.18 km2 (8.56 sq mi) |
• Urban | 239.1 km2 (92.3 sq mi) |
Population (2021) [2] | 106,341 |
• Density | 4,800/km2 (12,000/sq mi) |
• Urban | 246,692 Metro 6,394,037 Oberrhein |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
INSEE/Postal code | 68224 /68100, 68200 |
Dialling codes | 0389, 0369 |
Elevation | 232–338 m (761–1,109 ft) (avg. 240 m or 790 ft) |
Website | www |
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. |
Mulhouse (pronounced [myluz] ; Alsatian: Mìlhüsa [mɪlˈhyːsa] ; German: Mülhausen [myːlˈhaʊzn̩] , meaning "mill house") is a French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the France–Switzerland border and France–Germany border. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace after Strasbourg.
Mulhouse is known for its museums, especially the Cité de l'Automobile (also known as the Musée national de l'automobile, 'National Museum of the Automobile') and the Cité du Train (also known as Musée Français du Chemin de Fer, 'French Museum of the Railway'), respectively the largest automobile and railway museums in the world.[ citation needed ] An industrial town nicknamed "the French Manchester", [4] 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. [5] This commune is part of an urban unit also named Mulhouse with 247,065 inhabitants in 2018. [3]
Additionally Mulhouse commune is the principal commune of the 39 communes which make up the communauté d'agglomération of Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération (m2A, population 280,000 in 2020). [6]
Mulhouse commune is a subprefecture, the administrative centre of the Arrondissement of Mulhouse. It is one of the most populated sub-prefectures in France.
In 58 BC a battle took place west of Mulhouse and opposed the Roman army of Julius Caesar by a coalition of Germanic people 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. [7]
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 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Strasbourg and Zürich; it is 350 km (217 mi) from Milan and about 340 km (211 mi) from Frankfurt. It is close to Basel, Switzerland and Freiburg, Germany. It shares the EuroAirport international airport with these two cities. [8]
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.
Climate data for Mulhouse (1991–2020 normals, sun from Mulhouse Airport, extremes 1947−present) | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 18.8 (65.8) | 21.7 (71.1) | 26.5 (79.7) | 30.0 (86.0) | 33.3 (91.9) | 37.0 (98.6) | 38.9 (102.0) | 39.4 (102.9) | 33.7 (92.7) | 29.6 (85.3) | 24.3 (75.7) | 19.9 (67.8) | 39.1 (102.4) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 5.3 (41.5) | 7.4 (45.3) | 12.0 (53.6) | 16.5 (61.7) | 20.5 (68.9) | 24.3 (75.7) | 26.4 (79.5) | 26.3 (79.3) | 21.5 (70.7) | 15.9 (60.6) | 9.6 (49.3) | 6.0 (42.8) | 16.0 (60.7) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 2.3 (36.1) | 3.4 (38.1) | 7.0 (44.6) | 10.6 (51.1) | 14.7 (58.5) | 18.4 (65.1) | 20.3 (68.5) | 20.0 (68.0) | 15.9 (60.6) | 11.3 (52.3) | 6.2 (43.2) | 3.2 (37.8) | 11.1 (52.0) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −0.6 (30.9) | −0.5 (31.1) | 1.9 (35.4) | 4.7 (40.5) | 8.9 (48.0) | 12.4 (54.3) | 14.1 (57.4) | 13.8 (56.8) | 10.2 (50.4) | 6.7 (44.1) | 2.7 (36.9) | 0.3 (32.5) | 6.2 (43.2) |
Record low °C (°F) | −20.2 (−4.4) | −21.5 (−6.7) | −17.2 (1.0) | −6.3 (20.7) | −3.1 (26.4) | 0.9 (33.6) | 4.3 (39.7) | 4.0 (39.2) | −0.6 (30.9) | −6.7 (19.9) | −13.4 (7.9) | −19.0 (−2.2) | −21.5 (−6.7) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 57.9 (2.28) | 49.2 (1.94) | 49.9 (1.96) | 49.9 (1.96) | 78.2 (3.08) | 67.8 (2.67) | 63.0 (2.48) | 67.1 (2.64) | 61.1 (2.41) | 69.7 (2.74) | 58.7 (2.31) | 75.1 (2.96) | 747.6 (29.43) |
Average precipitation days | 9.3 | 9.1 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 11.4 | 9.8 | 9.5 | 9.4 | 8.4 | 10.2 | 9.5 | 10.7 | 114.2 |
Average relative humidity (%) | 84 | 81 | 75 | 72 | 74 | 74 | 72 | 76 | 80 | 84 | 85 | 84 | 78.4 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 68 | 91 | 146 | 181 | 202 | 228 | 248 | 234 | 168 | 121 | 70 | 62 | 1,819 |
Source 1: Météo France [9] | |||||||||||||
Source 2: Infoclimat.fr (humidity 1961–1990) [10] |
Town | Sunshine (hours/yr) | Rain (mm/yr) | Snow (days/yr) | Storm (days/yr) | Fog (days/yr) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
National average | 1,973 | 770 | 14 | 22 | 40 |
Mulhouse | 1,783.8 | 772.1 | 32.5 | 33.2 | 54.9 [12] |
Paris | 1,661 | 637 | 12 | 18 | 10 |
Nice | 2,724 | 767 | 1 | 29 | 1 |
Strasbourg | 1,693 | 665 | 29 | 29 | 56 |
Brest | 1,605 | 1,211 | 7 | 12 | 75 |
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. [13]
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Source: EHESS [13] and INSEE (1968–2017) [14] |
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". [15]
Between 1909 and 1914 there was an aircraft manufacturer, Aviatik, in Mulhouse. [16]
The École nationale supérieure de chimie de Mulhouse, the first school of Chemistry in France, is located in the city. [17]
Mulhouse is served by EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, located 25 km (16 mi) 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:
Strasbourg is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France, at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department and the official seat of the European Parliament.
Alsace is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,919,745. Alsatian culture is characterized by a blend of German and French influences.
Bas-Rhin is a département in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lower altitude among the two French Rhine departments: it is downstream of the Haut-Rhin department. Both belong to the European Upper Rhine region. It is, with the Haut-Rhin, one of the two departments of the traditional Alsace region which until 1871, also included the area now known as the Territoire de Belfort. The more populous and densely populated of the pair, it had 1,152,662 inhabitants in 2021. The prefecture is based in Strasbourg. The INSEE and Post Code is 67.
Colmar is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Alsace region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace, it is the seat of the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department and of the subprefecture of the Colmar-Ribeauvillé arrondissement.
Sélestat is a commune in the Grand Est region of France. An administrative division (sous-préfecture) of the Bas-Rhin department, the town lies on the Ill river, 17 kilometres (11 mi) from the Rhine and the German border. Sélestat is located between the largest communes of Alsace, Strasbourg and Mulhouse.
Haguenau is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of France, of which it is a sub-prefecture.
Sundgau is a geographical territory in the southern Alsace region, on the eastern edge of France. The name is derived from Alemannic German Sunt-gowe, denoting an Alemannic county in the Old High German period. The principal city and historical capital is Altkirch.
Saint-Louis is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.
Thann is a commune in the northeastern French department of Haut-Rhin, in Grand Est. It is the sous-préfecture of the arrondissement of Thann-Guebwiller and part of the canton of Cernay. Its inhabitants are known as Thannois.
Guebwiller is a commune in the Haut-Rhin département in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It was a sub-prefecture of the department until 2015.
Barr is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in the Alsace region of north-eastern France.
Bouxwiller is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department, Alsace, Grand Est, northeastern France. Likely meaning "Bucco's land", Bouxwiller is the capital of the Bouxwiller canton and is located within the Saverne arrondissement about 34 kilometres (21 mi) northwest of Strasbourg.
The history of the Jews in Alsace is one of the oldest in Europe. It was first attested to in 1165 by Benjamin of Tudela, who wrote about a "large number of learned men" in "Astransbourg"; and it is assumed that it dates back to around the year 1000. Although Jewish life in Alsace was often disrupted by outbreaks of pogroms, at least during the Middle Ages, and reined in by harsh restrictions on business and movement, it has had a continuous existence ever since it was first recorded. At its peak, in 1870, the Jewish community of Alsace numbered 35,000 people.
Strasbourg-Ville station is the main railway station in the city of Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. It is the eastern terminus of the Paris-Est–Strasbourg-Ville railway. The current core building, an example of historicist architecture of the Wilhelminian period, replaced a previous station inaugurated in 1852, later turned into a covered market and ultimately demolished.
With nearly 24 million passengers in 2023, Strasbourg-Ville is one of the busiest railway stations in France outside of the Île-de-France.
The Gare de Mulhouse-Ville, also known as Gare Centrale, is the main railway station in the city of Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France. It is the eastern terminus of the Paris-Est–Mulhouse-Ville railway.
Soléa is a public transport operator in the French city of Mulhouse. Under contract to the Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération, it operates the city's bus network and three of the lines of the city's tram network. It also jointly operates, with the French national rail operator SNCF, the city's fourth tram line, a tram-train service.
The Koechlin family are a French Alsatian family which acquired its wealth in the textile industry and became leading industrialists and politicians of the region.
Grand Est is an administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine, as a result of territorial reform which had been passed by the French Parliament in 2014.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Mulhouse, France.
Dornach is one of the main affluent residential districts of Mulhouse intra muros, bordering Morschwiller-le-Bas and Lutterbach. It is an ancient settlement that owes its name to the Celts, a name that the Romans later Latinized into Durnacum and Germanized into Dornach. Dornach was once an autonomous commune, and for a long time served as a border village between the independent Republic of Mulhouse and Upper Alsace, which was alternately under French and German rule. As such, it was home to the local Jewish and Catholic bourgeoisie, who could not stay in the territory of the Republic of Mulhouse due to the adoption of the exclusive Calvinist religion.