Mulhouse is a French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the border with Switzerland and Germany. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace after Strasbourg.
Mulhouse is known for its museums, especially the (also known as the , 'National Museum of the Automobile') and the (also known as , 'French Museum of the Railway'), respectively the largest automobile and railway museums in Europe. An industrial town nicknamed "the French Manchester", Mulhouse is also the main seat of the Upper Alsace University, where the secretariat of the European Physical Society is found.
Administration Mulhouse is a commune with a population of 108,312 in 2019.Téléchargement du fichier d'ensemble des populations légales en 2019, INSEE This commune is part of an urban unit also named Mulhouse with 247,065 inhabitants in 2018.
Additionally Mulhouse commune is the principal commune of the 39 communes which make up the of (m2A, population 280,000 in 2020).
Mulhouse commune is a subprefecture, the administrative centre of the Arrondissement of Mulhouse. It is one of the most populated sub-prefectures in France.
History
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.
The first textile printing works in Mulhouse were established in 1746 by Samuel Koechlin, Jean-Jacques Schmaltzer, Jean-Henri Dolfus and Jean-Jacques Feer. The textile printing works in the city industrialized in the 19th century and the Alsace region became a global leader in the manufacturing and marketing of printed fabric. Art and craft printed textiles were sold alongside textiles that had been finished in a complex industrial printing process. 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.Michael Stephen Smith, The emergence of modern business enterprise in France, 1800–1930 (2006) p. 575.
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.
2025 Mulhouse stabbing attack
On 22 February 2025, a 69-year-old Portuguese man, Lino Sousa Loureiro, was killed and several police officers were injured in a stabbing attack at a market in the centre of Mulhouse. A 37-year-old Algerian man, Ibrahim Abdessemed, was arrested at the scene and a terrorist inquiry was opened as the suspect reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" when carrying out the attack.
Geography Two rivers run through Mulhouse, the Doller and the Ill, both tributaries of the Rhine. Mulhouse is approximately from Strasbourg and Zürich; it is from Milan and about from Frankfurt. It is close to Basel, Switzerland and Freiburg, Germany. It shares the EuroAirport international airport with these two cities.
Districts Medieval Mulhouse consists essentially of a lower and an upper town. The lower town was formerly the inner city district 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 eighteenth century on. Previously, several monastic orders were established there, notably the Franciscans, Augustinians, Poor Clares and Knights of Malta. The Nouveau Quartier (New District) is the best example of urban planning in Mulhouse, and was developed from 1826 on, after the town walls had been torn down (as they were in many towns in France). 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 inner city district was occupied 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 Rebe meaning vine in German). 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.
Climate 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.
Population
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.
Main sights
Hôtel de Ville (1552). The town hall was built in 1553 in the Rhenish Renaissance style. Montaigne described it as a "palais magnifique et tout doré" ("splendid golden palace") in 1580. It is known for its trompe-l'œil paintings, and its pictures of allegories representing the vices and virtues. Workers' quarter (mid 19th century), inspired workers' quarters in many other industrial towns.Scheurer, Marie-Philippe; Lehni, Roger; Menninger, Claude: Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin − Images du Patrimoine, Le Verger, Illkirch-Graffenstaden, 1990, Place de la Bourse and the building of the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, in the Nouveau Quartier (19th century) Cité de l'Automobile (featuring the Schlumpf collection) Cité du Train successor to Musée Français du Chemin de Fer (French National Railway Museum) Museum of Electricity (Electropolis) Musée des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Museum) Musée historique (History Museum, located in the Hôtel de Ville) Museum of Printed Textiles (Musée de l'impression sur étoffes) The Parc Zoologique et Botanique de Mulhouse (botanical garden and zoo) Saint-Steffen Calvinist temple (1859–1869), by Jean-Baptiste Schacre Miscellaneous street art works all around the town, amongst them a picture of Milhouse van Houten from The Simpsons as his name is pronounced similarly to Mulhouse in the French-dubbed version.
Principal economic activities
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".
Automobile industry (Peugeot's Mulhouse factory is the largest employer in Alsace) Chemical industry (ICMD) Electronics (Clemessy) Engineering (SACM – Wärtsilä)
Between 1909 and 1914 there was an aircraft manufacturer, Aviatik, in Mulhouse.Grosz, Peter M. (1997). Aviatik C.I. Berkhamsted: Albatros Productions. Windsock Datafile No. 63. . p. 1.
Education The École nationale supérieure de chimie de Mulhouse, the first school of Chemistry in France, is located in the city.A Mulhouse, la plus ancienne école de chimie de France fête son bicentenaire en 2022
Transport
Air Mulhouse is served by EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, located south of the town.
Rail 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.
Urban transport 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.
Line 2 from Nouveau Bassin to Coteaux Line 1 from Gare Centrale to Châtaignier Line 3 from Gare Centrale to Lutterbach Tram-train line from Gare Centrale to Thann via Lutterbach
Road 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.
Sports 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.
People Mulhouse was the birthplace of: Maurice Achener (1881–1963), French illustrator, painter, and print maker Jean de Beaugrand (1584–1640), lineographer and mathematician (born 1955), composer and synthesist Bernard Bloch (born 1949), actor and director Jean Brenner (1937–2009), painter Karl Brandt (1904–1948), German Nazi personal physician to Adolf Hitler and head administrator of the T-4 Euthanasia Program, executed for war crimes David Cage (born 1969), French video game designer, writer and musician. Born in Mulhouse, Cage was the first game developer to receive the Legion of Honour, the highest decoration granted in France. Pierre Chambon (born 1931), biologist Cléopatre Darleux (born 1989), handball goalkeeper Mireille Delunsch (born 1962), soprano Tom Dillmann (born 1989), racing driver Artur Dinter (1876–1948), writer and Nazi politician Dorian Diring (born 1992), footballer Adrien Dollfus (1858–1921), French zoologist and carcinologist Jean Dollfus (1800–1887), French industrialist Jean Dorst (1924–2001), ornithologist Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1935), French military officer best known for being the focus of the Dreyfus affair Huguette Dreyfus (1928–2016), harpsichordist Léon Ehrhart (1854–1875), composer Yann Ehrlacher (born 1996), racing driver