Imperial Cities and Education

Mühlhausen/Thuringia, 16th – 18th February 2026

Thirteenth academic conference of the Mühlhausen-based Working Group “History of the Free Imperial Cities”, in cooperation with the Friedrich Christian Lesser Foundation and the Historical Society of Mühlhausen (Mühlhäuser Geschichts- und Denkmalpflegeverein e.V.).

Conception

Different forms and characteristics of educational institutions and knowledge formations characterized life in the cities and towns of pre-modern Europe. The aim of the conference is to shed light on such educational constellations in Imperial Cities of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period from a comparative perspective. The focus is on the institutional, social and media dimensions of education and knowledge within the administrative and legal framework of Imperial Cities. These dimensions are linked to the superordinate processes of urbanization, professionalization, as well as social and regional mobility. In this regard, Imperial Cities appear not only as legal and economic entities, but also as spaces of education and knowledge. This approach opens new perspectives for the study of pre-modern urbanity and illustrates the central role of education and knowledge in the political constitution of the Holy Roman Empire.

The papers presented during this conference will address the relationships between Imperial Cities and universities, and the development of different types of urban schools. This perspective is broadened by case studies on women’s education in monasteries, on commercial writing, on the medical training of surgeons and on the role of city writers as carriers of urban knowledge. This illustrates the diversity of education and knowledge in Imperial Cities – ranging from elementary and Latin schools to monasteries and private tutors, to academic careers and newly emerging forms of the professionalisation of the arts and crafts.

To the conference program