Molsheim () is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

and a

subprefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefectures. ...

in the

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

department in

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administra ...

in north-eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

.Commune de Molsheim (67300)
INSEE The total population in 2017 was 9,312. Molsheim had been a very fast-growing city between the French censuses of 1968 and 1999, passing from 5,739 to 9,335 inhabitants, but this increase came to a noticeable halt since. The

urban unit In France, an urban unit (''fr: "unité urbaine"'') is a statistical area defined by INSEE, the French national statistics office, for the measurement of contiguously built-up areas. According to the INSEE definition , an "unité urbaine" is a ...

of Molsheim had 26,925 inhabitants in 2017, from 16,888 in 1968. Molsheim is part of the metropolitan area of Strasbourg.

Cityscape

The old town of Molsheim is well preserved and contains a considerable number of old houses and buildings of typically Alsatian architecture. The most notable buildings are the medieval ''Tour des Forgerons'', the Renaissance ''Metzig'', the baroque (although built in late gothic style) '' Église des Jésuites'' – an inordinately large church insofar as it could house the entire population of the town when built – and the classical ''Hôtel de ville''. The former monastery ''La Chartreuse'', partly destroyed in the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, now houses a museum; covering an area of , it used to be a genuine city within the city. File:France Molsheim Eglise des Jesuites Nef.jpg, Nave and choir of Église des Jésuites Image:Porte des forgerons.jpg, Porte des forgerons File:Cloitre Molsheim.JPG, Cloister of the former ''Chartreuse'' (Carthusian monastery) File:Metzig Molsheim.JPG, Metzig (lateral view) File:Molsheim - Hôtel de ville -1.JPG, Town hall File:Molsheim - Maison de chanoines - 16 rue Jenner.JPG, House of canons File:Hotel de la Monnaie Molsheim.JPG, ''Hôtel de la monnaie'' (old money manufacture) File:TERAlsace LigneStDié Molsheim BatVoyageurs.JPG, Railway station

History

Excavations carried out to the north of Molsheim in 1935 revealed the presence of many

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

tombs (sixth and seventh centuries), along the old Roman road going to

Avolsheim Avolsheim () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in the Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Avolsheimois'' or ''Avolsheimoises''. The commune has been awarded one flower by the ''National ...

. "Mollesheim" was first mentioned about 820, in a deed of donating a vineyard of the bishop Adeloch to the chapter of Saint-Thomas. Bishop Adeloch is buried in the church of Saint-Thomas in Strasbourg. In 1219, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II granted the town many rights and franchises. By 1263 Molsheim was already surrounded by a wall which, in the medieval sense, made the town a city. However, the bishops of Strasbourg continued to own properties in Molsheim, resulting in conflicts with the Germanic emperors, a quarrel that was resolved in 1308 in favor of Bishop Jean de Dürbheim (German: Johann I. von Straßburg). Jean de Dürbheim enlarged the city wall in 1318 and built a

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Now ...

. When the bishop died in 1328, he was entombed in the chapel of a hospice he had founded, the future site of the Jesuit church, which is the present parish church of Molsheim. His tomb is still visible today.

Molsheim as a center of the Counter-Reformation

Guerre des Evêques-1592-Chartreuse de Molsheim

The strength of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

in the

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) 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 2020, it had ...

and especially Strasbourg put pressure on Catholic institutions. In 1580 Laurent Gutjahr, the abbot of Altorf, acquired property in Molsheim; the Benedictines, established since the 11th century in Altorf, a town lacking fortifications, moved here for safety behind the ramparts of Molsheim. Also in 1580, the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

established a school in Molsheim which

Leopold V, Archduke of Austria Leopold V, Archduke of Further Austria (October 9, 1586 – September 13, 1632) was the son of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, and the younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand II, father of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Further Austria ...

. Similarly, in 1591, due to the suppression of the

Carthusians The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has i ...

in Strasbourg, members of the order moved to Molsheim and built a convent, the splendid stained glass of which was partly destroyed during the

. The stained glass that survived the Revolution was eventually transferred to Strasbourg. Siege of Molsheim (1610)

In 1592, with the death of the bishop Jean de Manderscheid, a conflict arouse between the catholic parishioners of Molsheim and the protestant majority in the chapter of the diocese of Strasbourg, who elected

Johann Georg von Brandenburg Johann Georg ohn Georgevon Brandenburg (16 December 1577 – 2 March 1624) was a German nobleman and Protestant ecclesiastic in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the administrator (bishop) of Strasbourg from 1592 until 1604 and the Duke of Jägerndo ...

) as the bishop of Strasbourg; in opposition the catholics elected Charles of Lorraine (bishop of Metz and Strasbourg). This resulted in the

Strasbourg Bishops' War The Strasbourg Bishops' War (German: ''Bischöflicher Krieg'' or ''Straßburger Kapitelstreit'';Gerhard Taddey: ''Straßburger Kapitelstreit''. In: Gerhard Taddey (ed.): ''Lexikon der deutschen Geschichte. Personen, Ereignisse, Institutionen. Von ...

(1592–1604), with a dismal effect on Molsheim. In 1618 the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

broke out, ending with the Peace of Westphalia in which control of Molsheim was transferred from the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

to France. Molsheim was part of the

until 1648, when it found itself located on the French side of the border. Between 1871 and 1919 and again between 1940 and 1944, the German speaking city was part of Germany. A number of

tombs, dating from the sixth and seventh centuries were discovered in 1935 to the north of the town, on the Roman road leading from

Coat of Arms

The town's coat of arms features a

breaking wheel The breaking wheel or execution wheel, also known as the Wheel of Catherine or simply the Wheel, was a torture method used for public execution primarily in Europe from antiquity through the Middle Ages into the early modern period by breakin ...

of gold, in which a nude man with a golden halo is interlaced and bound, against an azure field. The coat of arms is based on a seal of 1263 representing the martyrdom of

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...

Language

Historically, several languages have been spoken in the

region (which included Molsheim), depending on what nation or country has claimed this region and whether some language was imposed or, was willingly adopted. The

history of Alsace The History of Alsace begins when the area was inhabited by nomadic hunters in paleolithic times. Later, control of Alsace shifted among competing European powers, including most recently the Holy Roman Empire and Germany, on the one hand, and Fran ...

records such power struggles and language swaps. Linguistically speaking, this city is located in what is considered the Northern Low Alemannic zone of the historical region of Alsace. Prior to the intense "francophonization" in that and other regions of France, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, that dialect of Alsatian, which itself is a derivative of the mentioned Low Alemannic

German dialect German dialects are the various traditional local varieties of the German language. Though varied by region, those of the southern half of Germany beneath the Benrath line are dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant ...

, was spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of Molsheim. Currently, most people in Molsheim can speak French, which is rapidly replacing Alsatian as the latter declines.

Toponymy

It was attested in the form "Mollesheim" (Molles + heim) around 820. (See History of Molsheim). Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing did not comment on the origin of the first element, Molles-, they simply associated it with the name of another town, Molring (called "Mollering" around 1304) which would be formed with the surname Moller. Moller might be an alternative spelling of Möller, which, in turn, is a variant of Müller ("miller"). The at the end of Moller would have been assimilated to . Ernest Nègre explains this toponym by the Germanic personal name Mudila + suffix -heim (home, house, small settlement, village) from Proto-Germanic through Old High German. Leon Dominian wrote that the "Alemanni are responsible for the suffix "heim" in Alsace. Towns and villages with names bearing this suffix are restricted to the plain". He also explained that the -ingen suffix is a later Allemannic alternative to -heim, which, in time, shortened to -ing or, was frenchified as -ange.

Economy

Molsheim is notable as the home of the Bugatti

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % such ...

factory. Production of the

Bugatti Veyron The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engine sports car, designed and developed in Germany by the Volkswagen Group and Bugatti and manufactured in Molsheim, France, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti. It was named after the racing driver P ...

by Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. restarted in

Dorlisheim Dorlisheim (; gsw-FR, Dorelse) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Economy The headquarters of Bugatti Automobiles is located at the Château Saint-Jean just outside Dorlisheim. File:Dorlisheim, Ch ...

near Molsheim in 2005.

Molsheim station Gare de Molsheim is a French railway station located on the Strasbourg—Saint-Dié and Sélestat–Saverne railways. It is located within the commune of Molsheim, in the Bas-Rhin department, in northeastern France. It is put in operation by th ...

has rail connections to Strasbourg, Sélestat and Épinal.