Schmidmühlen is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the district of

Amberg-Sulzbach Amberg-Sulzbach ( bar, label=Northern Bavarian, Amberg-Suizboch) is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It surrounds but does not include the city of Amberg. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Neustadt ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is situated at the junction of the Vils and

Lauterach Lauterach is a town in the district of Bregenz in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. Honorary consulates of Finland, and the United Kingdom are located in Lauterach. The Lauterach Transmitter is a 116 m tall broadcasting facility. Europea ...

rivers.

Boroughs

Schmidmühlen has 24 boroughs: * Archenleiten * Baumhof * Blaugrund * Brunnhof * Brunnmühle * Eglsee * Emhof * Galching * Greining * Harschhof * Hirschberg * Markhof * Oberadlhof * Oberes und unteres Forsthaus * Ofen * Pettenhof * Pirkenhof * Scharltal * Schmidmühlen * Sinzenhof * Unteradlhof * Vilshof * Winbuch * Zanklberg

History

The town was first recorded in 1010. In 1270 it received the right to hold a market from

Louis II, Duke of Bavaria Louis the Strict (german: Ludwig der Strenge) (13 April 1229 – 2 February 1294) was Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1253. He is known as Louis II or Louis VI following an alternative numbering. Born in Heidelberg, h ...

as recorded in an

Urbarium An urbarium (german: Urbar, English: ''urbarium'', also ''rental'' or ''rent-roll'', pl, urbarz, sk, urbár, hu, urbárium), is a register of fief ownership and includes the rights and benefits that the fief holder has over his serfs and peasant ...

. It was a commercial center due to its location on the Vils and Lauterach rivers, as well as the site of one of the largest hammer works in that era. The city was a local seat of government and belonged to the Munich line of the House of Wittelsbach. In 1505, Schmidmühlen was incorporated along with other properties of Bavarian

Nordgau The Nordgau (from the Germanic for "northern region") can refer to two distinct areas: * Nordgau (Alsace), the Alsatian Nordgau, the medieval County of Nordgau, the northern part of Alsace * Margraviate of the Nordgau, the Bavarian Nordgau in the a ...

in the newly created Duchy of Pfalz-Neuburg. The border of the Upper Palatinate was three kilometers to the north, which always led to clashes, especially with the powerful city of Amberg. During the War of Spanish Succession, the so-called Battle of Schmidmühlen took place in 1703. With Karl Theodor von Pfalz-Sulzbach becoming Elector Duke of Bavaria in 1778 government takeover, the area was again part of the Electorate of Bavaria, but the areas were incorporated only after the Napoleonic Wars of the Upper Palatinate. Schmidmühlen possessed a market court with magisterial proper rights. As part of the administrative reforms in Bavaria, in the community edict (the 'Gemeindeedikt von 1818') of 1818, the present municipality, which was closely linked to Burglengenfeld as a seat of justice and later as county seat until the local reform. Today Schmidmühlen is the southernmost municipality of

. This brought a reorientation in the north, which had started 100 years ago with the construction of the railway line Amberg-Schmidmühlen (1910-1985, now part of the Five Rivers Cycle Route).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidmuhlen Amberg-Sulzbach