Mulhouse and its wheel
Mulhouse is mentioned for the first time into 803. It borned on an often flooded site, not really ideal, but Mulhouse conceals an asset of it : the installation of a mill provides the foundations of an economic activity, gives him its name and the wheel which, today still, symbolizes it.

An independence preserved
Frederic 1st Barberousse makes of Mulhouse a true city. In 1308, the statute of town of Empire gives him an quasi-independence.

1746 : birth of industry
Small island of peace and prosperity, Mulhouse has the assets which will allow its economic takeoff : capital thanks to its trade, of labour thanks to the rural world and the religion calvinist confers to him a made morals of efforts and perseverance. In 1746, four young people mulhousiens, Samuel Koechlin, Jean-Jacques Schmalzer, Jean-Henri Dollfus and Jean-Jacques Feer, melt a manufacture of cloth printing. Forty years later, 26 manufacturers are counted! With industry, the city, equipped with an exiguous territory, finds a way of development which does not require significant grounds.

The turning of the meeting in France
January 4th 1798, Mulhouse votes its meeting in France, which gives him a new and decisive impulse. The continental blockade of England against Napoleon stimulates his economy. The companies multiply and are mechanized. The textile involves the birth of the industries chemical and mechanical and the creation of specialized schools. The infrastructures of transport develop : channel of the Rhone in the Rhine, railroad.

" French Manchester "
Mulhouse becomes one of the industrial towns most flourishing of France. With each generation, its population doubles thanks to the surge of populations come from the close areas, Switzerland and Germany (6 000 inhabitants in 1798, 60 000 in 1866). The ramparts are destroyed, the industrialists build the New District and a working city which is used as model with many garden cities everywhere in Europe. Many social works are created on the initiative of employers : mutual aid associations, co-operatives... in order to improve the difficult life of the workmen.

A rise slowed down by the war
The rise of industry is stopped by the war of 1870 and the annexation in Germany. Several years are necessary for him to adapt to its new environment then, when Mulhouse becomes again French in 1918, to rehabilitate itself at new markets. From June 18th 1940 to November 21st 1944, Mulhouse undergoes the occupation Nazi, with the forced germanisation, expulsions, the RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst) and enrôlement of young people in the German army. The bombardments of the Release cause significant destruction.

The city is rebuilt
Mulhouse starts after the war a vast program of rebuilding. The place of Europe comes out of ground. 13 000 residences are built between 1950 and 1970 to accomodate new Mulhousiens, come to meet the requirements in labour from industry.

The Thirty Glorious Ones
The local economy benefits from the Thirty Glorious ones, this boom which connait France post-war period. Textile industry must adapt to new economic conditions, but of other activities develop : electrical engineering, car (establishment of the Peugeot factory). The airport of Basle-Mulhouse is created just like the Large Channel of Alsace.

The " model mulhousien "
Today, equipped with a historical inheritance emphasized, many sporting and cultural equipment, of a young and dynamic university, Mulhouse proposes a gravitational framework of life. New branches of industry emergent : computer-integrated manufacturing, telecommunications, services with industry. With a privileged geographical situation and a communication network out of the commun run, the city is based on famous " the model mulhousien " to approach the 3rd millenium. A model which combines entrepreneurship, pragmatism, capacity to take up the challenges concern of the common good and tradition of greeting.