The earliest written records of Erfurt are from 742 A.D. During the centuries it was occupied by the Swedes, turned over to the Prussians,
seized by Napoleon, handed back to the Prussians, and later was part of the Russian occupied area after the WWII
as the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Erfurt also played an important part in the Reformation: Martin Luther became a monk and entered the priesthood in Erfurt,
and the majority of the population converted to Protestantism after Luther proclaimed his theses in 1517.
Erfurt became the capital of Thuringia in 1991, two years after the reunification of Germany. Today, the city has a population of more than 200,000.
Erfurt's old town is one of the best preserved medieval city centers in Germany