 Cities such as Colmar and Hagenau also began to grow in economic importance and gained a kind of autonomy within the "Décapole" (or "Zehnstädtebund"), a federation of ten free towns.Though little is known about the early history of the Jews of Alsace, there is a lot of information from the 12th century onwards.They were successful as moneylenders and had the favor of the Emperor.