Wolfstein, Rhineland-Palatinate
Wolfstein was founded in 1275 on Habsburg King Rudolph I's orders, which called for a “fortified and free” town near his castle, “Woluisstein”, now known as the "Alt-Wolfstein" (“Old Wolfstein”) ruin. Rudolph forthwith granted the new town the same town rights and freedoms as the town of Speyer. As an “everlasting marketplace”, it was to be a sanctuary for commerce, trade and dealing. The first townsmen and -women came from the surrounding, much older villages.
Gymnasium Petrinum Dorsten
The Westphalian town of Dorsten is host to Germany's oldest continuous cloister of the Franciscan Order, founded in 1488. Out of this cloister, Petrinum was established as a Latin school in 1642. Although the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) had badly derogated Dorsten's medieval wealth and status as a member of the Hanseatic League of international trading cities, the town council mobilised support for the clerics’ efforts.