Mulheim

Mulheim -AM- Rhein, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the right bank of the Rhine, 2 m. below Cologne, of which it is practically a suburb, and on the main lines of railway Cologne-Dusseldorf and Cologne-Elberfeld. Pop. (1905), 50,807. There are important manufactures of silk, ribbons, velvet, sailcloth, tobacco, vinegar, yarn and chemicals, in addition to rolling-mills, boiler works, telegraph works, breweries, tanneries and a ship-building yard. Mulheim also carries on a brisk trade by rail and river.

Of ancient foundation, Mulheim received municipal rights in 1322. Its industrial prosperity is in great part due to the influx of Protestants expelled from Cologne at the beginning of the 17th century. In 1784 the town suffered severely from an inundation caused by the rapid breaking-up of the ice on the Upper Rhine.