Founded in 1120 as a free market town on the western edge of the Black Forest, in the Upper Rhine Plain, on the Dreisam river, at the foot of the hill Schlossberg, Freiburg reached in 14th century one of the richest cities in Europe, due the silver mines in Mount Schauinsland. In order to protect its welfare and facilitate the commerce, it entered into an alliance alongside with Basel, Colmar, and Breisach, known as the Genossenschaft des Rappenpfennigs (Rappenpfennig Collective), which lasted until the end of the 16th century, even if meanwhile the veins of silver were dwindling.
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