[citation needed] An industrial town nicknamed "the French Manchester",[5] Mulhouse is also the main seat of the Upper Alsace University, where the secretariat of the European Physical Society is found.

In 58 BC a battle took place west of Mulhouse and opposed the Roman army of Julius Caesar by a coalition of Germanic people led by Ariovistus.

It was one of the six large French locomotive constructors until the merger with Elsässische Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Grafenstaden in 1872, when the company became Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques.

The city was briefly occupied by French troops on 8 August 1914 at the start of World War I, but they were forced to withdraw two days later in the Battle of Mulhouse.

Alsatians who celebrated the appearance of the French army were left to face German reprisals, with several citizens sentenced to death.

After World War I ended in 1918, French troops entered Alsace, and Germany ceded the region to France under the Treaty of Versailles.

After the Battle of France in 1940, it was occupied by German forces until its return to French control at the end of World War II in May 1945.

On 22 February 2025, a 69-year-old Portuguese man, Lino Sousa Loureiro, was killed and several police officers were injured in a stabbing attack at a market in the centre of Mulhouse.

A 37-year-old Algerian man, Ibrahim Abdessemed, was arrested at the scene and a terrorist inquiry was opened as the suspect reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" when carrying out the attack.

[15] As early as the mid-19th century, Mulhouse was known as "the industrial capital of Alsace", the "city with a hundred chimneys" (cité aux cent cheminées) and "the French Manchester".

Gare de Mulhouse is well connected with the rest of France by train, including major destinations such as Paris, Dijon, Besançon, Belfort, Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier and Lille.