City, Thuringia Land (state), central Germany, lying on the Zorge River, at the southern slopes of the Harz Mountains, in the fertile lowland known as the Goldene Aue (Golden Meadow). First mentioned in 927 as the site of a royal castle near the older Frankish settlement of Northusen (Nordhusa), it was made a free imperial city in 1290 and accepted the Reformation in 1522. It lost its independence