Fortified by Emperor Henry V, in 1305 Dinkelsbühl received the same municipal rights as Ulm, and in 1351 was raised to the position of a Free Imperial City. Its municipal code, the Dinkelsbühler Recht, published in 1536, and revised in 1738, contained a very extensive collection of public and private laws.
Reformation
During the Protestant Reformation, Dinkelsbühl was notable for being – eventually along only with Ravensburg, Augsburg and Biberach an der Riß — a Bi-confessional Imperial City where the Peace of Westphalia caused the establishment of a joint Catholic–Protestant government and administrative system, with equality offices and a precise and equal distribution between Catholic and Protestant civic officials. This status ended in 1802, when these cities were annexed by the Kingdom of Bavaria. Around 1534 the majority of the population of Dinkelsbühl became Protestant.
Thirty Years War
Every summer Dinkelsbühl celebrates the city's surrender to Swedish troops in 1632 during the Thirty Years' War. This reenactment is played out by many of the town's residents. It features an array of Swedish soldiers attacking the city gate and children dressed in traditional garb coming to witness the event. Paper cones full of chocolate and candy are given as gifts to children. This historical event is called the "Kinderzeche" and can in some aspects be compared with the "Meistertrunk" in Rothenburg. The name is derived from the two German words for "child" and "the bill for food and drink in an inn", and is called such because of the legend that a child saved the town from massacre by the Swedes during the surrender. The legend tells that when the Swedish army besieged the town, a teenage girl took the children to the Swedish general to beg for mercy. The Swedish general had recently lost his young son to illness, and a boy who approached him so closely resembled his own son that he decided to spare the town.
Dinkelsbühl is still surrounded by the old medieval walls and towers. There exist a lot of outstanding attractions. The image of this town is very typical for a German town of the 15th to early 17th century.
St. George's Minster was built in the late 15th century Gothic style to designs by Nikolaus Eseler. It is the largest hall church in the country.
St. Paul's, now a Protestant church, was rebuilt in the 19th century in the style of the far late Roman architectural style. It was originally part of a monastery.
The so-called Deutsches Haus is the ancestral home of the Counts of Drechsel-Deufstetten. It is a fine specimen of the German renaissance style of wooden architecture.
Situated in front of the Minster is a monument to Christoph von Schmid, a 19th-century writer of stories for the young.
Museum of the 3rd Dimension is housed in the former city mill.
The Museum of History shows historical discoveries found within Dinkelsbühl and also has reconstructions of the ancient houses of the city. Since 2008, the museum has had a new domicile in the so-called "Steinerne Haus" from the 14th century. The official name is now: "house of history". While many of the artifacts are the same, the presentation is completely new.
The church of St. Vincent, which is 2 km outside the city.
