Nördlingen in the context of "Rothenburg ob der Tauber"

Friedrich Herlin (c. 1425/30 – 1500) was a German painter. His earliest known work, depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin, is dated 1459. A signature on an altarpiece in Nördlingen, dating it to 1462, identifies him as being from Rothenburg ob der Tauber, as do citizenship documents from 1467. Nevertheless, it is possible that he lived there for only a short time, and that his origins lie in Ulm, where a painter named Hans Herlin lived and worked from 1449 until 1468. Stylistically, he borrowed much from Rogier van der Weyden, indicating a great deal of familiarity with the art of the Netherlands and of Cologne. The sculpture attached to the altarpiece of 1462 in the St. George church, though officially listed as by the so-called "Master of Nördlingen", has been tentatively ascribed to Nicolaus Gerhaert, which if true would indicate extensive contacts to the highest artistic circles of the era.

Little else is known of Herlin, save that he died in Nördlingen in 1500.

Ernest I, called Ernest the Pious (German: Ernst I., der Fromme; 25 December 1601 – 26 March 1675), was duke of Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Altenburg, later united as Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He was a surviving son of Johann II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar and Dorothea Maria of Anhalt. He is remembered for rebuilding and reforming his lands after the Thirty Years' War. A devout Lutheran, he allied with Sweden in 1631 and fought at Lech, Nördlingen, Lützen, and the siege of Nuremberg; after the Peace of Prague (1635) he withdrew from warfare to focus on administration and recovery.

With Veit Ludwig von Seckendorf and Andreas Reyher, he led major educational reforms through the Schulmethodus (1642), promoting compulsory and graded schooling with a broader curriculum. He also founded the ducal library at Gotha and patronized early currents of the German Enlightenment.