Einwilligung zur Nutzung.

Around 1000 CE, the Erlangen region lay on the fringes of several areas of settlement. While the ancient Bavarians had slowly penetrated the region from the south, the Franks had been colonising the Main, and later also the Regnitz river areas, from the 7th century onwards. In the records, Forchheim first appears in 805, Bamberg in 902, (Langen)Zenn in 903, and Roßtal in 954.

In 976, emperor Otto II. gifted the Royal Chapel of Saint Martin in Forchheim to the bishopric of Würzburg, including associated estates such as the – then not separately listed – Erlangen. Erlangen is first mentioned by name in a deed King Henry II issued to transfer the Forchheim ecclesiastical estate, including the associated settlements '(villa) Erlangon' and 'Eggolvesheim' (Eggolsheim), to the newly founded Collegiate Estate of Haug in Würzburg in 1002. Among others, a two-mile-square parcel of forest east of the Regnitz river was added to the estate.

According to more recent research, 'villa Erlangon' refers to today's Alterlangen, situated west of the Regnitz river, which can therefore be deemed the parent settlement to the later ‘Old Town’. The explicit transfer of the forest parcel mentioned above points to settlement activities beginning east of the Regnitz river at that time. The centre of the settlement established here was probably located on the flood-proof terrain near today's Martin-Luther-Platz.