1360 AD, at which time it was incorporated within the town's fortification.
It is likely the present city was founded between 1150 and 1180 AD, although the exact circumstances are not known. It is presumed that Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, founded the city. The configuration of the streets in the oldest part of the town is in the shape of a pentagon, and it has been proposed that the inception of the town followed a planned design. At this time, the town was known by the name Gudingin or also Gotingen. Its inhabitants obeyed welfish ownership and ruling rights, and the first G�ttingen burghers are mentioned, indicating that G�ttingen was already organised as a true city. It was not, however, a Free Imperial City (German: Reichsstadt), but subject to the Welf dukes of Brunswick-L�neburg. Henry the Elder (V) of Brunswick, eldest son of Henry the Lion and brother of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV, is given as the lord over G�ttingen between 1201 and 1208 AD. The original Welf residency in the town consisted of a farm building and the stables of the Welf dukes, which occupied the oldest part of the city's fortifications built prior to 1250 AD. In its early days, G�ttingen became involved in the conflicts of the Welfs with their enemies. The initial conflicts in the first decades of the 13th century benefited the burghers of G�ttingen, who were able to use the political and military situation to be courted by various parties, and hence forcing the Welf town lords to make certain compromises with the town. In a document from 1232 AD, Duke Otto the Child gave the citizens of G�ttingen the same rights which they had held at the time of his uncles Otto IV and Henry the Elder of Brunswick. These included privileges concerning self-governance of the town, protection of traders, and trading facilitation. The document also promises that the town is not to fall into the hands of other powers. It is to be assumed that at this time G�ttingen possessed a city
