Raw Materials
Here's my map for suggested raw materials in the borders of modern Germany (mostly, I added some more of Pomerania because it was cut off in the Poland thread):
View attachment 1168375
While I focused on modern Germany, I'm also going to list a handful of rare resources in Austria and Czechia.
I didn’t bother with citing all the sources in this section, as a lot of it comes from random German websites talking about the history of their town, but these should be googled easily, at least in German.
Let’s start with metals. There is a great source on metal production in the period,
the first article in this collection of papers (in German, it has an English summary in there too).
Nuremberg was the most important metalworking city in Germany. They had a mechanical method for copper wire drawing that they kept a closely guarded secret, and also produced basically all metalware you can think of, especially made of brass.
The source lists all the places that Nuremberg got its raw materials from and specifically talks about important German mining towns of the period. Much of the metal-related stuff below comes from this document.
I also want to mention something that will come up: silver, copper and lead often show up together in ores. So for example, North Tyrol produced silver and copper, while South Tyrol produced silver and lead. This can be a problem for assigning a good to a location - which one do you choose? Obviously, silver was the more valuable metal, since it was used for currency - silver was worth 300-350 times as much as copper in the 15th century. But in order to represent both metals that were produced in really important mines, I would suggest using a neighboring location that doesn’t have a special resource in order to have both metals in the province. On rich ore deposits, there were always many mines that were opened in a cluster or belt, so it’s not a stretch to spread out the production area a bit.
It is also worth mentioning that in order to make use of silver+copper ore, you need the Saiger process (perfected in Nuremberg by 1450, a similar process was also developed in Korea in the 16th century) which uses lead to split silver from copper. This was an important technological innovation and started the Central European silver mining boom in the second half of the 15th century. Many of the rich mines mentioned here were only opened after this process was invented.
Silver
Silver mines typically had huge booms followed by rapid decline. A good example of this is the Bohemian city of Frankenthal. It became famous for its silver rush, grew to be the second biggest city in Bohemia and the big silver coins it minted are where we get the words Thaler and dollar from. This prosperity didn’t even last a full 100 years, however, since it declined rapidly after 1570 when they had to dig deeper and deeper to find any silver.
At the same time, large discoveries of silver in Bolivia and Mexico led to a flooding of European markets with silver, which basically made most European silver mines irrelevant.
In Potosí and Mexican mines, millions of slave workers died to exhaustion or mercury poisoning, A completely different scale than the mining in Central Europe.
This begs the question: are silver rushes represented by events that add silver to locations, like in the Ore Mountains, especially in relation to the Saiger Process? Is depletion represented? It was said in a comment that there is an event that will spawn silver in Schwaz, so I’m assuming the Saiger Process will be represented in some way.
- Tyrol silver mines: Super famous and rich, especially Schwaz, but it required the Saiger process so didn’t produce that much before 1450. Ideally there should be one silver and copper in North Tyrol, and one silver and lead in South Tyrol. Silver locations: Schwaz, Sterzing (no change). Since Schwaz will be added later, it could potentially start with copper instead.
- Goslar and surrounding Harz locations: Very well known mining area in the Middle Ages and exported a lot of experienced miners to Saxony, but lost its importance later on. Still makes sense for Goslar to start with silver mining, it was rich and important at the start of the game. Location: Goslar
- The Ore Mountain silver mining towns: not a lot to say here, info about the Ore Mountain silver rushes (Berggeschrey) is readily available. Famous towns are Freiberg (1168), Schneeberg (1470), Annaberg (1491), Marienberg ( 1520), Joachimstal/Jáchymov (1516). Locations: Freiberg (no change), Jachymov (I guess this will be added at a later date as well)
- Kuttenberg/Kutná Hora produced silver and copper from 1260 but, starting in 1547, depletion became a problem. Its lifetime silver production was comparable to Schwaz. Location: Kutná Hora
- In Moravia, silver was mined in Bruntál/Freudenthal as well as Iglau/Jihlava since 799, its town rights were used as a base for newly established mining towns. Locations: Bruntál (no change), Jihlava
Honorable mentions:
I already suggested this in the France thread, here is a region in the Elsass which is literally called the Silver Valley where plenty of silver mining happened from the middle ages, peaking in the 16th century. This was implemented, so no change is needed!
Friesach in the territory of Salzburg, a rich town that minted currency used all over Austria, was plundered multiple times and burnt down, so had no importance anymore after 1292. Maybe this is what the silver in the Murau location next to Friesach is supposed to represent?
Statistics for average yearly silver production from
this German WIkipedia article sourced from a book that I unfortunately couldn’t find any free access for.
1500: North Tyrol 18.3t, Rest of Europe 28.7t
1550: North Tyrol 11.7t, Rest of Europe 50.7t, Spanish Colonies 246.1t
1600: North Tyrol 3.6t, Rest of Europe 37.7t, Spanish Colonies 374.6t
You can see the insane production in the colonies and how fast output could drop in specific European mines.
Iron
- Oberpfalz: One of the most important iron mining regions in Central Europe (probably the most important one in the Late Middle Ages), especially the towns of Amberg, Sulzbach and Auerbach which produced bar iron from Fichtelgebirge ore deposits and sold it to trading centers like Nuremberg and Regensburg. Locations: Amberg, Eschenbach
- Schleiden: Iron produced in the Schleiden valley located in the Northern Eifel was exported to metalworking cities like Liège, Aachen or Cologne.
- Schmalkalden: Known by history for the league of protestants named after the town - one of the capitals of Hesse - but it was also a center of iron production. Local iron ores and rich wood supply from the Thuringian Forest made it an ideal location for iron production, first documented in 1340.
- Iron production on the right bank of the Rhine: The Siegerland, Sauerland and Bergisches Land all produced many different iron goods which were centrally sold in Cologne and exported from there. Towns mentioned as famous for metal goods are Altena, Iserlohn, Lüdenscheid, Balve, Solingen (world famous for knives), Elberfeld, Cronenberg, Lennep, Remscheid, Essen, Hattingen, Bergneustadt, Drolshagen, Olpe, Much, Homburg, Bierenberg, Morsbach, Plettenberg, Siegen.It’s safe to say there was a lot of ironworking done here, and the supplying mines were local, mostly located in the Siegerland and Sauerland. (Note: during the Industrial Revolution, iron and steel production moved towards coal fields, so the Siegerland and Sauerland lost its industrial importance to the Ruhr area where all the coal is located) Suggested locations: Siegen (no change), Olpe, Altena, Korbach, Remscheid
Tin
Here’s an assumption I’m going to make: Brass (copper+zinc) clearly isn’t in the game, but it was just as important as bronze (copper+tin) and most field cannons were made from an alloy called gunmetal which is basically a mix of brass and bronze with maybe some lead added. If brass can be abstracted as bronze, an important zinc mine could be abstracted as a tin mine.
Remember when I wrote about the city of Plombières (German name ‘lead mountain’) in the Limbourg location? It turns out that they didn’t just mine lead here, the area between Plombières and Aachen was actually the most important European source of zinc, or specifically a mineral called calamine. Most brass made in Western Europe in this period probably had some calamine from Aachen in it.
So my suggestion for tin (alternatively lead) is
Aachen.
Now for actual tin in the Ore Mountains. All the tin producers that I’ll list here pale in comparison to the production of Cornwall and Devon, which probably deserve a special modifier.
The Ore Mountains have several towns that were known for their tin deposits: Zinnwald (tin forest), Altenberg (the most important), Ehrenfriedersdorf, Sadisdorf, Eger/Cheb, Kaiserwald/Slavkovský les/Císařský les, Schlaggenwald/Horní Slavkov, Schönfeld/Krásno. Locations:
Pirna, Cheb
Copper
Copper is in an interesting place because so many famous silver mines also produced a lot of copper. So while there aren’t many dedicated copper mines mentioned, it wasn’t a super rare metal.
- The most important source of copper in Germany (and the main source for Nuremberg) was Eisleben in the Mansfeld region. Location: Eisleben
- Another historic copper mining town is Neubulach in the Northern Black Forest. Location: Calw
- The Archbishop of Mainz set up copper mines in Sommerkahl near Aschaffenburg in 1542; it has mining tools in its coat of arms. Location: Aschaffenburg
- Goslar, Schwaz and Kuttenberg (obvious silver locations) were also important producers of copper, so I suggest adding copper in neighbor locations: Braunlage, Zell am Ziller, Caslav
Lead
- It is documented that the Elector of the Palatinate purchased the lead mine “Grube Marie in der Kohlbach” in 1291. The entire Odenwald region, between Darmstadt and Heidelberg had plenty of mines producing all sorts of minerals, but lead, zinc and vitriol were the most important. Location: Darmstadt
- Rammelsberg in the Harz produced a lot of lead from the Middle Ages. Since the Goslar location should have silver, I'm suggesting the neighboring Alfeld instead.
- Freiberg in the Ore Mountains also produced lead with its silver. On the Bohemian side, there is the town Bleistadt/Oloví which has rich lead deposits. Locations: Schwarzenberg, Loket
- The Siegerland mines that were mentioned for iron, especially Müsen, also produced some lead. The location for this is Altenkirchen.
- The lead mountain near Mechernich was mined since 1394, it’s closer to the Schleiden location but Schleiden itself produced iron, so a good location for this lead is: Daun
- The Sauerland produced lead since Roman times, location: Brilon (no change)
- Pleyberg (today Bad Bleiberg) mined lead that was used for the Saiger process in the Fuggerau. Location: Villach
- The mines in South Tryol (Passeier) produced silver and lead, so one lead can be added here. Location: Meran
Honorable mentions:
Pribram produced silver and lead in different periods. It was temporarily closed in the 17th century but opened again in the 18th century. Location would be Beroun but this is better served with mercury since there are already plenty of lead locations.
The Gurgltal in North Tyrol produced some lead and zinc but not enough to be worth adding, in my opinion.
Gold
None of this gold production can really compare with Upper Hungary/Slovakia at the start of the game, but it did exist.
- Goldkronach in the Fichtelgebirge has a long history of producing gold and is obviously named after it. Location: Bayreuth
- On the Bohemian side of the mountains, there is Bergreichenstein (literally ‘rich stone mountain’) or Kašperské Hory which produced gold from 1337 to 1654. Location: Klatovy
- Eule/Jílové near Prague produced gold from the Middle Ages and financed the University of Prague. Location: Benesov (no change)
Honorable mention: In the 16th century, new gold deposits were mined in the territory of Salzburg, like in Böckstein which now has a mining museum.
Mercury
I read in my sources that mercury producing towns were famous for their hordes of young widows. Mercury poisoning killed miners before they could grow old. I’m not sure if game mechanics allow for a mortality modifier or something like that.
- Stahlberg, despite being named Steel Mountain, was famous for mercury. The town’s coat of arms literally has the alchemical symbol for mercury in it. Other nearby locations in the Northern Palatinate also produced mercury, towns mentioned are Mörsfeld, Moschel-Landsberg (there is a mercury containing mineral called Moschellandsbergite), and Kirchheimbolanden. Man, German is really not beating the allegations with these place names. Locations: Kreuznach, Leiningen
- West of Prague, mercury was produced in Bohemia, in the towns of Beraun/Beroun and Horowitz/Hořovice. Location: Beroun
Coal:
Germany obviously has very rich coal deposits.
This German source talks about early use of coal (which often has been called coal digging, but it was more than that) and how it became more prevalent to satisfy proto-industrial fuel demand in Germany.
Here are some important coal producing areas with documented production/tolls/taxes on coal:
- Saarland (1371): Saarbrücken, Merzig
- Ruhr (1370): Essen, Dortmund
- Osnabrück (15th/16th century): Osnabrück (fiber if no coal from the start)
- 17th and 18th century expansion of coal production: Hamm, Recklinghausen, Roermond, Zwickau
Salt:
Salt, the white gold. Due to this moniker, some people think that salt was expensive, but it was quite affordable for everyone. The reason you could get so rich trading in salt was that there was basically unlimited demand for it. Not much different from today’s ‘black gold’.
Germany has a lot of important salt producing areas, many towns are named after it (‘salz’, ‘hall’ or ‘Bad’ referring to mineral springs), however some towns are named after salt trade passing through them rather than local deposits, so don’t blindly give every location with Salz in its name salt!
- Lüneburg, famous for its exports to the baltic which lacked salt: Lüneburg, Uelzen
- Salzgitter: Braunschweig
- Halle and its Saale river: Halle an der Saale, Merseburg
- Bad Salzungen, Bad Sooden-Allendorf: Eisenach
- Bad Reichenhall and surroundings: Salzburg, Hallein, Berchtesgaden, Laufen (no change here)
- Bad Gandersheim: Gronau
- Greifswald
- Schwäbisch Hall
- The famous salt road(Hellweg): Soest, Hamm, Lippstadt
Honorable mention: Budweis was famous for its salt stores, but it didn’t produce salt itself, rather it was an important market on the salt road from the Alps to Bohemia which didn’t produce its own salt
Spices:
Saffron was grown all over Austria from the 12th century (
German source) and it was allegedly known as the highest quality saffron in Europe. Most of the production happened in Lower Austria and the center of the saffron trade was Krems.
It was also grown in Germany but I didn’t find any source regarding important centers of production.
Location:
Krems
Gems:
The two towns Idar and Oberstein (now fused) had rich agate mines and became big producers of jewelry, a lot of goldsmiths settled here. Location:
St. Wendel (no change)
Pearls:
While we don’t think of Germany as a pearl producing country today, pearl harvesting in rivers was actually something that was done during the time period. The relevant species of mussel
(Margaritifera margaritifera) is very sensitive to pollution and is almost extinct in European rivers nowadays, but they were thriving before industrialization. Their pearls were smaller than the ones from the Persian Gulf, but still highly prized and you can see them in many portraits of bishops or nobles.
Bavaria was the prominent producer and at times restricted pearl ‘hunting’ as a monopoly for nobles.
Adorf in the Vogtland was another center for pearl production, supported by Venetian settlers, and has a pearl museum today.
Suggested locations for pearls:
Neuburg an der Donau, Plauen
Amber:
While nothing beats the output of the East Prussian Sambia Peninsula when it comes to amber, it can also be found on the German Baltic coast. Suggested locations:
Wolgast, Stralsund (no change)
Marble:
- Auerbach(Bensheim): One of the few actual marble deposits in Germany, it was relevant throughout the period. Bensheim
- Limburg/Lahn, Diez: The so-called Lahn marble was used in the St. Petersburg Hermitage, the entrance of the Empire State Building, the Kreml and several cathedrals built in the time period. It’s not technically marble but a very unique and prized type of stone. Locations: Diez, Usingen
Alum:
As usual, alum here was only prospected for in the 16th century. I’m just going to list the locations in Germany that did end up producing alum:
- Feengrotten: Alum mining started between 1530 and 1544 Location: Sonneberg
- Lignite layers west of Cologne were mined to make dye (van Dyke brown) and alum, starting in the 16th century. Location: Bergheim (wheat if not alum)
- Plauen: An alum mine opened in 1542, I already mentioned it as a pearls location though, so I’ll put Alum in the neighboring Zwickau location
Saltpeter:
There are no natural saltpeter deposits in Germany that I could find.
In Germany, as in many places around the world, saltpeter was mostly produced from manure and feces, so this was done decentralized, all over the place and there weren’t specific locations that would produce and export it. It was also collected in dark places like basements or mines. In some cities, saltpeter collectors were hated because they would come into your basement and destroy things while collecting saltpeter that built up there - this practice was sanctioned because it was an important resource.
One relevant quote I found is that Nuremberg was renowned for its high quality blackpowder andit’s documented how they made saltpeter in big copper cauldrons.
If that counts, then: saltpeter for Nuremberg?, but it’s not really a natural deposit.
Clay:
- Großalmerode near Kassel: Long history of ceramics and clay production, it has big high quality clay deposits. Locations: Kassel, Eschwege
- Siegburg was a producer of earthenware that was widely exported. ‘Siegburger Steinzeug’ is still important today to date archaeological finds from all over Europe to the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period.
- Saxony was a center for ceramics production, especially cities like Bautzen and Dippoldiswalde. Locations: Bautzen, Dresden, Meißen
- Schleswig-Holstein was famous for its brick production using local clay. Locations: Slesvig, Eckernforde, Rendsburg
- The Fläming region has large clay, sand and stone deposits left by glaciers. Location: Zerbst, Burg
- Lüneburg was famous for two natural resources it sits on: salt and clay. Obviously salt is the more important one, but clay can be given to a neighboring location: Dannenberg
- The Nuremberg forest produced clay used for molds used by Nuremberg metalworkers. Nearby location: Neumarkt
Stone & Sand:
- The Nuremberg forest was famous for its sandstone and sand production. It supplied most of the stone used for construction in Nuremberg, as well as sand for hourglasses that Nuremberg was a famous producer of.
- The Vogelsberg is the biggest contiguous basalt massif in Europe. There were (and still are) many quarries that produce stone here.
- The Schurwald near Stuttgart produced stone and quartz sand for the city.
- The hills of the Frankenalb also produced stones and exported them through the Main.
- The Bayrischer Wald was rich in quartz sand and wood which allowed it to become a glass producing area.
- The Solling hills have fine quartz sand that was mined for glass production.
- There are certain sandstone regions in Germany that are used for classifying types: Elbe (around Dresden and Northern Bohemia), Ibbenbüren, Ruhr(Dortmund, Mülheim), Obernkirchen, Bentheim, Posta, Baumberge near Münster, Lindlar, Weserbergland and Bremen, Seeberg near Gotha.
- The Fläming region has large clay, sand and stone deposits left by glaciers.
- Stone Locations: Bentheim, Steinfurt, Coesfeld, Gummersbach, Erlangen, Fulda, Lauterbach, Parsberg, Bamberg, Diepholz, Wittenberg, Schweinitz, Jüterbog, Göppingen
- Sand Locations: Nürnberg, Recklinghausen, Welzheim, Holzminden, Einbeck, Belzig, Greifenberg, Grimmen, Grevesmühlen, Lingen
Medicaments:
Americans like to call mineral water ‘Seltzer’, which comes from the German town of Selters. It got its name from the Roman name for its mineral water, aqua saltare (dancing water). The scholar Tabernaemontanus ascribed miraculous healing capabilities to the water in 1584, after which it became famous. In the late 17th century, bottling plants were built to export the water.
Another famous spring is located at Bad Adelholzen, which was a popular spa town and people started bottling water in the 17th century as well.
(Both Selters and Adelholzener are of course still well-known brands today)
While the actual export of water only happened later in the time period, I believe that these famous springs with healing water are interesting locations for the medicaments good.
Locations:
Wiesbaden, Traunstein
In addition, I suggest adding medicaments to a few abbeys, which would have grown many different herbs in their gardens and preserved medical knowledge.
- Prüm
- Ellwangen: Aalen
- Kempten
Wild Game:
Thanks to my research on the history of forests, I know which forests were used as hunting grounds during the period!
- Schorfheide: Freienwalde, Herzfelde, Templin
- Rüthnicker Heide: Ruppin
- Gelbensande: Ribnitz
- Fichtelgebirge: Vohenstrauß
- Spessart: Lohr am Main
- Untermainebene: Offenbach
- Ebersberger Forst: Ebersberg
- Montabaur: Montabaur
Fur:
Not sure if there should even be any. Obviously furs were produced and traded, but not as famously as the furs imported from afar. I’m suggesting a few fur locations in undeveloped, forested locations:
Angermünde, Königsberg in der Neumarkt
Dyes:
There were three main native dyes used in Europe: dyer’s woad (blue), dyer’s weld (yellow) and madder (red). Madder is also the source of the famous Turkey red used to color a fez.
While these are plants that can technically be grown anywhere, there were actually regions that specialized in it, like Languedoc.
In Germany, there was
Jülich(Düren), and most famously the Thuringian woad towns Erfurt, Gotha, Tennstedt, Arnstadt, Langensalza:
Erfurt, Langensalza, Arnstadt
Fiber Crops:
I’d like to mention
this German source about textile trade in and around the Hansa which was very informative!
Fiber crops were mostly flax. Very important in Northern Germany which produced a lot of linen and some canvas. Raw materials were imported from the Baltic, but there was also plenty of local flax production.
Important linen producers that are mentioned: Westphalia(Herford, Bielefeld, Münsterland), Göttingen, Osnabrück, Tecklenburg, and Altmark (Saxon) production, especially in Salzwedel.
In order to support them with local production of flax, I propose the following locations:
Tecklenburg, Münster, Lüdinghausen, Beckum, Warendorf, Arnsberg, Lübbecke, Bielefeld, Göttingen, Hannover, Salzwedel, Rostock, Stendal.
Also Osnabrück if no coal at the start there
Southern Germany focused on fustian production, which they essentially had a monopoly on during the Late Middle Ages. Fustian was mostly made from imported cotton, but unlike Asians, Europeans weren’t able to make suitable cotton warp yarns until the textile revolution in the 18th century, so they used flax yarns. Some flax can be placed here:
Augsburg, Ulm
Wine:
Germany has several wine regions which produced wine throughout the time period. There is a lot of overlap with fruit, as regions that produced wine usually also produced a lot of fruit, so to avoid entire unbroken chains of just wine producing locations, I’ll also suggest some of them for fruit production instead.
- Mosel and Middle Rhine: Wine is produced along the Mosel and the nearby Middle Rhine slopes. The electorate of Trier was very agricultural throughout the period and wine was pretty much the only valuable product they had. Locations: Mayen, Cochem, Wittlich, Bernkastel, Trier
- Upper Rhine Valley: Wine is produced there on both sides of the Rhine, it’s the warmest region in Germany. Locations: Freiburg, Offenburg, Müllheim
- Palatinate, Rheinhessen and Rheingau: A long strip of wine production all the way from the Southern Palatinate to the slopes on the right side of the Rhine. Locations: Rüdesheim, Mainz, Worms, Speyer
- Rems and Neckar: Plenty of wine and fruit production in this fertile region. Locations: Heidelberg, Mosbach, Heilbronn, Urach, Buchen
- Franconia: Another traditional wine region along the Main near Würzburg. Locations: Würzburg, Schweinfurt
There are other small wine producing regions today, like near Lake Constance or in Saxony, but I’m not sure if they were important in the period and there are already a lot of locations I listed.
Fruit:
The Northern Frankenalb is the biggest producer of cherries in Germany today and they have a long history of producing cherries, going back to Medieval monks that planted the trees. Locations:
Pegnitz, Ebermannstadt
The Altes Land south of the Elbe is today the biggest fruit producing region in Europe. Fruit production was first documented in Stade in 1312. Locations:
Stade, Harburg
Here are the wine region locations that I’m suggesting fruit for:
Mayen(actually Koblenz),
Karlstadt, Tauberbischofsheim, Bruchsal, Stuttgart, Germersheim
Legumes:
What I found is that legumes were traditionally grown in marshy areas, so I’m focusing on these. I’m also using
a German Empire map from 1900 that has some vegetable producing areas marked. Not a great source, but at least it was from before modern agriculture with crazy artificial fertilizers, so it’ll be closer to the time period than anything modern.
Suggested locations for legumes:
Neuss, Moers, Emden, Aurich, Winsen, Hildesheim, Blankenburg, Leipzig, Berlin, Potsdam, Brandenburg
Horses:
I found a few sources for horse breeding regions, and it also makes sense to place horses near population centers:
Düsseldorf, Pirmasens, Detmold, Hameln, Halberstadt, Aschersleben, Sangerhausen, Steinburg, Segeberg, München
Wheat & Sturdy Grains:
The predominant grain type in Germany was sturdy grains (mostly rye), but warmer and more fertile regions are able to grow wheat. I also placed some wheat in beer producing regions.
Concentrated wheat producing regions are:
- Kraichgau/Neckar: Vaihingen, Böblingen, Backnang, Horb, Durlach, Baden, Sinsheim, Öhringen
- Wetterau: Frankfurt, Gießen, Büdingen, Schotten
- Other wheat locations: Köln, Buren, Erbach, Miltenberg, Pfarrkirchen, Landau, Eggenfelden, Fürth, Forchheim, Weimar, Grimma, Hamburg, Stettin, Bremen, Hoya, Donauwörth
Sturdy Grain produced in all other agricultural areas:
- Kölner Bucht/Jülicher Börde: Mönchengladbach, Roermond, Geldern, Bonn, Heinsberg
- Osnabrücker Land: Paderborn, Bersenbrück, Vechta
- Dungau: Vilsbiburg, Landshut, Mallersdorf, Straubing, Regensburg, Rottenburg an der Laaber, Freising, Erding, Mühldorf
- Erfurter Becken: Apolda, Naumburg, Sondershausen, Weißenfels
- Magdeburger Börde: Bernburg, Calbe, Magdeburg
- Leipziger Becken: Altenburg, Glauchau, Chemnitz, Rochlitz, Döbeln, Delitzsch, Bitterfeld, Torgau
- Pomerania: Greifenhagen, Pyritz, Saatzig, Regenwalde, Schievelbein
- Other sturdy grain producing locations: Husum, Oldenburg, Dinkelsbühl, Ansbach, Rothenburg, Uffenheim, Neustadt an der Aisch, Schwabach, Fritzlar, Ziegenhain, Alsfeld, Marburg, Frankenberg, Bydenkapf, Wetzlar, Hoyerswerda, Liebenwerda, Mergentheim, Crailsheim, Pfaffenhofen, Friedberg, Indersdorf
Lumber:
There shouldn’t be too much wood in Germany (they imported), especially in the North, but of course there was local production that fueled industries.
- Frankenwald - trees from here were exported through the Main and Rhine all the way to the Netherlands. Locations: Kulmbach, Lichtenfels, Kronach, Coburg, Schleiz, Wunsiedel
- Thüringer Holzland - produced a lot of lumber since its soils aren’t fertile: Eisenberg, Gera
- Wood production in other forests, especially near metal producing areas: Bitburg, Ahrweiler, Dillenburg, Berleburg, Meschede, Kaiserslautern, Zweibrücken, Hanau, Hünfeld, Dermbach, Meiningen, Oberkirch, Friberg, Balingen, Münsingen, Cham, Roding, Burglengenfeld, Tölz, Miesbach, Teltow, Beeskow, Lübben, Lebus, Guben, Zwickau, Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Heidenheim, Dillingen, Hersfeld, Rotenburg, Regen, Grafenau, Passau, Coblenz(which shouldn’t be named after Koblenz)
Wool & Livestock:
Wool would have been naturally produced in regions that had a lot of livestock, especially in areas where forests had been cleared but the soils weren’t good enough for crops. Examples that I found sources for include parts of Thuringia, the Frankenalb as well as Southern Württemberg. The town of Mölln near Lübeck was a center of wool cloth production.
Both the very south and the north of Germany are mostly focused on livestock, as the soil there isn’t that good for crops - one of the main reasons these regions have historically not been densely populated.
- Suggested locations for wool: Meppen, Lübeck, Stormarn, Ratzeburg, Lauenburg, Waldshut, Villingen, Konstanz, Tuttlingen, Hof, Beilngries, Weißenburg, Ilmenau, Hildburghausen, Prenzlau, Neubrandenburg, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen
- Suggested locations for livestock: Kleve, Rees, Borken, Ahaus, Cloppenburg, Westerstede, Oberndorf, Günzburg, Biberach, Waldsee, Riedlingen, Überlingen, Ravensburg, Wangen, Kempten, Oberdorf, Schongau, Weilheim, Garmisch, Andechs, Landsberg, Kaufbeuren, Memmingen, Rosenheim, Wasserburg, Höxter, Warburg, Hofgeismar, Duderstadt, Osterholz, Zeven, Soltau, Celle, Gifhorn, Helmstedt, Haldensleben, Wolmirstedt, Wolfenbüttel, Burgdorf, Neustadt am Rübenberge, Bückeburg, Minden, Nienburg, Verden, Fallingbostel, Hagenow, Schwerin, Wismar, Gustrow, Parchim, Grabow, Havelberg, Osterburg, Wittstock, Genthin, Strelitz, Waren, Malchin, Demmin, Anclem, Luckau, Calau, Cottbus, Spremberg, Hassfurt, Königshofen, Mellrichstadt, Brückenau
Fish:
Well, this one is pretty simple. Fish was super important for the coastal provinces. Of course, fish from rivers and lakes was also important but not sure it would make sense to represent that, other than
Tirschenreuth.
Basically, any North Sea and Baltic Sea location that doesn’t have a reason to have another good should have fish, so:
Leer, Jever, Elsfleth, Ritzebüttel, Neuhaus, Heide, Eutin, Doberan, Rügen, Kammin, Ueckermünde
And that's it! I can't claim that it's an exhaustive list (I don't think that's possible), but it's everything I found in my research so far. Some of the livestock areas are maybe a bit too extensive, but these are less populated regions that really don't have much else going on
Germany has the highest density of locations in the world, as we wanted to portray the historical fragmentation of the HRE at the most detailed level of any Paradox GSG. There are a couple of things that we are aware of and we want to rework: the location connections (as in some places they are not obvious at all, and we want to make warfare in the HRE not impossible); and the transition between the German locations and those at their east, making it smoother (something that we will be doing in the review of Poland, Hungary and this region [e.g. for Bohemia]). A final comment: if you click on the spoiler button, you may be able to see 4 more detailed maps of the region.
), as they reflect more modern areas so we will be looking into an alternative setup for them with your feedback. They also currently use their German names, which will change to English ones to be in line with other areas, as usual.
The population of the HRE is… Fragmented. In that regard, Bohemia starts in a very strong position, with a strong competitor to its south (Austria) and north (Brandenburg). 
