322 GERMANY. 



park of Woiiifz (1,842 inhabitants), with magnificent oaks. Dessau was the birth- 

 place of Mendelssohn. The town has played a part in the history of German 

 education, for it was there Basedow founded his P/u'lanfhropiiiin in 1774, one of the 

 first institutions which broke with the old routine. 



The Elbe, soon after it has entered upon Prussian soil, washes the walls of the 

 fortress of Torgau (10,707 inhabitants). The country through which it flows is 

 comparatively sterile, and towns are far fewer than in the valley of the Saale. 

 Wittenberg (12,427 inhabitants), nevertheless, enjoys a considerable importance as 

 a stage on the road which connects Berlin with Leipzig. Founded probably by 

 Flemish colonists, Wittenberg subsequently became the residence of the Electors 

 of Saxony, but acquired most fame through its university, which was transferred 

 in 1817 to Halle. At Wittenberg Luther affixed his famous theses to the door of 

 a church, and monuments have been raised to him and his fellow-labourer 

 Melanchthon. 



Having been reinforced by the Mulde, the Elbe flows past Aken (5,092 inhabit- 

 ants). Bartjij (5,073 inhabitants) is situate below the confluence with the Saale, 

 whilst Zerhst (5,073 inhabitants), a town of Anhalt, famous for its breweries, lies to 

 the east, at some distance from the Elbe. Schonebeck (10,966 inhabitants), below 

 Barby, on the western bank of the Elbe, has salt works, baths, and chemical factories. 

 A little lower down we find ourselves in the manufacturing district of Magdeburg. 



Magdeburg (122,786 inhabitants) occupies a favourable position below the 

 principal tributaries of the Elbe, and on the direct road which connects Cologne 

 with Berlin and Danzig. But the very advantages of its position, which make 

 Magdeburg a place of strategical importance, resulted in one of the most fearful 

 disasters which can befall a town ; for, when Tilly captured it in 1631, it was burnt 

 to the ground, and 30,000 of its inhabitants perished in the flames. There only 

 remained intact thirty-seven houses, the cathedral, and another church. The 

 cathedral is a fine Gothic edifice, and contains the tomb of the Emperor Otho I. 

 Magdeburg is at present the great central fortress of Germany, with numerous 

 detached forts. Its suburbs are built at some distance outside the ramparts, and 

 include an Old Newtown (Alte Neustadt) and a New Newtown (Neue Neustadt). 

 The town is a great mart for corn, beet-roots, and other agricultural produce yielded 

 by its fertile " Borde." There are sugar refineries, machine shops, foundries, and 

 cotton-mills. Otto Guericke, the inventor of the pneumatic pump, was a native 

 of Magdeburg. 



Burg (15,238 inhabitants), on the Ilile, famous for its cloth, the manufacture 

 of which was introduced by French Huguenots, is the princijDal town in the north 

 of Saxony. Neuhaldensleben (5,847 inhabitants), Gardelegen (6,389 inhabitants), 

 and Salzwedel (8,344 inhabitants), all of them on small tributaries of the Elbe, are 

 manufacturing places of less note. Stendal (12,851 inhabitants, who are for the 

 most part of Slav origin) is an old imperial residence, and several of its civil and 

 religious edifices, its " Roland," and its fortified gates date back to this epoch of its 

 glory. It is the native place of Winckelmann, and the capital of the Old March 

 (Altmark), wiiicli lies to the west of the Elbe. 



