Dessau

Dessau, city (1994 pop. 93,290), Saxony-Anhalt, E Germany, at the confluence of the Elbe and Mulde rivers. It is an industrial city, river port, and rail and road transport center. Before World War II it was the site of a large aircraft factory. Present industries include a shipyard, armaments, and vehicle, machinery, and chemical works. Dessau was first known as a German settlement in 1213. In 1603 it became the residence of the line of Anhalt-Dessau. From 1925 to 1932 it was the seat of the Bauhaus art school, headed by Walter Gropius and widely regarded as the most significant art school in the 20th cent.; the school was converted into a museum in 1977. The city was severely damaged in World War II. The Marienkirche in Dessau, a 16th-century church, has an altarpiece by Lucas Cranach, the younger. The philosopher Moses Mendelssohn was born (1729) in Dessau.

---

Dessau

an industrial city in E Germany, in Saxony-Anhalt: capital of Anhalt state from 1340 to 1918. Pop.: 78 380 (2003 est.)

---

Dessau 

a city in the Halle District of the German Democratic Republic on the Mulde River near its junction with the Elbe. Population, 97,800 (1970). A railroad junction, it has an inland harbor at Wallwitzhafen on the Elbe. The machine-building industry comprises the production of cement and mining equipment, refrigerator cars, and river ships. Other industries include the electrical technology, instrument-making, chemical, woodworking, and food (including sugar) industries. The Vockerode Thermoelectric Power Plant is located near the city.

Dessau was laid out and built up in the classical style of the 18th and early 19th century. The ducal castle (1530-88) was rebuilt in the 18th century by the architects G. W. Knobelsdorff and F. W. Erdmannsdorff. The latter also constructed the palaces of Luisium (1774) and Georgium (1780), a greenhouse (1793), theaters, and dwellings. In the 1920’s, W. Gropius built the Bauhaus complex in Dessau (1925-26). and the Tórten residential district (1926-28). Destroyed in 1944-45, Dessau has been entirely rebuilt. Museums include the State Gallery (painting and graphic arts) and the Mosigkau Palace (18th-century culture).

REFERENCE

[Usemann, W.] Dessau. Dresden, 1961.