Cottbus - the town

In 2006 the „green“ town Cottbus at the river Spree celebrated its 850th anniversary. The historical City centre with gothic churches and numerous baroque town houses is surrounded by spaciously green corridors. The Branitzer Park in the east of the town is considered as the last built wide-stretched German landscape park, which fascinates the visitor.

In 1818, Englishman William Cockerill installed the first steam-engine in the old town of draper and linen weavers. Shortly thereafter, Cottbus became Prussia's and the German Reich's centre of textile industry. Besides textiles, coal and power industries gained importance in the 20th century. After World War II Cottbus and the Niederlausitz region evolved into the energy centre of the GDR.

Even today you can find signs of both cultures which shaped the townscape of Cottbus in the past, the manifold industrial history and the influence of the sorbs, which are nowadays a minority only.