Cottbus

Cottbus (German pronunciation: [ˈkɔtbʊs] (listen)) or Chóśebuz (Lower Sorbian pronunciation: [ˈxɨɕɛbus]) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around 125 km (78 mi) southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with extensive sidings/depots. Although only a small Sorbian minority lives in Cottbus itself, the city is considered as the political and cultural center of the Sorbs in Lower Lusatia.

Cottbus
Chóśebuz
Town
From top: View of Cottbus at sunset,
The Art-Nouveau façade of the State Theater (1905), The 14th cent. Spremberger Tower,
View on the Karl-Liebknecht Str, The library of the Brandenburg University of Technology
Flag
Coat of arms
Location of Cottbus
Cottbus
Cottbus
Coordinates: 51°45′38″N 14°20′03″E
CountryGermany
StateBrandenburg
DistrictUrban district
Government
 • Lord mayor (2014–22) Holger Kelch[1] (CDU)
Area
 • Total164.28 km2 (63.43 sq mi)
Elevation
70 m (230 ft)
Population
 (2021-12-31)[2]
 • Total98,359
 • Density600/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
03042-03055
Dialling codes0355
Vehicle registrationCB
Websitewww.cottbus.de

Spelling

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the spelling of the city's name was disputed. In Berlin, the spelling "Kottbus" was preferred, and it is still used for the capital's Kottbusser Tor ("Cottbus Gate"), but locally the traditional spelling "Cottbus" (which defies standard German-language rules) was preferred, and it is now used in most circumstances. Because the official spelling used locally before the spelling reforms of 1996 had contravened even the standardized spelling rules already in place, the Standing Committee for Geographical Names (German: Ständiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen) stress their urgent recommendation that geographical names should respect the national spelling standards. A citizen of the city may be identified as either a "Cottbuser" or a "Cottbusser".

Names in different languages:

History
Historical affiliations

March of Lusatia 965–1002
Duchy of Poland 1002–1025
Kingdom of Poland 1025–1031
Duchy of Poland 1032
March of Lusatia 1032–1367
Bohemian Crown 1367–1445
Margraviate of Brandenburg 1445–1618
Brandenburg-Prussia 1618–1701
 Kingdom of Prussia 1701–1807
Kingdom of Saxony 1807–1815
 Kingdom of Prussia 1815–1871
 German Empire 1871–1918
 Weimar Republic 1918–1933
 Nazi Germany 1933–1945
 Allied-occupied Germany 1945–1949
 German Democratic Republic 1949–1990
 Federal Republic of Germany 1990–present

The settlement was established in the tenth century, when Sorbs erected a castle on a sandy island in the River Spree. The first recorded mention of the town's name was in 1156. In the 13th century German settlers came to the town and thereafter lived side by side with the Sorbs.

In the Middle Ages Cottbus was known for wool, and the town's drapery was exported throughout Brandenburg, Bohemia and Saxony. It was part of the Margraviate of Lusatia and later Lower Lusatia, which was held by the House of Wettin until it became a Bohemian Crown Land in 1367.

In 1445 Cottbus was acquired by the Margraviate of Brandenburg from Bohemia. It was an exclave almost completely surrounded by Bohemian Lower Lusatia (with a short border with the Electorate of Saxony to the south-west). In 1514 Jan Rak founded the Universitas Serborum, a Sorbian gymnasium, in the city. In 1635 Lower Lusatia was ceded by Bohemia to Saxony, thereby making Cottbus an enclave of Saxony. In 1701 Brandenburg-Prussia became the Kingdom of Prussia.

In 1807, following the War of the Fourth Coalition, Cottbus was ceded by Prussia to the Kingdom of Saxony by the Treaty of Tilsit, reuniting it with Lower Lusatia. Cottbus was returned to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic wars. Lower Lusatia was also ceded to Prussia and both became part of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg (and Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt), where they remained until 1947.

In 1871 Prussia, and therefore Cottbus, became part of the German Empire. According to the Prussian census of 1905, the city of Cottbus had a population of 46,270, of which 97% were Germans, 2% were Sorbs and 1% were Poles.[3]

In interwar Germany, the town was the site of a concentration camp for unwanted Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.[4]

During World War II, a Nazi prison for women was operated in the city with multiple forced labour subcamps located both in the city and other places in the region.[5] In the final weeks of the war, Cottbus was taken by the Red Army on 22 April 1945. In January 1946, Cottbus issued 34 semi-postal postage stamps to help finance rebuilding the city. From 1949 until German reunification in 1990, Cottbus was part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). From 1952 to 1990, Cottbus was the administrative seat of Bezirk Cottbus.

Demography
  • Development of population since 1875 within the current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population development in Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of Nazi Germany; Red Background: Time of communist East Germany)
  • Recent Population Development and Projections (Population Development before Census 2011 (blue line); Recent Population Development according to the Census in Germany in 2011 (blue bordered line); Official projections for 2005-2030 (yellow line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line); for 2020-2030 (green line)
Cottbus: Population development
within the current boundaries (2020)[6]
YearPop.±% p.a.
1875 35,201—    
1890 46,671+1.90%
1910 65,438+1.70%
1925 68,228+0.28%
1933 72,286+0.72%
1939 75,969+0.83%
1946 73,010−0.57%
1950 73,695+0.23%
1964 84,952+1.02%
1971 94,606+1.55%
1981 125,326+2.85%
1985 133,232+1.54%
1989 137,366+0.77%
1990 134,781−1.88%
1991 131,625−2.34%
YearPop.±% p.a.
1992 131,343−0.21%
1993 130,756−0.45%
1994 128,601−1.65%
1995 126,343−1.76%
1996 124,389−1.55%
1997 122,579−1.46%
1998 119,629−2.41%
1999 115,970−3.06%
2000 113,618−2.03%
2001 111,125−2.19%
2002 109,144−1.78%
2003 107,549−1.46%
2004 106,415−1.05%
2005 105,309−1.04%
2006 103,837−1.40%
YearPop.±% p.a.
2007 102,811−0.99%
2008 101,785−1.00%
2009 101,671−0.11%
2010 102,091+0.41%
2011 99,974−2.07%
2012 99,913−0.06%
2013 99,595−0.32%
2014 99,491−0.10%
2015 99,687+0.20%
2016 100,416+0.73%
2017 101,036+0.62%
2018 100,219−0.81%
2019 99,678−0.54%
2020 98,693−0.99%
2021 98,347−0.35%

Culture and education
The Lower Sorbian Gymnasium Cottbus
The Brandenburg University of Technology Library

Cottbus is the cultural centre of the Lower Sorbian minority. Many signs in the town are bilingual, and there is a Lower Sorbian-medium Gymnasium and a Sorbian Quarter, but Sorbian is rarely spoken on the streets.

Next to Cottbus is the famous Branitz Park, created by Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau after 1845. Schloss Branitz (Branitz Castle) was rebuilt by Gottfried Semper in a late Baroque style between 1846 and 1852, and the gardens Prince Hermann laid feature two pyramids. One of these, the Seepyramide, is in the middle of an artificial lake and serves as his mausoleum.[7]

Cottbus is also home to the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) and the maths/science-oriented Max-Steenbeck-Gymnasium, named after the physicist Max Steenbeck.

Every year Cottbus hosts the East Europe International Film Festival.

Cottbus has a soccer team, Energie Cottbus, that plays in the Regionalliga Nordost as of the 2021–2022 season. Their home matches are played at the city's Stadion der Freundschaft.

Economy

Transportation
Part of Cottbus main station

Cottbus is served by Cottbus Hauptbahnhof main railway station.

Two airports serve the city: Cottbus-Drewitz Airport (approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) north-east of Cottbus), and Cottbus-Neuhausen Airport (approximately 10 km (6.2 miles) south-east of Cottbus).

Local public transport is served by trams and buses operated by Cottbusverkehr GmbH and DB Regio Bus Ost GmbH, both of which are members of the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB).

Power generation

There are several lignite-fired power stations in the area around Cottbus (Lausitz) fed through local open pit mining. The biggest stations are "Schwarze Pumpe" (1600 MW), "Boxberg" (1900 MW) and "Jänschwalde" (3000 MW). Some of the open-pit mines have already been shut down with the former Cottbus-Nord opencast mine being converted into an artificial lake with 19 km2 (7.3 sq mi) surface area called Cottbuser Ostsee (Cottbus eastern lake).

Twin towns – sister cities

Cottbus is twinned with:[8]

Notable people
Carl Blechen - Self-Portrait
  • Janice Behrendt (born 1983), beauty queen and model
  • Carl Blechen (1798–1840), landscape painter
  • Kurt Demmler (1943–2009), songwriter; accused of sexual abuse, he hanged himself in his jail cell.
  • Rudi Fink (born 1958), amateur boxer and boxing coach
  • Gustav Theodor Fritsch (1838–1927), anatomist, anthropologist and physiologist
  • Marco Geisler (born 1974), rower
  • Robert Harting (born 1984), discus thrower
  • Otto Hugo Paul Grottkau (1846–1898), socialist and trade unionist and American journalist
  • Tony Martin (born 1985), cyclist
  • Jens Melzig (born 1965), footballer
  • Daniel Musiol (born 1983), cyclist
  • Reinhold Platz (1886–1966), aircraft designer and manufacturer at Fokker
  • Gabriele Reinsch (born 1963), world record holder discus throwing
  • Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff (1944–2013), art historian and professor
  • Heiko Schwarz (born 1989), footballer

See also
  • Cottbus Air Base
  • Klinge

References
  1. Ergebnis der Oberbürgermeisterwahl in Cottbus, accessed 30 June 2021.
  2. "Bevölkerungsentwicklung und Flächen der kreisfreien Städte, Landkreise und Gemeinden im Land Brandenburg 2021" (PDF). Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg (in German). June 2022.
  3. Belzyt, Leszek (1998). Sprachliche Minderheiten im preussischen Staat: 1815 - 1914 ; die preußische Sprachenstatistik in Bearbeitung und Kommentar. Marburg: Herder-Inst. ISBN 978-3-87969-267-5.
  4. Stone, Dan (2017). Concentration Camps: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-19-103502-9.
  5. "Frauenzuchthaus Cottbus". Bundesarchiv.de (in German). Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  6. Detailed data sources are to be found in the Wikimedia Commons.Population Projection Brandenburg at Wikimedia Commons
  7. Udo Lauer, Fürst Pücklers Traumpark, Ullstein Verlag, 1996, Berlin
  8. "Städtepartnerschaften". cottbus.de (in German). Cottbus. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
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