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/Chóśebuz
Cottbus/Chóśebuz Show map of Germany Cottbus/Chóśebuz Show map of Brandenburg
Coordinates: 51°45′38″N 14°20′03″E / 51.76056°N 14.33417°E / 51.76056; 14.33417Coordinates: 51°45′38″N 14°20′03″E / 51.76056°N 14.33417°E / 51.76056; 14.33417
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Urban district
Government
• Lord mayor (2014–22)	Holger Kelch[1] (CDU)
Area
• Total	164.28 km2 (63.43 sq mi)
Elevation	70 m (230 ft)
Population  (2020-12-31)[2]
• Total	98,693
• Density	600/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	03042-03055
Dialling codes	0355
Vehicle registration	CB
Website	www.cottbus.de

Cottbus (German pronunciation: [ˈkɔtbʊs] (listen); Lower Sorbian: Chóśebuz, pronounced [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.

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 [de] (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:

• Czech: Chotěbuz
• German: Cottbus
• Latin: Cotbusium
• Polish: Chociebuż
• Lower Sorbian: Chóśebuz
• Upper Sorbian: Choćebuz
• Yiddish: קוטבוס, romanized: Kotbus

History

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 (Czechia) and Saxony. In 1445 Cottbus was acquired by the Margraviate of Brandenburg from Bohemia. In 1514 Jan Rak founded the Universitas Serborum, a Sorbian gymnasium, in the city. In 1701 the city became part of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was also ruled by Saxony between 1807 and 1813. In 1815 the surrounding district of Lower Lusatia was ceded by the Kingdom of Saxony to Prussia, and in 1871 it 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).

Demography

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

Cottbus is served by Cottbus Hauptbahnhof main railway station.

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 [de] 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