COTTBUS  , a

town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, on the Spree, 72 M . S.E. of Berlin by the main railway to Gorlitz, and at the intersection of the lines Halle-Sagan and Grossenhain-Frankfort-on-Oder . Pop . (1905) 46,269 . It has four Protestant churches, a Roman Catholic church and a synagogue . The chief industry of the town is the manufacture of cloth, which has flourished here for centuries and now employs more than 6000 hands . Wool-spinning, cotton-spinning and the manufacture of tobacco, machinery, beer, brandy, &c., are also carried on . The town is also a considerable trading centre, and is the seat of a chamber of commerce and of a branch of the Imperial Bank (Reichsbank) . In the Stadtwald, close to the town, is a women's hospital for diseases of the lungs, a government institution in connexion with the state system of insurance against incapacity and old age . At Branitz, a neighbouring village, are the magnificent chateau and park of Prince Piickler-Muskau . At one time Cottbus formed an independent lordship of the Empire, but in 1462 it passed by the treaty of Guben to Brandenburg . From 1807 to 1813 it belonged to the kingdom of Saxony .