ITZEHOE  , a

town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, on the StSr, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 32 M. north-west of Hamburg and 15 M. north of Gliickstadt . Pop . (1900) 15,649 . The church of St Lawrence, dating from the 12th century, and the building in which the Holstein estates formerly met, are noteworthy . The town has a convent founded in 1256, a high school, a hospital and other benevolent institutions . Itzehoe is a busy commercial place . Its sugar refineries are among the largest in Germany . Ironfounding, shipbuilding and wool-spinning are also carried on, and the manufactures include machinery, tobacco, fishing-nets, chicory, soap, cement and beer . Fishing employs some of the inhabitants, and the markets for cattle and horses are important . A considerable trade is carried on in agricultural products and wood, chiefly with Hamburg and Altona . Itzehoe is the oldest town in Holstein . Its nucleus was a castle, built in 809 by Egbert, one of Charlemagne's counts, against the Danes .

The community which sprang up around it was diversely called Esseveldoburg, Eselsfleth and Ezeho . In 1201 the town was destroyed, but it was restored in 1224 . To the new town the

Lubeck rights were granted by Adolphus IV. in 1238, and to the old town in 1303 . During the Thirty Years' War Itzehoe was twice destroyed by the Swedes, in 1644 and 1657, but was rebuilt on each occasion . It passed to Prussia in 1867,with the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein .