LAUBAN  , a

town of Germany in the Prussian province of Silesia, is situated in a picturesque valley, at the junction of the lines of railway from Gorlitz and Soren, 16 m . E. of the former . Pop . (1905) 14,624 . Lauban has a Roman Catholic and two Evangelical churches, a town hall, dating from 1541, a conventual house of the order of St Magdalene, dating from the 14th century, a municipal library and museum, two hospitals, an orphanage and several schools . Its industrial establishments comprise tobacco, yarn, thread, linen and woollen cloth manufactories, bleaching and dyeing works, breweries and oil and flour mills . Lauban was founded in the loth and fortified in the 13th century; in 1427 and 1431 it was devastated by the Hussites, and in 164o by the Swedes . In 1761 it was the headquarters of Frederick the Great, and in 1815 it was the last Saxon town that made its submission to Prussia . See Berkel, Geschichte der Stadt Lauban (Lauban, 1896) .