SIEGEN  , a

town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, situated 63 m . E. of Cologne by rail, on the Sieg, a tributary entering the Rhine opposite Bonn . Pop . (19os) 25,201 . The town contains two palaces of the former princes of Nassau-Siegen, a technical and a mining school . The surrounding district, to which it gives its name, abounds in iron-mines, and iron founding and smelting are the most important branches of industry in and near the town . Large tanneries and leather works, and factories for cloth, paper and machinery, are among the other industrial establishments . Siegen was the capital of an early principality belonging to the house of Nassau; and from 16o6 onwards it gave name to the junior branch of Nassau-Siegen . Napoleon incorporated Siegen in the grand-duchy of Berg in 1806; and in 1815 the congress of Vienna assigned it to Prussia, under whose rule it has nearly quintupled its population . Rubens is said to have been born here in 1J77 . See Cuno, Geschichte der Stadt Siegen (Dillenburg, 1873) .