WETZLAR  , a

town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, pleasantly situated at the confluence of the Dill and Lahn, 64 m . N.E. of Coblenz by the railway to Giessen . Pop . (1905) 12,276 . The most conspicuous building is the cathedral, dating in part from the 11th, in part from the 14th-16th centuries . The municipal archives contain interesting documents of the whilom imperial chamber (see infra) . The town preserves associations of Goethe, who wrote Die Leiden des jungen Werthers after living here in 1772 as a legal official, and of Charlotte Buff, the Lotte of Werther . Overlooking the town are the ruins of the medieval castle of Kalsmunt . There are iron mines and foundries and optical instrument factories . Wetzlar was originally a royal demesne, and in the 12th century became a free imperial town . It had grown in importance when, in 1693, the imperial chamber (Reichskammergericht) was removed hither from Spires . The town lost its independence in 1803, and passed to the prince-primate Dalberg .

Three years later (18o6), on the

dissolution of the empire, the imperial chamber ceased to exist . The French were defeated here by the Austrians and Saxons under the archduke Charles, 15th June 1796 .