Cottbus, Germany

The first recorded mention of the town's name was in 1156. In the 13th century German settlers came to the town and thereafter lived side by side with the Sorbs. In the Middle Ages Cottbus was known for wool, and the town's drapery was exported throughout Brandenburg, Bohemia and Saxony. It was also located on an important trade route, called the "Salt Road", which was used to transport salt from Halle to Lusatia and further east to Poland. It was part of the Margraviate of Lusatia and later Lower Lusatia, which was held by the House of Wettin until it became a Bohemian Crown Land in 1367. In 1445 Cottbus was acquired by the Margraviate of Brandenburg from Bohemia. It was an exclave almost completely surrounded by Bohemian Lower Lusatia (with a short border with the Electorate of Saxony to the south-west).

In 1514 Jan Rak founded the Universitas Serborum, a Sorbian gymnasium, in the city. In 1635 Lower Lusatia was ceded by Bohemia to Saxony, thereby making Cottbus an enclave of Saxony. Since the 1690s, French, Walloons and Palatines settled in the city. In 1701 Brandenburg-Prussia became the Kingdom of Prussia.

In 1807, following the War of the Fourth Coalition, Cottbus was ceded by Prussia to the Kingdom of Saxony by the Treaty of Tilsit, reuniting it with Lower Lusatia. Cottbus was returned to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic wars. Lower Lusatia was also ceded to Prussia and both became part of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg (and Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt), where they remained until 1947. In the 19th century, the Bramborski Serbski Casnik Sorbian newspaper was published in the city, and in 1880, the first Lower Lusatian department of the Maćica Serbska organization was established there.

Up to 142 French prisoners of war were held in the town by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. In 1871 Prussia, and therefore Cottbus, became part of the German Empire. According to the Prussian census of 1905, the city of Cottbus had a population of 46,270, of which 97% were Germans, 2% were Sorbs and 1% were Poles.

On 1 August 1914, many citizens of Cottbus greeted the outbreak of the First World War with jubilation. Emergency final examinations were held at the grammar school (Gymnasium), and a few days later Infantry Regiment No. 52 marched to the train station, cheered on by thousands of Cottbus residents.

During World War I, Germany operated two prisoner-of-war camps and a detention center for Allied privates in the city. The first captives, some 7,500 Russians, were mostly kept outdoors, which, combined with poor sanitary and medical conditions, resulted in an epidemic typhus outbreak, with 70% of the prisoners falling ill, and some 400 dying. Soon, also POWs of other nationalities, including French, British, Belgian, Serbian, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese and Australian were held in the POW camps in Cottbus. Conditions in the camps were poor due to overcrowding, filth, inadequate heating in winter, and insufficient medical supplies in the camps' lazarettes. Western Allied POWs were eventually released until mid-January 1919, whereas Russian POWs remained in the camps and were employed at local lignite mines. Many Russian POWs preferred to stay in the camp rather than leave for Soviet Russia and be forced into the Communist Party and army, and many were released to Russia only between September 1920 and January 1921, however some 600 to 1,000 Russians remained in the camp as of June 1921.

The former prisoner-of-war camp was used as a concentration camp for some 1,200 to 1,500 Polish activists, civilians and insurgents of the Silesian Uprisings of 1919–1921, who were often subjected to harassment, beatings and tortures, with their deportation from Upper Silesia to Cottbus being a breach of the Treaty of Versailles. Among the prisoners were dozens of women with children, and elderly men, and camp conditions remained poor. It was also the site of a concentration camp for unwanted Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe. Since late 1922, also Polish laborers and their families were detained in the camp before their deportation to Poland. The camp was eventually closed in December 1923.

After the First World War, the textile industry continued to dominate the economy, although unemployment was at times high. In the 1932 elections, the NSDAP already won a majority of the votes. In 1934, the "Cottbus gold find" attracted public attention. Between 1934 and 1937, the city received a new town hall, as the old building on the Altmarkt was no longer able to handle the growing administrative workload. During the National Socialist era, the old Prussian prison was first used as a men's prison starting in early 1937, and then as a women's prison from August 1937 onward. In January 1939, the prison was converted into a women's penitentiary (Frauenzuchthaus). During World War II, it had multiple forced labour subcamps located both in the city and other places in the region. From 1938, the Phänomen Works in Zittau produced the ZKW tracked vehicle for the Wehrmacht. In 1939, the Focke-Wulf aircraft works relocated parts of their production to Cottbus. In addition, a German Air Transport School (Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule) and a hydrogenation plant (Hydrierwerk) were established. For the antisemitic persecution, see below.