DELITZSCH

delitzsch, a town of germany, in the prussian province of saxony, on the lober, an affluent of the mulde, 12 m. north of leipzig at the junction of the railways, bitterfeld-leipzig and halle-cottbus. pop. (1905) 10,479. its public buildings comprise an old castle of the 14th century now used as a female penitentiary, a roman catholic and three protestant churches, a normal college (_schullehrerseminar_) established in 1873 and several other educational institutions. besides _kuhschwanz_, a peculiar kind of beer, it manufactures tobacco, cigars, shoes and hosiery; and coal-mining is carried on in the neighbourhood, it was the birthplace of the naturalist christian gottfried ehrenberg (1795-1876), and the political economist hermann schulze-delitzsch (1808-1883), to the latter of whom a statue has been erected. originally a settlement of the sorbian wends, and in the 12th century part of the possessions of the bishops of merseburg, delitzsch ultimately passed to the saxe-merseburg family, and, on their extinction in 1738, was incorporated with electoral saxony.