History
The district was a swampy and unpopulated area in the early Middle Ages. In the 12th century Flemish settlers helped to drain the swamps. In that time Bitterfeld was known as "the Flemish town" in the region. The present district is roughly identical with the old county of Brehna, which ruled the area from the 10th to the 13th century. Later the region became a part of Saxony.
When Prussia gained the northern parts of Saxony (including the lands around Bitterfeld), the district of Bitterfeld was established. After the dissolution of Anhalt some places in the north were added to the district.
The East German government tried to establish a socialistic industrial centre in the Bitterfeld region. The city of Bitterfeld and the entire district were infamous for polluted air, poisoned rivers and devastated landscape. After the German reunification there have been measures to change these conditions. Today the power plants work with modern filters, and sewage works greatly improve the water conditions.
Read more about this topic: Bitterfeld (district)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Don’t give your opinions about Art and the Purpose of Life. They are of little interest and, anyway, you can’t express them. Don’t analyse yourself. Give the relevant facts and let your readers make their own judgments. Stick to your story. It is not the most important subject in history but it is one about which you are uniquely qualified to speak.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“It is my conviction that women are the natural orators of the race.”
—Eliza Archard Connor, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 9, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)