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wittenberg

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Wit⋅ten⋅berg

[wit-n-burg; Ger. vit-n-berk]
–noun
a city in central E Germany, on the Elbe: Luther taught in the university here; beginnings of the Reformation 1517. 54,190.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Wit·ten·berg   (wĭt'n-bûrg', vĭt'n-běrk')   
A city of east-central Germany on the Elbe River east of Dessau. Martin Luther made the city the center of the Protestant Reformation when he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Schlosskirche in 1517. Population: 46,100.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Encyclopedia

Wittenberg

city, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), north-central Germany. It lies on the Elbe River, southwest of Berlin. First mentioned in 1180 and chartered in 1293, it was the residence of the Ascanian dukes and electors of Saxony from 1212 until it passed, with electoral Saxony, to the house of Wettin in 1423. Wittenberg University, made famous by its teachers, the religious reformers Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon, was founded by the elector Frederick the Wise in 1502 and merged in 1817 with the University of Halle to form the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. In 1547, when John Frederick the Magnanimous signed the Capitulation of Wittenberg, the electorate passed from the Ernestine to the Albertine line of the Wettins, and the town ceased to be the official residence. The city was occupied in 1806 by the French, who strengthened its fortifications in 1813; the fortress was stormed by the Prussians in 1814, and the city was assigned to them in 1815.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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