MEISSEN

city, Saxony Land (state), southeastern Germany, on the Elbe River, just northwest of Dresden. It grew out of the early Slav settlement of Misni and was founded as a German town by King Henry I in 929. In 968 it became the seat of the margraviate of Meissen, which passed in 1089 to the House of Wettin, electors of Saxony after 1423. The bishopric of Meissen, established in 968 and suppressed in 1581 after the diocese accepted the Reformation (1559), was re-created in 1921 with its seat at Bautzen. Meissen was chartered in 1205, when it was a bastion of the German colonization of the East. The city is dominated by the group of 13th- and 14th-century Gothic cathedral buildings and by the Albrechtsburg Castle (147185). Meissen is famous for the manufacture of porcelain, based on extensive local deposits of china clay and potter's earth. Ceramics, metalware, and leather are also manufactured, and wine is produced. Pop. (1989 est.) 36,767.