QUEDLINBURG

city, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), central Germany, on the Bode River, in the northern foothills of the Lower Harz Mountains, southwest of Magdeburg. Founded in 922 as a fortress by Henry I the Fowler, it became a favourite residence of the Saxon emperors, and in 968 Otto I founded there an imperial abbey (with his daughter Mathilda as abbess), which was secularized in 1803. A member of the Hanseatic League until 1477, the city then came under the protection of the electors of Saxony until it passed to Brandenburg in 1698. The medieval walls and towers, many half-timbered houses, and several medieval churches survive. The city is dominated by the 16th-century castle (now a museum) on the site of the old fortress and the former abbey church of St. Servatius (10701129, incorporating the remains of a 10th-century church). The poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and the geographer Carl Ritter were born in Quedlinburg. Dyes, precision instruments, engineering products, vehicles, and paper are manufactured. The site of the Institute for Plant Research, Quedlinburg is an important centre for the cultivation of seeds, flowers, and sugar beets. Pop. (1989 est.) 28,790.