WITT. See De Witt.

WITTEN, a rapidly growing town of Westphalia, Prussia, is favourably situated among the coalfields of the Ruhr, 14 miles east of Essen and 15 miles northeast of Elberfeld. The coal-mines in the neighbourhood provide abundant fuel for large cast-steel works, iron-foundries, railway workshops, machinery and boiler works, glass-works, distilleries, and other industrial establishments. In 1843 the population was 3444; in 1885 it was 23,903.

WITTENBERG, now an unimportant manufacturing town in the province of Saxony, Prussia, is situated 55 miles to the south-west of Berlin, on the Elbe, which is here spanned by a stone bridge 300 yards long, and by an iron railway bridge 320 yards long. The three suburbs which adjoin the town are not older than 1817. Wittenberg is interesting chiefly on account of its close connexion with Luther and the dawn of the Reformation; and several of its buildings are associated with the events of that time. Part of the Augustinian monastery in which Luther dwelt, at first as a monk and in later life as owner with his wife and family, is still preserved, and has been fitted up as a “Luther museum.” The Augusteum, built in 1564-83 on the site of the monastery, is now a clerical seminary. The Schlosskirche, to the doors of which Luther nailed his famous ninety-five, theses in 1517, dated originally from 1490-99; it was, however, seriously damaged by fire during the bombardment of 1760, and has practically been re-built. The old wooden doors, burnt in 1760, are replaced by bronze doors, bearing the Latin text of the theses. In the interior of the church are the tombs of Luther, Melanchthon, and the electors Frederick the Wise and John the Constant. The parish church, in which Luther often preached, was built in the 14th century, but has been much altered since Luther’s time. The present infantry barracks were at one time occupied by the university of Wittenberg, founded in 1502, but incorporated with the university of Halle in 1817. Luther was appointed professor of philosophy here in 1508; and the new university rapidly acquired a considerable reputation from its connexion with the early Reformers. Shakespeare makes Hamlet and Horatio study at Wittenberg. The ancient electoral ...