Gera

Gera lies in the valley of the White Elster in eastern Thuringia. Emperor Otto III granted the district to Quedlinburg Abbey in 999; the abbess later entrusted its protection to the bailiffs of Weida, ancestors of the Reuss family. Gera was recorded as a town in 1237, and its walls and the bailiffs' castle followed in the thirteenth century.

The Saxon Fratricidal War nearly destroyed the town in 1450, but clothmaking helped it recover. The Wettins introduced the Reformation in 1533, and religious refugees from the Spanish Netherlands later brought further textile skills. In 1673 the Reuss rulers became imperial counts and Gera their residence. Fires in 1686 and 1780 destroyed much of the town, which was rebuilt after the latter in a largely late-Baroque style. Napoleon established his headquarters here in 1806 before the campaign against Prussia.