Zossen

Zossen grew beside a castle of Slavic origin south of Berlin, in a borderland between Brandenburg and Lusatia. The lords of Torgow held the town, castle and surrounding lordship, which came under the Bohemian crown with Lusatia in 1370. In 1490 Georg von Stein sold the lordship to Elector John Cicero of Brandenburg. The elector appointed an official to administer it, turning the former noble lordship into a Brandenburg district. Its castle remained a visible reminder of the earlier fortified seat.