Breslau

bres'lou, the second city of Prussia. It is situated in the far southeast corner on the upper waters of the Oder. It is the capital city of Prussian Silesia. It was wrested from Maria Theresa by Frederick the Great in 1741. The modern city has a population of nearly half a million and carries on an extensive trade in cloth, timber, coal, glass, and grain. Wool fairs are held in June and October. The manufactures include engines, cars, musical instruments, stained glass, cigars, beer, and textiles. The old wall has been leveled to make room for pleasant, shady promenades and drives. The moat has been converted into a series of ponds now enlivened with swans. A zoological garden and a botanical garden, museums of art and antiquities, a university library of 350,000 books, including specimens of the earliest printing, a fine old city hall, several churches with stained glass, a market place, numerous statues, and quaint old houses where emperors, kings, poets, and artists have lodged are enough to interest the tourist for weeks. See Germany; Hanseatic League