Querfurt

Querfurt a town in Saalekreis district (Kreis) in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, situated in a fertile area on the Querne, 18 miles (29 km) west from Merseburg, on a branch line from Oberroblingen. Pop. 12,935 (2005). Querfurt was for some time the capital of a principality which had an area of nearly 200 square miles (500 km) and a population of about 20,000. The ruling family having become extinct in 1496, it passed to that of Mansfeld. In 1635, by the peace of Prague, it was ceded to the elector of Saxony, John George I, who handed it over to his son Augustus of Saxe-Weissenfels; but in 1746 it was again united with electoral Saxony. It was incorporated with Prussia in 1815. See Schneider, Querfurter Stadt- und...