1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Neisse
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NEISSE, three rivers of Germany. (1) The Glatzer Neisse rises on the Schneegebirge, at an altitude of 1400 ft., flows north past Glatz, turns east and pierces the Eulengebirge in the Wartha pass, then continues east as far as the town of Neisse, and after that flows north-east until at an altitude of 453 ft. it joins the Oder between Oppeln and Brieg. Owing to its torrential character the greater part of its course is only used for floating down timber. It abounds in fish, and its total length is 121 m. (2) The Lausitzer or Görlitzer Neisse rises near Reichenberg in Bohemia, on the south side of the Riesengebirge, at an altitude of 1130 ft., flows north past Reichenberg, Görlitz, Forst and Guben, and enters the Oder above Fürstenberg at an altitude of 105 ft. Its length is 140 m., of which less than 40 m. are navigable. (3) The Wütende Neisse is a tributary of the Katzbach.
NEISSE, a town and fortress of Germany, in the province of Prussian Silesia, at the junction of the Neisse and the Biela, 32 M. by rail S.W. of Oppeln. Pop. (1905) 25,394 (mostly Roman Catholics) including a garrison of about 5000. It consists of the town proper, on the right bank of the Neisse, and the Friedrichstadt on the left. The Roman Catholic parish church of St James (Jakobikirche) dates mainly from the 13th century, but was finished in 1430. The chief secular buildings are the old episcopal residence, the new town hall, the old Rathaus, with a tower 205 ft. in height (1499), the beautiful Renaissance Kämmerei (exchequer) with a high gabled roof ornamented with frescoes, and theatre. A considerable trade is carried on in agricultural products. Neisse, one of the oldest towns in Silesia, is said to have been founded in the 10th century, and afterwards became the capital of a principality of its own name, which was incorporated with the bishopric of Breslau about 1200. Its first walls were erected in 1350, and enabled it to repel an attack of the Hussites in 1424. It was thrice besieged during the Thirty Years' War. The end of the first Silesian War left Neisse in the hands of Frederick the Great, who laid the foundations of its modern fortifications. The town was taken by French in 1807. Neisse can, at the will of the garrison, be protected by a system of inundation.
See Kastner, Urkundliche Geschichte der Stadt Neisse (Neisse and Breslau, 1854-1867, 3 vols.); Schutte, Beiträge zur Geschichte von Neisse (Neisse, 1881) ; and Ruffert, Aus Neisse's Vergangenheit (1903)
