Send Gift Baskets to Dessau-Roßlau, Germany

Dessau is the largest population center within Dessau-Roßlau, with approximately 79,000 inhabitants (2021). Most of the town is located on the left bank of the river Mulde, south of its confluence with the river Elbe. Dessau was first mentioned in 1213 and became the capital of a small state (Anhalt-Dessau) in the 14th century. Between 1863 and 1918, it was the capital of Anhalt. Since the second half of the 19th century, Dessau has been an industrial town. With the famous art and architecture school Bauhaus, located in Dessau between 1925 and 1932, and the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, the city features two UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The town could be referred to as one of the birthplaces of the “jet age” because the Junkers factory that designed the Jumo 004 jet engine for the German Me 262 jet fighter (operational from mid-1944) was intended there. As the western shore of the Elbe-Mulde rivers was the stopping point for U.S. troops in World War II, the town’s capture allowed the U.S. Army to evacuate Junker’s employees to the west before Russia occupied the area on 1 July 1945. Several jet engine development team engineers at Junkers ended up at the Lycoming engine plant in Stratford, Conn., building gas turbine engines for the U.S. Army from 1952 on.