Forst

Forst (originally Forsta or Forste), a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the Neisse, 44 m. S.E. of Frankfort-on-Oder. Pop. (1905) 33,757. It has two Evangelical, a Roman Catholic and an Old Lutheran church; there are two schools and two hospitals in the town. The chief industry of Forst is the manufacture of cloth, but spinning, dyeing and the making of artificial flowers are also carried on. Founded in the 13th century, Forst passed in 1667 to the duke of Saxe-Merseburg, becoming part of electoral Saxony in 1740. It was ceded to Prussia in 1815.