Neuwied

Neuwied, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, the capital of the mediatized countship of Wied, is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, 8 m. below Coblenz, on the railway from Frankfort-on-Main to Cologne. Pop. (1905) 18,177. The principal edifice is the chateau of the princes of Wied. This is situated in a fine park, and contains a collection of Roman antiquities. The town has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church. Its chief products are starch, sugar, tobacco, cigars, chicory, buttons and enamelled goods. There are large rolling-mills, and in the vicinity are several large ironfoundries. The schools of Neuwied enjoy a high reputation.

Neuwied was founded by Count Frederick of Wied in 1662, on the site of the village of Langendorf, which was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War, and it rapidly increased owing to the toleration accorded to all religious sects. Among those who sought refuge here was a colony of Moravian Brethren; they still occupy a separate quarter of the town, where they carry on manufactures of porcelain stoves and deerskin gloves. Near Neuwied one of the largest Roman castra on the Rhine has been excavated. In April 1797 the French, under General Hoche, defeated the Austrians near Neuwied, this being their first decisive success in the revolutionary wars. Legenhaus, in the neighbourhood, is one of the residences of the princes of Weid.

See Wirtgen and Blenke, Neuwied and seine Umgebung (Neuwied, 1901).