Gera

Gera, a town of Germany, capital of the small principality of Reuss-Schleiz, is pleasantly situated on the White Elster, 42 miles E. by S. of Weimar by rail. Nearly destroyed by fire in 1780, it is for the most part a modern town, with broad and regular streets, but its older buildings include a castle and a fine town-hall. There are over a score of extensive woollen factories, besides cotton-works, dyeing and printing works, manufactures of machinery, leather, tobacco, and beer for export, and four publishing houses; and eight establishments, employing 1500 hands, turn out thousands of melodeons, accordions, and jews'-harps yearly. Pop. (1843) 11,300; (1880) 27,118; (1895) 42,300, nearly all Protestants.