Wolfen is a town in the district Anhalt-Bitterfeld

Anhalt-Bitterfeld

Anhalt-Bitterfeld is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its capital is Köthen . - History :This district was established by merging the former districts of Bitterfeld, Köthen and a large part of Anhalt-Zerbst as part of the reform of 2007....

, Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Since 1 July 2007 it is part of the town Bitterfeld-Wolfen

Bitterfeld-Wolfen

Bitterfeld-Wolfen is a town in the district Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated in south-eastern Saxony-Anhalt, west of the river Mulde, in an area that is dominated by heavy industry and lignite mining...

. It is situated approximately 6 kilometres northwest of Bitterfeld

Bitterfeld

Bitterfeld is a town in the district Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approx. 25 km south of Dessau, and 30 km northeast of Halle...

, and 20 kilometres south of Dessau

Dessau

Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...

.

In the early 1920s the first colour film of the world was produced by AGFA in Wolfen. After the second world war the name was ORWO

ORWO

ORWO was an East German manufacturer of photographic film and magnetic tape. The basis for ORWO was the Agfa Wolfen plant, where the first modern colour film with incorporated colour couplers, Agfacolor, was developed in 1936....

 (ORiginal WOlfen). ORWO was the only worldwide trademark of the GDR. During GDR years, Wolfen became home to most people working at the Bitterfeld and Wolfen industrial plants (Filmfabrik Wolfen, Chemiekombinat Bitterfeld (including former Farbenfabrik, Wolfen)) and lignite mining company BKK Bitterfeld (today: MIBRAG). Since the German reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

, the whole area has suffered from disinvestment

Disinvestment

Disinvestment, sometimes referred to as divestment, refers to the use of a concerted economic boycott, with specific emphasis on liquidating stock, to pressure a government, industry, or company towards a change in policy, or in the case of governments, even regime change...

, deindustrialization, and depopulation; unemployment

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

 became a serious problem. The population decreased by approximately 50% because of these problems. Since the 1990s industrial empoyment has improved again with Bayer

Bayer

Bayer AG is a chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in Barmen , Germany in 1863. It is headquartered in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and well known for its original brand of aspirin.-History:...

, Hereaus, Q-Cells

Q-Cells

Q-Cells is a manufacturer of photovoltaic cells, established in 1999. Its core business is the development, production and marketing of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells....

 and Guardian Industries.

History

The first documentary mention of Wolfen was as Wulffen in 1400 in a fee (feudal tenure). The place name was named after a founder whose name began with Wolf. In 1846 lignite

Lignite

Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...

 was found in the region which was mined and the current Silver Lake was developed from this mine.
A type of color film was developed by AGFA in 1936 in Wolfen. The method was annexed by American troops in 1945 and given to Kodak.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 hundreds of women, children and men from the annexed lands were forced to work in the IG-Farben

IG Farben

I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...

factories.