ANHALT-DESSAU, the most eastern of the three duchies, has an area of 360 square miles. It is intersected by the Elbe and the Mulde. The greater part of it is very fertile and well watered, and is well cultivated. Population in 1849, 63,700. Its mediatised possessions have an area of about 200 square miles, with 12,000 inhabitants. It is divided into seven aunts, viz., Dessau, Oramnibaum, Quellendorf,
Gröbzig, Sandersleben, Alsleben, and Zerbst, each of which has a chief town of its own name. It furnishes a contingent of 529 men; and its revenue and expenditure are equal, each being in 1851-2, 596,000 thalers, or L.89,400. Anhalt Dessau and Coethen have a standing army of 1000 men; and a public debt of 3,500,000 thalers or L.525,000, of which last rather more than two-thirds belongs to Coethen.