In the 8th century the area east of the Elbe was settled by
Polabian Slavs (
Lusatian Serbs), and the city was named
Serbst after them, which evolved into
Zerbst. Part of the border region with the adjacent
Saxon region around Magdeburg in the west, it was incorporated into the
Gau Ciervisti of the
Saxon Eastern March (
Marca Geronis) about 937 in the course of the German
Ostsiedlung. It is not clear when Zerbst was founded; however, the name
Ciervisti mentioned as early as 949 may already refer to a fortified Slavic settlement. The chronicles by Prince-Bishop
Thietmar of Merseburg recorded the first mention of a town as
Zirwisti urbs in 1018, giving an account of the occupation by the
Polish duke
Bolesław I Chrobry during the
German–Polish War with King
Henry II in 1007. In the early 12th century the
Ascanian ruler
Albert the Bear had the fortress rebuilt, and the adjacent settlement was first fortified with
town walls about 1250. In 1307 Prince
Albert I of
Anhalt acquired the city of Zerbst from the Barby comital family, starting a centuries-long rule by the Ascanian princely
House of Anhalt. His descendants continued to rule the
Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst until in 1396 it was divided between Prince
Sigismund I and his brother
Albert IV, and the residence was moved to
Dessau. In 1375 Zerbster Bitterbier was first mentioned; by the Middle Ages the town had 600 breweries. Following the
Reformation Zerbst became a
Calvinist centre. From 1582 to 1798 the
Francisceum Gymnasium Illustre was an important Calvinist college. From 1603 to 1793 Zerbst again was the residence of the Anhalt-Zerbst princes, whose rule included among others also the Lordship of
Jever in
East Frisia. From 1722 to 1758, the Baroque composer
Johann Friedrich Fasch resided there and was employed as a
Hofkomponist and later
Hofkapellmeister. To honour his memory, the Fasch Festivals have taken place in the city since 1983. In 1745 Princess Sophie Auguste Friederike of
Anhalt-Zerbst married
Peter, Crown Prince of Russia, the heir apparent to the
Russian throne. As
Catherine II (the Great) she herself reigned as Empress of
Russia from until ). In 1797 Zerbst became a component of the
Principality of Anhalt-Dessau. From 1891 to 1928 a horse-drawn tram was operated in Zerbst, one of the longest surviving among such tram in Germany. In the later part of the
Second World War a Nazi labour camp was established on the edge of the military airfield, housing so-called "
First-degree Hybrids" and "Jüdisch Versippte" (i.e., people with some Jewish blood, enough in Nazi terms to justify badly mistreating them but not killing them outright). 700 inmates from there were used for hard labour in road and airport construction as well as
peat digging. On 16 April 1945 – just a few weeks before the final surrender of Nazi Germany – some eighty percent of Zerbst was destroyed in an
Allied air raid. The old town was rebuilt in the following decades resulting in a fundamental change of the townscape, as only a few historical structures were preserved or reconstructed. On 1 July 2006, the town of Zerbst was renamed Zerbst/Anhalt. A year later, on 1 July 2007, the town of Zerbst/Anhalt was incorporated together with several other municipalities of the Zerbst administrative district, creating the renewed
Anhalt-Bitterfeld administrative district with its capital at
Köthen. ==Local council==