ESCHWEGE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, on the Werra, 28 m. S.E. of Cassel. Pop. (1933) 12,869. In the 13th and i4th centuries it belonged alternately to Thuringia and Hesse, but passed definitely to the latter at the beginning of the 15th century. It consists of the old town on the left, the new town on the right bank of the Werra, and Brucken hausen on a small island connected with the old and new towns by bridges. Its chief industries are leather-making, metal-founding, yarn-spinning, cotton- and wool-weaving, the manufacture of cigars, machines, barrels, cork and soap-boiling. It has two an cient buildings, the Nikolai-turm, built in 1455, and the old castle.