Wetzlar

City in Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn, 54 km/33 mi northeast of Wiesbaden; population (2005 est) 52,500. The Leitz camera and optical-instruments industry is here; television sets and machinery are also manufactured. Wetzlar's abbey church dates from the 9th century.

The town provided the setting for Goethe's 1774 novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers/The Sorrows of Young Werther; there is a Goethe museum.