Meissen and the House of Wettin in 1089. In 1015 Meissen was besieged by the Poles led by future King Mieszko II. In 1241 the city was attacked in the Mongol raid on Meissen. The small Mongol force under Orda Khan defeated the city's defenders and much of the city was destroyed. The Mongols withdrew from Germany after the death of Ögedei Khan, sparing the region from further destruction. The city was at the forefront of the Ostsiedlung, or intensive German settlement of the rural Slavic lands east of the Elbe, and its reception of city rights dates to 1332. The
Meissen porcelain the dominant European porcelain factory, and the leader of stylistic innovation, until somewhat overtaken by the new styles introduced by the French Sèvres factory in the 1760s, but has remained a leading factory to the present day. Among the developments pioneered by Meissen are the small porcelain figure, and the introduction of European decorative styles to replace the imitation of Asian decoration of its earliest wares. Chinese porcelain had gradually developed over centuries, and by the seventeenth century both Chinese and Japanese export porcelain were imported to Europe on a large scale by the Dutch East India Company and its