Meissen (district) covered by the "Amtshauptmannschaften" Meissen, Dresden and Großenhain. In 1939, these were renamed "Landkreise" (districts). In the administrative reform of 1952, several municipalities were transferred to the districts of Freiberg and Döbeln. In 1990, the old district borders were restored, and in 1996 parts of the district Dresden-Land were added. In August 2008 the district of Riesa-Großenhain was added to the district to give it its current size. The main river of the district is the Elbe, which also flows through the city of Meissen. Meissen (district) Meissen () is a district ("Kreis") in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.
Soft-paste porcelain firing temperatures are lower compared with hard-paste porcelain, or, more likely, because the finished products actually are far softer than hard-paste, and early versions were much easier to scratch or break, as well as being prone to shatter when hot liquid was suddenly poured into them. The German Meissen porcelain had developed hard-paste porcelain by 1708, and later German factories usually managed to find the secret out from former Meissen employees, beginning with Vienna porcelain in 1718. The other European countries had much longer to wait, but most factories eventually switched from soft to hard-paste, having discovered both the secret