shortly before the Battle of Leipzig, Napoleon took a last view of his and his allies' Saxon troops in eastern Eilenburg. After Napoleon's defeat, Saxony had to cede large territory to Prussia under the provisions of the Congress of Vienna. Eilenburg was part of the Province of Saxony within the progressive Prussian state. Thereby the transition of Eilenburg to an industrial city was advanced significantly. Because of the founding of numerous textile factories, Eilenburg, with its proximity to the Prussian capital Berlin, became an important centre of Prussian textile production. The ascent to an important industrial city came mainly from the nearby Kingdom of Saxony. Saxon industrialists settled in Eilenburg for having duty-free access to the Prussian market. The onset of urbanization caused a rapid increase in population. The social tensions resulting from the industrialization and the huge growth of population triggered a strong labour movement. In 1849 the Health Insurance Support Association ("Krankenkassenunterstützungsverein") was founded. In 1850 the Food Association of Eilenburg ("Eilenburger Lebensmittelassociation") as the first food cooperative of Germany and "Darlehnskassenverein" as the first credit union in Germany were founded. Carl Degenkolb, owner of a factory in Eilenburg and member of the Frankfurt Parliament, voluntarily instituted the first German works councils at his factory. On 30 June 1872 Eilenburg station was opened with the Halle-Eilenburg-Falkenberg route. Two years later, transport services started on the newly built Leipzig–Eilenburg railway. Industrial development continued rapidly with development of the chemical, wood and metal processing industries. The German Celluloid Factory ("Deutsche Celluliod-Fabrik") founded in 1887 characterized the city's business for more than a hundred years. During World War I hundreds of Eilenburg people were called up for military service. On 21 October 1917 Wilhelm Pieck, later a President of the German Democratic Republic, escaped from a military transport at Eilenburg station. A total of about 800 people from Eilenburg were killed during the war. About two weeks before the end of the World War II the city was almost completely destroyed. On 17 April 1945 American troops reached Eilenburg, which German defenses were ordered to hold. For three days and three nights the town was under heavy artillery fire, which destroyed most of the buildings of the city. Two hundred people were killed and 90 percent of the town centre and 65 percent of the buildings of the whole town were destroyed; the American army had nearly no losses. Eilenburg was