Francisceum Gymnasium Illustre was an important Calvinist college. From 1603 to 1793 Zerbst again was the residence of the Anhalt-Zerbst princes, whose rule included among others also the Lordship of Jever in East Frisia. From 1722 to 1758, the Baroque composer Johann Friedrich Fasch resided there and was employed as a Hofkomponist and later Hofkapellmeister. To honour his memory, the Fasch Festivals have taken place in the city since 1983. In 1745 Princess Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst married Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, the heir apparent to the Russian throne. As Catherine II (the Great) she herself reigned as Empress of Russia from until ). In 1797 Zerbst became a component of the Principality of Anhalt-Dessau. From 1891 to 1928 a horse-drawn streetcar was operated in Zerbst, one of the longest surviving among such streetcars in Germany. In the later part of the Second World War a Nazi labour camp was established on the edge of the military airfield, housing so-called "First-degree Hybrids" and "Jüdisch Versippte" (i.e., people with some Jewish blood, enough in Nazi terms to justify badly mistreating them but not killing them outright). 700 inmates from there were used for hard labour in road and airport construction as well as peat digging. On 16 April 1945 – just a few weeks before the final surrender of Nazi Germany – some eighty percent of Zerbst was destroyed in an Allied air raid. The old town was rebuilt in the following decades resulting in a fundamental change of the townscape, as only a few historical structures were preserved or reconstructed. On 1 July 2006, the town of Zerbst was renamed Zerbst/Anhalt. A year later, on 1 July 2007, the town of Zerbst/Anhalt was incorporated together with several other municipalities of the Zerbst administrative district, creating the renewed Anhalt-Bitterfeld administrative district with its capital at Köthen. Local council Elections in May 2014 Mayors since July 2012: Andreas Dittmann (SPD) 1990-2012: Helmut Behrendt (FDP) Notable people Catherine the Great, (1729-1796), later Empress of Russia, lived at Zerbst Castle for some time Peter Hagendorf, (exact life data unknown), mercenary in the Thirty Years' War, possibly born in Zerbst Charles, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (1652–1718), ruling prince for 44 years John Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (1677–1742), ruling prince Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758), composer Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (1736–1800), composer and harpsichordist Heinrich Ritter (1791–1869), philosopher Hermann Raster (1827-1891), editor and political figure Jenny Hirsch (1829–1902),