[1] The built-up area of Cotta has gradually expanded from the historic village center of Altcotta, which is protected by an official preservation statute.

The high proportion of coffee mill houses is notable, and the densely built former workers' residential district has retained its Wilhelminian era to this day.

[8] Neolithic settlement in the Cotta area is evidenced by archaeological remains, and extensive research was carried out during the 1990s, resulting in the discovery of a female skeleton estimated to be over 7,000 years old.

As early as the Middle Ages, the church paths of the neighboring villages of Wölfnitz and Löbtau, which ran along today's Gottfried-Keller-Straße or Cossebauder/Lübecker Straße, crossed the Cottaer Flur.

For instance, a knacker's shop operated on the Lerchenberg between 1862 and 1915, closing down a few years later after Hans Erlwein finished building the city's cattle and slaughterhouse in the Great Ostragehege in 1910.

[10] In 1893, the course of the Weißeritz River had to be altered due to the construction of the railway line on the 26er Ring in the center of Dresden, which affected Cotta's location.

In addition, the construction of the Flügelweg bridge established Cotta as a significant traffic junction, intersecting the largest north–south connection in the western part of the city, federal highway 6, and other main roads in the district area.

Despite the district's northwestern parts being located on high ground, the intersection of Hamburger Straße and the railway subway were flooded due to the Weißeritz, a tributary of the Elbe.

It encompasses large parts of the western urban area between Dölzschen and Stetzsch, including the densely populated districts of Löbtau and Gorbitz.

After undergoing a significant shift in the population structure of the former working-class district and political development throughout the 20th century, Cotta lost its previous position as a social democratic center in Dresden.

[3] In the Dresden City Council election held on June 13, 2004, the PDS received the highest number of votes in Cotta, with 25.2%, slightly ahead of the CDU with 24.5%.

[18] In the election for mayor in the Cotta district, CDU candidate Helma Orosz emerged as the clear winner, with 48.13% of the vote, which was an average result compared to the rest of the city.

This pushed Klaus Sühl (The Left), Dirk Hilbert (FDP), Peter Lames (SPD), and Eva Jähnigen (Greens) to other places.

However, the Ballhaus Constantia, a ballroom with almost 1,000 seats, survived and became a regular theater venue from 1947 onwards, with performances mainly for children and teenagers under the name Volksbühne.

In 1964, the city of Dresden established the Kulturhaus Richard Gärtner in the building, named after an active SPD member who had been involved in its construction.

The Cotta town hall, located on Lübecker Straße near the center of Altcotta village, was constructed in November 1899 in Neo-Renaissance style and was inaugurated in April 1901.

The two-nave building was designed in the historicism architectural style by Paderborn cathedral master builder Arnold Güldenpfennig and constructed in 1906 under the direction of Dresden architect Heino Otto.

The Protestant sacred building, featuring a massive church tower, was designed by Rudolf Kolbe, a prominent architect from Loschwitz, and construction began in 1914.

Following World War II, the tower of the Heilandskirche, which remained intact, received the cast steel bells from the Jakobikirche in the Wilsdruffer suburb, destroyed in the air raids of February 13, 1945.

The Tiefen Elbstolln, an underground tunnel excavated between 1817 and 1837 to drain coal shafts in Freital, has its mouth located where the Berlin-Dresden railway line meets the banks of the Elbe river.

The brewery was subsequently used by Ludwig Hupfeld AG, a pipe and fittings factory during the Third Reich, and VEB Chemiehandel Dresden after World War II.

However, after the confluence of the Weißeritz estuary into the Elbe was positioned next to the Schusterhaus in 1893, a severe flood of the Erzgebirge River occurred on July 31, 1897, leading to the building's destruction.

Further to the northwest of Dresden, the road continues under the name Meißner Landstraße, reaching destinations such as Cossebaude village and the freeway junction Dresden-Altstadt on the A 4 in Kemnitz.

Streetcar lines 1 and 12 starts to the west in Leutewitz and run directly via Hamburger Straße or via a detour through Löbtau to Postplatz in the city center.

[31] The Dresden-Cotta Gymnasium, the largest elementary school in Saxony at the time, was constructed around 1910 under the supervision of city architect Hans Erlwein.

The building was severely damaged during the war and underwent restoration before housing the Dresden-West District School and later the POS Ernst Moritz Arndt during the GDR era.

Hermann Glöckner (1889-1987), a Constructivist painter and sculptor, as well as naval officer Ernst Wolf (1886-1964) and javelin thrower Luise Krüger (1915-2001), who won the silver medal for the German Reich at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, were all born here.

Soprano Elfride Trötschel (1913-1958) grew up in Cotta, and Richard Partzsch (1881-1953), who later became a member of the Reichstag, led the Dresden-Cotta SPD local association in the years preceding the First World War.

The politician Rudolf Renner (1894-1940), a co-founder of the KPD, resided at Hühndorfer Straße 1 in the southern part of Cotta until he was arrested by the National Socialists in April 1933.

Wilhelm Franz (1819-1903) is one of the district's honorary citizens due to his outstanding contributions to the development of Cotta during the period of strong growth in the 19th century when he served as the head of the municipality.