Samuel Heinrich Schwabe was a German amateur astronomer remembered for his work on sunspots. He observed sunspots and made drawings of them from 1825 to 1867 and suggested in 1838 that there may be a ten-year cycle of sunspot activity. He also took an interest in botany and was a founding member of a natural history society in Dessau.

Dessau is a district of the independent city of Dessau-Roßlau in Saxony-Anhalt at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Until 1 July 2007, it was an independent city. The population of Dessau is 67,747.