LÜDENSCHEID, a town in the Prussian province of Westphalia, 19 m. by rail S.S.E. of Hagen. Pop. (1905) 28,921. It is the seat of various hardware manufactures, among them metal-plated and tin-plated goods, buckles, fancy nails and brooches, and has iron-foundries and machine shops. From the counts of Altena Lüdenscheid passed to the counts of the Mark, with which district it was ceded to Brandenburg early in the 17th century.