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Saxony-Anhalt
State in the heart of Germany. Saxony-Anhalt stretches
from the Altmark heathland, which borders Lower Saxony to the
north, across the fertile lowlands of the Magdeburger Börde
and the industrial areas around Halle and Bitterfeld to the vineyards
along the Saale and Unstrut rivers, the northernmost wine-growing
region in Germany. The Elbe River flows through the state over
a distance of about 300 kilometers. In the southwestern portion
of the Magdeburger Börde rise the Harz Mountains; their highest
peak is the Brocken (1,142 meters). Foothills of the Fläming
ridge form the state's eastern boundary in the Anhalt region.
Extensive and extraordinarily scenic landscape reserves include
the Hochharz National Park and the Elbe Reserve, where beavers
still live in the wild. Saxony-Anhalt's history as a state in
its own right is brief: It existed only from 1947 to 1952 and
was not reestablished until the unification of Germany on 3 October
1990. Some of its regions are among the oldest heartlands of German
culture. The Altmark in the north was long under the influence
of Brandenburg; the south and the east were dominated by Saxony.
Anhalt was constituted in 1212 under the Ascanian princes and
experienced its cultural zenith in the 18th century under Prince
Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau. The Russian empress Catherine the
Great descended from the princes of Anhalt-Zerbst.
Cities taken from a picture book. First mentioned in a
document dating from 805, the state capital Magdeburg (265,000
inhabitants) is the second largest city in this rather sparsely
populated federal state. Here stands the first Gothic cathedral
built on German soil: Dedicated in 1363, it contains the grave
of Emperor Otto I. Magdeburg's oldest structure is the Abbey of
Our Lady, which was completed in 1160 and has survived the centuries
virtually unchanged. The city of Halle (290,000 inhabitants),
which prospered in the Middle Ages from salt extraction, is dominated
by its cathedral, the Market Church and the Red Tower. In Dessau
(93,000 inhabitants), Walter Gropius began setting global standards
in architecture in 1925 with the Bauhaus. Especially picturesque
are the Harz towns of Halberstadt, Wernigerode and Quedlinburg
with their half-timber houses dating from the 16th-18th centuries.
Quedlinburg's Old Town graced with more than 1,200 half-timber
houses (which are being renovated one by one) has been placed
on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Of particular interest
in the city of Naumburg is the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral with
the donor figures Ekkehard and Uta dating from the 13th century.
Spread out over an area of 112 hectares, Wörlitz Park near
Dessau with the palace of Leopold III dedicated in 1773 is one
of the most beautiful English-style gardens in Europe. A popular
tourist attraction is the "Romanesque Route” which winds
through Saxony-Anhalt for about 1,000 kilometers and passes by
more than 70 notable architectural monuments.
Sugar beets and color film. The rich loess soils of the
Magdeburger Börde and the Harz foreland are some of the most
fertile farmland in Germany and have given rise to an extensive
food industry (including sugar refineries). Principal crops are
grain, sugar beets, potatoes and vegetables. Heavy machinery and
vehicle construction play a dominant role in the economies of
Magdeburg and Dessau. Chemical plants are located primarily in
the region Halle - Merseburg - Bitterfeld. The concentration of
heavy industry, energy production and mining as well as a ruthless
disregard for nature during the GDR era caused environmental pollution
on a massive scale in the southern part of the state. The "chemical
triangle”, a region with a tradition of chemical production
dating far back into the 19th century, is now in the midst of
a difficult readjustment phase; today extensive public and private
investment and cleanup measures are helping to transform this
ecologically devastated area into a future-oriented industrial
region worth living in.
The southern part of Saxony-Anhalt is thus carrying on a long
and innovative industrial tradition. Here the Dessau Junkers works
wrote industrial history with the manufacture of the first all-metal
commercial aircraft and the JU 52, the most frequently built commercial
aircraft of the 1930s. In 1936 Agfa Wolfen introduced the world's
first color film.
Music, art and scholarship. The annual Handel Festival
in Halle draws music aficionados from all over the world. One
of the most famous of the state's 140 museums is the Moritzburg
State Gallery, which features a large collection of paintings
by the German-American painter Lyonel Feininger. The cathedral
treasures of the Church of St. Servace in Quedlinburg are among
the most valuable in Germany; stolen during World War II, they
were returned to the church after a spectacular odyssey. Saxony-Anhalt
was the heartland of the Reformation; in 1996 the 450th anniversary
of the death of Martin Luther was commemorated by numerous events
in Wittenberg, Eisleben and other towns in the state.
The Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg is the newest higher
education institution in Germany. It was created in October 1993
by the merger of the Technical University, the College of Education
and the Medical Academy. 11,000 students are registered at the
over 300-year-old Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg.
The College of Art and Design at Giebichenstein Castle in Halle
is gaining increasing recognition.
Prominent individuals. Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born
in Eisleben and died there as well. He was laid to rest in the
castle church in Wittenberg, to the door of which he had nailed
his Ninety-five Theses in 1517. Working at Falkenstein Castle
in the 13th century, Eike von Repgow wrote the "Sachsenspiegel”
(Saxon Mirror), the most important compilation of medieval law.
The "Merseburg Charms”, two linguistic monuments written
in Old High German, date from the 10th century.
George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, Georg Philipp Telemann
was a native of Magdeburg, and Johann Sebastian Bach composed
his "Brandenburg Concertos” at the royal court in Köthen.
Kurt Weill, one of the most expressive composers of our century,
came from Dessau.
The scientist Otto von Guericke, who for a time was mayor of Magdeburg, discovered the principle underlying the air pump and demonstrated the effect of a vacuum using his "Magdeburg hemispheres” in 1663. Halle was the birthplace of the first German woman doctor, Dorothea Christiana Erxleben, who earned her doctorate in 1754 at the university in her home town. Today the Wittenberg theologist Friedrich Schorlemmer - who was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1993 - is one of the state's most prominent individuals.