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Sachsen-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt
Flag	Coat of arms
Details
Location
Coordinates	52°0′″N 11°43′″E / Expression error: Unexpected / operator, Expression error: Unexpected / operatorCoordinates: 52°0′″N 11°43′″E / Expression error: Unexpected / operator, Expression error: Unexpected / operator
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Administration
Country	Germany
NUTS Region	DEE
Capital	Magdeburg
Largest city	Halle
Minister-President	Wolfgang Böhmer (CD)
Governing parties	CDU / SPD
Votes in Bundesrat	4 (of 69)
Basic statistics
Area	20,445 km² (7,894 sq mi)
Population	2,444,000 (11/2006)[1]
- Density	120 /km² (310 /sq mi)
Other information
GDP/ Nominal	€ 48 billion (2005)
Website	sachsen-anhalt.de

Saxony-Anhalt (German: Sachsen-Anhalt) is one of the sixteen Bundesländer (federal states) that make up the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of 20,447 km², and a population of 2.45 million (more than 2.8 million in 1990). Its capital is Magdeburg.

The state's name is sometimes spelled Saxony Anhalt in English (without the hyphen).

Contents 1 Geography 2 Administrative subdivision 3 History 3.1 The Duchy of Saxony 3.2 Electoral Saxony 3.3 Saxon Kings of Poland 4 Politics 4.1 List of minister presidents of Saxony-Anhalt 4.1.1 1945-1952 4.1.2 1990 to date 4.2 March 26, 2006 state election 5 Economy 6 Anthem 7 External links 8 References

Saxony-Anhalt is one of 16 states in the Federal Republic of Germany. It covers a total area of 20,445 sq km (12,676 sq. miles). By size, it is the 8th largest state in Germany, and by population, the 10th largest. It borders the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony.

The capital of Saxony-Anhalt is Magdeburg. It is the second largest city in the state, after Halle. Nearby is the city of Dessau, where the "Bauhaus" is located. The Bauhaus provided a basis for the field of architecture and fine arts in the area. Dessau is also home to the opulent Dessau-Wörlitz garden complex. The city’s main attraction is the Wörlitzer Park which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The landscape of Saxony-Anhalt is quite varied. From the region of Altmark in the north, the state extends from the Magdeburg region, a vast lowland, through the Harz, a low mountain range, until one comes to Thuringia. The highest mountain in the vicinity is Brocken, with an elevation of 1,141 meters (3,735 ft). Below the summit, there is a national park called Hochharz, which is an extensive wildlife sanctuary. All of this, as well as many other beautiful places of interest, are easily reachable on day excursions.

See also List of places in Saxony-Anhalt.

From 1990 to 2003, Saxony-Anhalt was divided into three districts (Regierungsbezirke): Dessau, Halle and Magdeburg. On January 1, 2004 these three districts were abolished, and 21 counties were formed.

A further reform, effective from July 2007, reduced these to 11 rural counties (Landkreise):

• Altmarkkreis Salzwedel
• Anhalt-Bitterfeld
• Börde
• Burgenlandkreis
• Harz
• Jerichower Land
• Mansfeld-Südharz
• Saalekreis
• Salzlandkreis
• Stendal
• Wittenberg

and three urban districts (Stadtkreise):

• Dessau-Roßlau
• Halle (Saale)
• Magdeburg

The geographic concept of Saxony has undergone great shifts and has acquired many meanings in the past 15 centuries. The land of the Saxons, Saxony was in Frankish times roughly the area in NW Germany between the Elbe and Ems rivers; it also included part of S Jutland. (This area corresponds in part to the state of Lower Saxony, created after World War II.)

After Charlemagne's conquest (772–804) of the Saxons, their land was incorporated into the Carolingian empire, and late in the 9th cent. the first duchy of Saxony. Including the four divisions of Westphalia, Angria, Eastphalia, and Holstein, it occupied nearly all the territory between the Elbe and Saale rivers on the east and the Rhine on the west; it bordered on Franconia and Thuringia in the south. Duke Henry I (Henry the Fowler) of Saxony was elected German king in 919, and his son, Emperor Otto I, bestowed (961) Saxony on Hermann Billung (d. 973), a Saxon nobleman, whose descendants held the duchy until the extinction of the male line in 1106. Lothair of Supplinburg (see Lothair II) bestowed it on his Guelphic son-in-law, Henry the Proud, who was already duke of Bavaria.

In 1142 the duchy passed to Henry the Lion, son of Henry the Proud. The struggle between Henry the Lion and Emperor Frederick I ended with Henry's loss of all his fiefs in 1180. The stem duchy was broken up into numerous fiefs. The Guelphic heirs of Henry the Lion retained only their allodial lands, the duchy of Brunswick. The ducal title of Saxony went to Bernard of Anhalt, a younger son of Albert the Bear of Brandenburg and founder of the Ascanian line of Saxon dukes. Besides Anhalt, Bernard received Lauenburg and the country around Wittenberg, on the Elbe. These widely separate territories continued after 1260 under separate branches of the Ascanians as Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg.

The Golden Bull of 1356 raised the duke of Saxe-Wittenberg to the permanent rank of elector, with the right to participate in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor. Electoral Saxony, as his territory was called, was a relatively small area along the middle Elbe. To the S of Electoral Saxony extended the margraviate of Meissen, ruled by the increasingly powerful house of Wettin. The margraves of Meissen acquired (13th–14th cent.) the larger parts of Thuringia and of Lower Lusatia and the intervening territories, and in 1423 Margrave Frederick the Warlike added Electoral Saxony; he became (1425) Elector Frederick I. Thus, Saxony shifted to E central and E Germany from NW Germany.

In 1485 the Wettin lands were partitioned between two sons of Elector Frederick II; the division came to be permanent. Ernest, founder of the Ernestine branch of Wettin, received Electoral Saxony with Wittenberg and most of the Thuringian lands. Albert, founder of the Albertine branch, received ducal rank and the Meissen territories, including Dresden and Leipzig. Duke Maurice of Saxony, a grandson of Albert and a Protestant, received the electoral title in the 16th cent.; it remained in the Albertine branch until the dissolution (1806) of the Holy Roman Empire.

The rivalry between Saxony and Brandenburg (after 1701 the kingdom of Prussia) was a decisive factor in later Saxon history, as was the election (1697) of Augustus II (who was Frederick Augustus I as elector of Saxony) as king of Poland; the election led to an economic partnership between the declining Poland and Saxony, whose prestige was thereby diminished. In the War of the Austrian Succession, Saxony adhered to what had become its traditional wavering policy, changing sides in the middle of the conflict. The death (1763) of Augustus III ended the union with Poland.

The period of Saxon rule in Poland marked a time of economic and social decay but of cultural and artistic flowering. Augustus II and Augustus III were lavish patrons of art and learning and greatly beautified their capital, Dresden. The universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig had long been leading intellectual centers, and 18th-century Leipzig led in the rise of German literature as well as in music, which reached its first peak in J. S. Bach.

Saxony sided with Prussia against France early in the French Revolutionary Wars, but changed sides in 1806. For this act its elector was raised to royal rank, becoming King Frederick Augustus I. His failure to change sides again before Napoleon's fall cost him (1815) nearly half his kingdom at the Congress of Vienna. The kingdom of Saxony lost Lower Lusatia, part of Upper Lusatia, and all its northern territory including Wittenberg and Merseburg to Prussia. Its principal remaining cities were Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz, and Plauen. The larger part of the territories ceded in 1815 were incorporated with several other Prussian districts into the Prussian province of Saxony, with Magdeburg its capital. This was united after 1945 with Anhalt to form the state of Saxony-Anhalt and became part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1949. From 1952 to 1990 Saxony-Anhalt was divided into the East German districts of Halle and Magdeburg. In 1990, prior to German reunification, the districts were reintegrated as a state.

1. 1945 - 1949: Erhard Hübener (LDPD)
2. 1949 - 1952: Werner Bruschke (SED)

1. 1990 - 1991: Gerd Gies (CDU)
2. 1991 - 1993: Werner Münch (CDU)
3. 1993 - 1994: Christoph Bergner (CDU)
4. 1994 - 2002: Reinhard Höppner (SPD)
5. since 2002: Wolfgang Böhmer (CDU)

See also: Saxony-Anhalt state election, 2006

Minister-president Wolfgang Böhmer (CDU) could not continue his coalition with the FDP and negotiated a grand coalition with the SPD instead.

Party	Party List votes	Vote percentage	Total Seats	Seat percentage
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	326,712	36.2%	40	41.2%
The Left Party	217,285	24.1%	26	26.8%
Social Democratic Party (SPD)	192,754	21.4%	24	24.7%
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	60,207	6.7%	7	7.2%
Alliance '90/The Greens	32,118	3.6%	0	0.0%
German People's Union (DVU)	26,894	3.0%	0	0.0%
All Others	46,235	5.0%	0	0.0%
Totals	902,205	100.0%	97	100.0%

Saxony Anhalt is famous for its good soil. The "Magdeburger Börde" contains the best soil in all of Germany and some of the best of Europe. The food industry has an important role in this state. Some of the best known products are "Baumkuchen" from Salzwedel (Altmark) or "Hallorenkugeln" from Halle.

In the industrial sector the chemical industry is quite important. One of the biggest chemical producing areas can be found around the cities of Wolfen and Bitterfeld. Because of the chemical industry Saxony Anhalt is the largest receiver of FDIs (Foreign Direct Investments) in all of eastern Germany.

Saxony Anhalt is also the location of numerous "wind farms" throughout the state producing wind-turbine energy. See http://www.wsb.de/home_leistungen_referenzen.html.

• Lied für Sachsen-Anhalt ("Song for Saxony-Anhalt")

• Official governmental portal
• Webportal Saxony-Anhalt
• Für Musikinteressierte aus Sachsen-Anhalt

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