Saxony-Anhalt

Basic data:

Universities:

Friedensau: Friedensau Adventist University
Halle / Saale: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Magdeburg: Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg

Geography:

Saxony-Anhalt is characterized in the north by flat land, in the Altmark there are old Hanseatic towns such as Salzwedel, Gardelegen, Stendal and Tangermünde. The Colbitz-Letzlinger Heide and the Drömling form the transition from the Altmark to the Elbe-Börde-Heide region. The cities of Haldensleben, Oschersleben (Bode), Wanzleben, Schönebeck (Elbe), Aschersleben and Magdeburg are in the Magdeburg Börde. The Harz with the cross-border Harz National Park is located in the southwest of Saxony-Anhalt, where the Harz foreland, the Mansfelder Land and cities such as Halberstadt, Quedlinburg, Wernigerode, Thale and Eisleben are also located.

The metropolitan area of ​​Halle is located on the border with Saxony and stretches as far as Leipzig in Saxony. Halle an der Saale is the largest city in Saxony-Anhalt. Zeitz, Naumburg, Weißenfeld and Freyburg are located on the Saale and Unstrut in the south of the state. Finally, Saxony-Anhalt also includes the Anhalt-Wittenberg region in the east with the cities of Dessau-Roßlau, Wittenberg and part of the Fläming.

Climate:

Saxony-Anhalt lies in the transition area from maritime to continental climate. The oceanic Harz receives large amounts of precipitation (Brocken 1,609 mm annually). The landscapes lying in its lee from the Magdeburg Börde to the lower Unstrut have much less precipitation.

The maximum temperatures in Saxony-Anhalt in July average 24 °C, the lowest in January average - 3 °C.

history:

In its current form, the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt can only look back on a short history. It was only created in 1947 after the dissolution of the state of Prussia, the most important predecessors being the Prussian province of Saxony and the Free State of Anhalt.

In the middle of today\'s territory of Saxony-Anhalt was the archbishopric of Magdeburg, which was promised to the Elector of Saxony in the Peace of Prague in 1935. The \"secular\" duchy of Magdeburg and the neighboring prince-bishopric of Halberstadt then came to the Kurhaus Brandenburg in 1680 in accordance with the provisions of the Peace of Westphalia. As a result, his possessions in the Altmark were advantageously rounded off and extended to the lower Saale.

After the Wars of Independence, Prussia was able to take possession of more than half of the Kingdom of Saxony. With the reorganization of the now much larger state, these new acquisitions and the areas that had been Prussian since 1802 were combined in a province of Saxony. The King of Prussia now called himself \"Duke of Saxony\" and \"of Magdeburg\" as well as \"Landgrave of Thuringia\". The province of Saxony thus had the rank of a duchy. The \"old and new Prussian\" areas were separated by the 3 Anhalt duchies, which in turn were divided several times. When the federal districts were established, they were initially not named after the main towns. Instead there were the districts of governments of Thuringia (Erfurt), Saxony (Merseburg) and Lower Saxony (Magdeburg). After the dissolution of the province of Saxony in July 1944, the administrative districts of Magdeburg and Merseburg became the province of Magdeburg and the province of Halle-Merseburg, while the administrative district of Erfurt was placed under the Reich governor for Thuringia.

At the end of the Second World War, this area was occupied by both American and Soviet troops. As early as May 1945, the Americans appointed Erhard Hübener, who later became Prime Minister, as Governor. Due to the Allied agreements from Yalta, however, the US troops withdrew at the end of June 1945. In the following month, the two provinces, the Free State of Anhalt around Dessau, the Brunswick enclave of Calvörde, the eastern part of the district of Blankenburg (Harz) and the Thuringian enclave Allstedt united by the Soviet military administration to form the new province of Saxony. Erhard Hübener was appointed provincial president. After the first free state elections on October 20, 1946, the name of the province was changed to Saxony-Anhalt. The election produced a Christian-democratic-liberal government under Erhard Hübener, which was unique in the Soviet occupation zone. After the first state constitution came into force on January 10, 1947, the province was legally considered a state by Soviet order. On February 25, Prussia, to which the area had previously belonged, was dissolved, and Halle became the state capital (Magdeburg was unable to perform this function due to severe war damage). The country had a size of 24,576 km².

In the years that followed, there were several minor disputes between Hübener and the military administration. A major conflict came in 1948 when several state government ministers were arrested. In protest against this action and against the expropriation of large farmers, Erhard Hübener initially submitted his resignation as Minister of Justice. In January 1949 he also resigned as prime minister.

As part of the administrative reform in the GDR, the country was de facto dissolved in 1952 and divided into the two districts of Halle and Magdeburg. There were border adjustments, in the course of which individual towns and communities were incorporated or spun off from the neighboring districts. As a result, the district borders shifted compared to the former state borders.

In 1990 the state of Saxony-Anhalt was re-established with the former district territories of Halle (without the Artern district) and Magdeburg as well as the Jessen district. The state capital was Magdeburg. Saxony-Anhalt\'s partner country during the establishment of the new structures was Lower Saxony. A state parliament was elected for the first time on October 14, 1990. The early 1990s were characterized by political affairs and frequent changes of state government. This meant that the CDU, which ruled at the beginning, lost the second state elections after reunification, and a state government of SPD and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, the so-called Magdeburg model, which the PDS tolerated, came about. Saxony-Anhalt was governed by Prime Minister Reinhard Höppner for 2 legislative periods, during which time there were major economic and labor market restructurings. After the departure of the Greens, he governed in a sole SPD government tolerated by the PDS.

The state had the highest unemployment rate of all federal states, and in the third electoral period after reunification, the DVU was able to enter the state parliament. However, this fraction soon broke up due to internal disputes, and in 2002 it was no longer elected to the state parliament. In the course of a major district reform in 1994, the number of districts was reduced from 37 to 21. The elections in 2002 brought another change of government. Since then, Saxony-Anhalt has had a CDU/FDP government under Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Boehmer. Since the district reform in 2007, Saxony-Anhalt has consisted of 3 urban districts and 11 rural districts.

Economy:

The region around Halle (Saale) is an economic focus region where various traffic flows converge. In the area there is a focus of chemical and petroleum industry. In recent years, Leuna has seen the largest foreign investments in all of East Germany.Due to its favorable location, Magdeburg is another economic focus.

The restructuring of the industry was very difficult for Saxony-Anhalt and there were numerous company closures and large job losses. In recent years, the unemployment rate has been reduced and greater economic momentum has been achieved, which can be attributed to an offensive location policy.

The gross domestic product increased by 2.8% in 2006, the added value of the processing industry rose by 12.2% (the second highest increase in the new federal states). The unemployment rate in Saxony-Anhalt is still one of the highest in Germany, in June 2008 it was 13.8%. There is a large disparity within Saxony-Anhalt. In the district of Börde, the rate of 9.1% was almost within the range of the national average, at the same time it was still 17.5% in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz.

In 2005, goods and services worth 50 billion euros were generated in Saxony-Anhalt. The most important branches of industry are the chemical industry, mechanical engineering and the food industry. Saxony-Anhalt has developed into a powerful and globally competitive location. The settlement of national and international companies and the modernization of local companies brought new research and production capacities for Saxony-Anhalt. The close cooperation between science and industry brought excellent research and development potential to the individual sectors. The service sector and numerous new industries as well as tourism have also established themselves in addition to the traditional sectors in Saxony-Anhalt and today determine the economy.