Middle Germany

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Middle Germany is not exactly central Germany, in a modern sense. The German term Mitteldeutschland is used for three federal states - Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. Mitteldeutschland has somehow become a trademark. Until 1937, before the Second World War, this area was regarded to be in the middle of Germany, but not by any exact measurements. After 1945, when Germany lost its historical eastern provinces, the area fell into what is more or less in the eastern part of remaining German territory. When the Oder-Neisse line was accepted by the west german government as the fixed eastern border of Germany, the term was not widely used anymore in a political sense, but it experienced a renaissance in the 1990s, albeit as a merely geographical term. Today the term Mitteldeutschland is mainly used to separate this part within Eastern Germany (altogether the five new states) from the rest of Eastern Germany, which is the area around Berlin and north-eastern Germany.

Middle Germany is used to underline the central location in Middle Europe and remind of the industrial glory of the area in former times. It was for centuries the most advanced area of Germany during the industrialization and the earlier protestant Reformation. So mainly it has become an advertising slogan.

The First German Television, a very large public TV and radio network, uses the term for Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (Middle German Broadcast). Private companies use it often - if they are located around Leipzig, Halle and Magdeburg, less in Dresden.