| Saxony-Anhalt Sachsen-Anhalt |
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| — State of Germany — | |||
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Germany | ||
| Capital | Magdeburg | ||
| Government | |||
| • Minister-President | Reiner Haseloff (CDU) | ||
| • Governing parties | CDU / SPD | ||
| • Votes in Bundesrat | 4 (of 69) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 20,447.7 km2 (7,894.9 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2010-12-31)[1] | |||
| • Total | 2,335,006 | ||
| • Density | 114.2/km2 (295.8/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| ISO 3166 code | DE-ST | ||
| GDP/ Nominal | € 48 billion (2005) | ||
| NUTS Region | DEE | ||
| Website | sachsen-anhalt.de | ||
Saxony-Anhalt (German: Sachsen-Anhalt, pronounced [ˌzaksən ˈanhalt]) is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.
Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of 20,447.7 square kilometres (7,894.9 sq mi).[2] It has a population of 2.34 million (more than 2.8 million in 1990).[3]
Saxony-Anhalt should not be confused with Saxony or Lower Saxony, also German states.
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Saxony-Anhalt is one of 16 states of Germany. It is located in the western part of eastern Germany. By size, it is the 8th largest state in Germany, and by population, the 10th largest.
In the north, the Saxony-Anhalt landscape is dominated by plain (North German Plain). The old Hanseatic towns Salzwedel, Gardelegen, Stendal, or Tangermünde are located in the sparsely populated Altmark. The Colbitz-Letzlingen Heath and the Drömling near Wolfsburg mark the transition between the Altmark region and the Elbe-Börde-Heath region with its fertile, sparsely wooded Magdeburg Börde. Notable towns in the Magdeburg Börde are Haldensleben, Oschersleben (Bode), Wanzleben, Schönebeck (Elbe), Aschersleben and the capital Magdeburg, from which the Börde derives its name.
The Harz mountains are located in the south-west, comprising the Harz National Park, the Harz foreland and the Mansfeld Land. The highest mountain of the Harz (and of Northern Germany) is Brocken, with an elevation of 1,141 meters (3,735 ft). In this area, one can find the towns of Halberstadt, Wernigerode, Thale, Eisleben, and Quedlinburg.
The wine-growing area Saale-Unstrut and the towns of Zeitz, Naumburg (Saale), Weißenfels, and Freyburg (Unstrut) are located on the rivers Saale and Unstrut in the south of the state.
The metropolitan area of Halle (Saale) forms an agglomeration with Leipzig in Saxony. This area is known for its highly developed chemical industry (the Chemiedreieck - chemical triangle), with major production plants at Leuna, Schkopau (Buna-Werke) and Bitterfeld. Finally, in the east, Dessau-Roßlau is situated on the Elbe (as is the Magdeburg) in the Anhalt-Wittenberg region.
The capital of Saxony-Anhalt is Magdeburg. It is the largest city in the state, head-to-head with Halle.
Saxony-Anhalt is subdivided into eleven rural districts and three urban districts. The current state was created by two districts reforms. By the first one in 1994, 37 districts were reformed into 21 new districts. The last reform took place on January 1, 2004, when the 21 districts were reordered into now eleven districts.[4]
From 1994 to 2003, Saxony-Anhalt was divided into 21 rural districts ("Landkreise"). Above this level, there were three governmental districts (Regierungsbezirke): Dessau, Halle and Magdeburg. On 1 January 2004 these three governmental districts were abolished.
The rural districts are
and the three urban districts
In April 1945 the US Army liberated most of the western and northern area of future Saxony-Anhalt. The U.S. Group Control Council, Germany (a precursor of the OMGUS) appointed the first non-Nazi officials in leading positions in the area. So Erhard Hübener, furloughed by the Nazis, was reappointed Saxon Landeshauptmann (land-captain). By early July the US Army retired in order to allow the Red Army taking Prussian Saxony as part of its Soviet occupation zone, as agreed by the London Protocol in 1944.
On July 9 the Soviet SVAG ordered to merge the Free State of Anhalt, Halle-Merseburg, the governorate of Magdeburg (in its then borders), Allstedt (before Thuringia) and some Brunswickian eastern exclaves and salients (Calvörde and the eastern part of the former Blankenburg district[5]) into the Prussian Province of Saxony.[6] While the prior Saxon Erfurt governorate had become a part of Thuringia.
For the earlier history see the respective articles of these entities before 1945. Anhalt takes its name from Anhalt Castle near Harzgerode; the origin of the name of the castle remains unknown.
The SVAG appointed Hübener as president of the provincial Saxon administration, a newly created function. The administration was seated in Halle upon Saale, which became the capital, also of later Saxony-Anhalt until 1952. On 3 September 1945 the new administration enacted by Soviet-inspired ordinance the mass expropriations, mostly hitting holders of large real estates, often of noble descent.
On the occasion of the first as well as one and only election in the Soviet zone, allowing parties to really compete for seats in provincial and state parliaments, on 20 October 1946, the Province of Saxony was renamed into Province of Saxony-Anhalt (Provinz Sachsen-Anhalt), accounting for the prior merger.[6] On 3 December 1946 the members of the new provincial parliament elected Hübener the first minister-president of Saxony-Anhalt with the votes of CDU and Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD). So he became the only governor in the Soviet zone, who was no member of the communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). He was an unconvenient governor for the Soviet rulers.
After the official Allied decision to dissolve the Free State of Prussia, which had remained in agony since the Prussian coup of 1932, its former provinces, in as far as they still existed, achieved statehood, thus the province emerged into the State of Saxony-Anhalt on 6 October 1947.[6] It became part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1949. From 1952 to 1990 the East German states had been suppressed and Saxony-Anhalt's territory was divided into the East German districts of Halle and of Magdeburg. In 1990, in the course of German reunification, the districts were reintegrated as a state.
Former Minister-president Wolfgang Böhmer (CDU) did not run for re-election.
These are the official election results (secondary votes):[7]
| Party | Party List votes | Vote percentage | Total Seats | Seat percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 322,897 | 32.5% | 41 | 39.0 |
| The Left Party (Die LINKE(PDS/WASG)) | 234,917 | 23.7% | 29 | 27.6 |
| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 213,586 | 21.5% | 26 | 24.8 |
| Alliance '90/The Greens | 70,906 | 7.1% | 9 | 8.6 |
| National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) | 45,697 | 4.6% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 38,172 | 3.8% | 0 | 0.0% |
| All Others | 67 000 | 6.8% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Totals | 993,175 | 100.0% | 105 | 100.0% |
After German reunification in 1990, the break down of non competitive former GDR industries caused severe economic and social problems. In 2000, Saxony-Anhalt had the highest unemployment rate of all German states, with 20.2 percent.[8]
However, the process of economic transformation seems to be completed. Massive investments in modern infrastructure have taken place since 1990, and the remaining and newly created businesses are highly competitive. For example, the industry has doubled its share of international revenue from 13 percent in 1995 to 26 percent in 2008.[9] Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has fallen considerably.[10] By 2010 the GDP of Saxony-Anhalt was almost two and a half times higher than it was in 1991.[11]
Even though part of this recovery was induced by the quite good performance of the Germany economy, Saxony-Anhalt did not only follow the national trend, but clearly outperformed other German states. For example, it got ahead of three German states in terms of unemployment (10,8 percent, as of September 2011): the German capital and city-state of Berlin (12.7 percent), the city-state of Bremen (11.3 percent), and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (11.1 percent).[12]
In 2010, the majority of citizens in Saxony-Anhalt were non-denominational and more were leaving the churches than entering them.[15]
| OpenStreetMap has geographic data related to: Saxony-Anhalt |
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