Electorate of Saxony

The Electorate of Saxony (German: Kurfürstentum Sachsen, also Kursachsen), sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356. Upon the extinction of the House of Ascania, it was enfeoffed to the Margraves of Meissen from the Wettin dynasty in 1423, who moved the residence up the Elbe river to Dresden. After the Empire's dissolution in 1806, the Wettin electors raised Saxony to a kingdom.

Formation

After the dissolution of the medieval Duchy of Saxony, the name Saxony was first applied to a small territory on the middle Elbe river around the city of Wittenberg, which formerly had belonged to the March of Lusatia and about 1157 was held by Albert the Bear, the first Margrave of Brandenburg. When Emperor Frederick Barbarossa deposed the Saxon duke Henry the Lion in 1180, the Wittenberg lands belonged to Albert's youngest son Count Bernhard of Anhalt, who assumed the Saxon ducal title. Bernard's eldest son, Albert I, ceded Anhalt to his younger brother Henry, retained the ducal title and added to this territory the lordship of Lauenburg. His sons divided the possessions into the duchies of Saxe-Wittenberg and Saxe-Lauenburg. Both lines claimed the Saxon electoral dignity, which led to confusion during the 1314 election of the Wittelsbach duke Louis of Bavaria as King of the Romans against his Habsburg rival Duke Frederick the Fair of Austria, as both candidates received one vote each from the two rival Ascanian branches.

John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony

John Frederick I (German: Johann Friedrich I; Torgau, 30 June 1503 – Weimar, 3 March 1554), called John the Magnanimous, was Elector of Saxony and Head of the Protestant Confederation of Germany (the Schmalkaldic League), "Champion of the Reformation".

Early years

John Frederick was the eldest son of Elector John by his first wife, Sophie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His mother died fourteen days after his birth, on 12 July 1503.

He received his education from George Spalatin, whom he highly esteemed during his whole life. Spalatin was Martin Luther's friend and advisor and thus, through Spalatin's schooling, John developed a devotion to the teachings of Martin Luther. His knowledge of history was comprehensive, and his library, which extended over all sciences, was one of the largest in Germany.

He cultivated a personal relationship with Martin Luther, beginning to correspond with him in the days when the bull of excommunication was hurled against the Reformer, and showing himself a convinced adherent of Luther. With vivid interest he observed the development of the reformatory movement. He eagerly read Luther's writings, urged the printing of the first complete (Wittenberg) edition of his works, and in the latter years of his life promoted the compilation of the Jena edition. At the Elector castle at Torgau, he constructed a chapel specifically designed to be a Lutheran place of worship and invited Martin Luther to deliver the inaugural sermon. The influence of Lutheranism at John Frederick's court is visible also in the translation by Veit Warbeck of the French romance the Magelone, made in preparation of John Frederick's marriage in 1527; Catholic elements are suppressed.

Frederick I, Elector of Saxony

Frederick I, the Belligerent or the Warlike (German: Friedrich der Streitbare; 11 April 1370 – 4 January 1428), a member of the House of Wettin, ruled as Margrave of Meissen from 1407 and Elector of Saxony (as Frederick I) from 1423 until his death.

He is not to be confused with his cousin Landgrave Frederick IV of Thuringia, the son of Landgrave Balthasar.

Biography

He was the eldest son of Frederick III, Landgrave of Thuringia, and Catherine of Henneberg. After the death of his uncle William I, Margrave of Meissen in 1407, he governed the Margraviate of Meissen together with his brother William II as well as with his cousin Frederick IV (son of Balthasar), until their possessions were divided in 1410 and 1415.

In the German town war of 1388 he assisted Frederick V of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, and in 1391 did the same for the Teutonic Order against Wladislaus II of Poland. He supported Rupert III, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, in his struggle with King Wenceslaus for the German throne, probably because Wenceslaus refused to fulfill a promise to give him his sister Anna in marriage.

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen [ˈfʁaɪ̯ʃtaːt ˈzaksən]; Upper Sorbian: Swobodny stat Sakska) is a landlocked federal state of Germany, bordering the federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig.

Saxony is the tenth-largest of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres (7,109 sq mi), and the sixth most populous, with 4.3 million people.

Located in the middle of a large, formerly all German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, and twice a republic.

The area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and the Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt (German: Sachsen-Anhalt, pronounced [ˌzaksn̩ ˈanhalt]) is a landlocked federal state of Germany surrounded by the federal states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia.

Its capital is Magdeburg. Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of 20,447.7 square kilometres (7,894.9 sq mi) and has a population of 2.34 million.

Saxony-Anhalt should not be confused with Saxony or Lower Saxony, also German states.

Geography

Saxony-Anhalt is one of 16 Bundesländer (see German: Bundesland) 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.

It borders four fellow Bundesländer: Lower Saxony to the north-west, Brandenburg to the north-east, Saxony to the south-east, and Thuringia to the south-west.

In the north, the Saxony-Anhalt landscape is dominated by plain (North German Plain). The old Hanseatic towns Salzwedel, Gardelegen, Stendal, and 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.

Saxony (wine region)

Saxony (Sachsen) is a region for quality wine in Germany located in the German federal state of Saxony. The region is sometimes referred to colloquially as the Elbtal (Elbe valley). The wine region covers 462 hectares (1,140 acres), which makes it Germany's third smallest region, just ahead of Mittelrhein and Hessische Bergstraße in size. It is situated along the Elbe river from the Pillnitz section of Dresden to the village of Diesbar-Seußlitz located north of Meissen. Together with the Saale-Unstrut wine region, Saxony is one of the northernmost wine regions in Europe and are the only two of Germany's 13 wine regions that are located in the former East Germany. After German reunification in 1990, the vineyard surface was expanded from 200 to 450 hectares with European Union subsidies, but in recent years the vineyard area has decreased.

History

The area of Saxony has a long winemaking tradition with evidence of viticulture in the region dating as far back as 1161 in Meissen.