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.