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Magdeburg, the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, lies on the Elbe river.
History
Magdeburg was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Emperor Otto I lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death. Important dates in the town's history include:
- 805 First recorded mention in the Diedenhof Capitulary as Magadoburg. Although settlement on the site had existed for centuries, the first mention of Magdeburg occurred during the reign of the emperor Charlemagne, when he secured the small fishing and trading town.
- 919 King Henry I the Fowler fortifies Magdeburg against the Magyars and Slavs.
- 929 Henry I arranges with king Edward the Elder for Edward's daughter Edith (Editha, Eadgyth) to marry Otto I, son of Henry. At Otto and Edith's wedding she receives Magdeburg as a Morgengabe - a Germanic customary gift received by the new bride from the groom and his family after the wedding night. Editha had a particular love for the town and often lived there. The emperor also continually returned to it.
- 937 A royal assembly takes place in Magdeburg. At the same time, the Benedictine abbey of Saint Maurice, later the cathedral, is founded.
- 946 Queen Edith dies and is buried in the abbey church crypt.
- 968 At the Synod of Ravenna, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg is founded and Adalbert receives consecration as its first archbishop. It included the bishoprics of Havelberg, Brandenburg, Merseburg, Meissen, and Zeitz-Naumburg. The archbishops played a preeminent role in the task of German colonization of the Slavic lands east of the Elbe river.
- 973 Emperor Otto I dies and is buried in the cathedral of Magdeburg.
- 1035 Magdeburg receives a patent giving the city the right to hold trade exhibits and conventions, the basis of the later family of city laws known as Magdeburg rights. Many visitors from many countries begin to trade in Magdeburg.
- 1118 The city is almost destroyed by fire.
- Ca. 1240 the first equestrian sculpture north of the alps, the Magdeburger Reiter ("Magdeburg equestrian"), was created, probably showing Otto I.
- 13th century Magdeburg becomes a member of the Hanseatic League. At the time of the Hanseatic League it was with Brussels, Antwerp, Cologne, Nuremberg, Lübeck, Padova, Mantova, Cremona, Verona, Piacenza, Milano, Genova, Firenze, Metz and Strasbourg one of the cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants in the Roman Empire. The town had an active maritime commerce on the west (towards Flanders), with the countries of the Baltic Sea, and maintained traffic and communication with the interior (for example Brunswick). The city had an autonomous administration form, known as Magdeburger Recht (Magdeburg Right), that later was adopted by many cities of Eastern Europe. The citizens are constantly in struggle against the archbishop, becoming nearly independent from him by the end of the 15th century.
- 1524 Martin Luther is called to Magdeburg, where he preaches and causes the city's defection from Catholicism. The Reformation had found speedy adherents in the city, where Luther had been a schoolboy.
- Emperor Charles V repeatedly outlawed the unruly town , which had joined the Alliance of Torgau, and the Schmalkaldic League . Because it had not accepted the "Interim" (1548), the city is, by the emperor's commands, besieged (1550-1551) by the Elector Maurice of Saxony, but retained its independence. The rule of the Archbishop was replaced by that of various administrators, taken from Protestant dynasties.
- In the following years Magdeburg gains a reputation as a stronghold of Protestantism and becomes the first major city to publish the writings of Martin Luther. Matthias Flacius and his companions write their anti-Catholic pamphlets and the Magdeburg Centuries, in which they argued that the Catholic Church had become the kingdom of Anti-Christ.
- 1631 During the Thirty Years' War imperial troops storm the city and commit a massacre, killing about 20,000 inhabitants and burning the town in the sack of Magdeburg. The city had withstood a first siege in 1629 by Albrecht von Wallenstein. After the war only a population of 400 remain in the totally destroyed town.
- 1648 The Peace of Westphalia rules that Madgeburg will fall to Brandenburg-Prussia after the death of the current administrator (a Saxon prince).
- 1654 Otto von Guericke makes the Magdeburg hemispheres, two hollow shells with rings for attaching ropes, puts them together with grease, and evacuates the air with a pump that he had invented some years before. Sixteen horses failed to pull the hemispheres apart.
- 1680 After the death of the last administrator, Brandenburg-Prussia annexes Magdeburg as the semi-autonomous Duchy of Magdeburg.
- 1806 In the course of the Napoleonic Wars, the fortress surrenders to the French troops. The city is annexed to the French-controlled Kingdom of Westphalia. King Jérôme appoints Count Heinrich von Blumenthal Mayor (his statue still to be seen in the Nordpark).
- 1815 After the Napoleonic Wars Prussia sets up the Prussian Province of Saxony, with Magdeburg as its capital.
- 1912 The fortress is dismantled.
- Before the Second World War Magdeburg was the seat of the German section of the Watchtower Society.
- 1945 During World War II Magdeburg (then a city of about 340,000 inhabitants) suffers near total destruction from Allied firebombing. The very impressive Gründerzeit suburbs north of the city, called the Nordfront, are destroyed as well as the city's main street with its Baroque buildings. It was the second most devastated city in Germany; only Dresden suffered more. American and Soviet troops occupy the city; however, the Americans soon leave, leaving the city under Soviet stewardship.
- 1945-1990 In the postwar years, many of the remaining pre-World War II city buildings are destroyed, with only a few buildings near the Cathedral restored to their pre-war state. Prior to Reunification, many surviving Gründerzeit buildings are left uninhabited and, after years of degradation, waiting for demolition. From 1949 on until German reunification on 3 october 1990 Magdeburg belonged to the German Democratic Republic.
- 1990 Magdeburg becomes the capital of the new state of Saxony-Anhalt within reunified Germany. The city center is rebuilt almost exclusively in a modern style.
- 1994 Magdeburg becomes the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese.
Cathedral of Magdeburg
Magdeburg's most impressive building, the Cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice, has a height of 104 m.: the highest church building of eastern Germany. It is notable for its beautiful and unique sculptures, especially the "Twelve Virgins" at the Northern Gate, the depictions of Otto I the Great and his wife Editha as well as the statues of St Maurice and St Catherine. The statue of St Maurice (ca. 1250) is one of the few where Maurice is correctly displayed as a black man with African features holding a sword and wearing chainmail. It is in fact the oldest depiction of a black person in Europe. St Catherine is dressed like a young teenage girl from the time of the statue's creation wold have been - the equivalent to a girl in jeans and T-Shirt today. (Quite the scandal then.)
The predecessor of the cathedral was a church built in 937 within an abbey, called St. Maurice. Emperor Otto I the Great was buried here beside his wife in 973. St. Maurice burnt to ashes in 1207. The exact location of that church remained unknown for a long time. The foundations were rediscovered in May 2003, revealing a building 80 m long and 41 m wide.
The construction of the new church lasted 300 years. The cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice was the first Gothic church building of Germany. The completion of the steeples took place only in 1520.
While the cathedral was virtually the only building to survive the massacres of the Thirty Years' War, it nevertheless suffered damage in World War II. But it was soon rebuilt and completed in 1955.
The place in front of the cathedral (sometimes called "new marketplace", Neuer Markt) was occupied by an imperial palace (Kaiserpfalz), which was destroyed in the fire of 1207. The stones of the ruin served for building the cathedral. The presumptive remains of the palace were excavated in the 1960s.
Other sights
- Unser Lieben Frauen Monastery (Our Beloved Lady), 11th century, containing the church of St. Mary. Today a museum for Modern Art. Home of the National Collection of Small Art Statues of the GDR (Nationale Sammlung Kleinkunstplastiken der DDR).
- Town hall (1698); a town hall had stood on the marketplace since the 13th century, but it was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War; the new town hall was built in a Renaissance style influenced by Dutch architecture. It has ben renovated and reopened in Oct 2005.
- Landtag; the seat of the government of Saxony-Anhalt is a Baroque palace built in 1724.
- The city has monuments depicting emperor Otto I(old marketplace, 1240) and Otto von Guericke (1907).
- Ruins of the greatest stronghold of the former kingdom of Prussia.
- Rotehorn-Park.
- Elbauenpark containing the highest wooden tower in the world.
- Hundertwasser-Building, finished in 2005.
- Johannischurch
- The Magdeburg Water Bridge, Europe's longest water bridge
Magdeburg is one of the major towns along the Elbe Cycle Route (Elberadweg).
Trivia
- SC Magdeburg is an important handball club.
- Georg Philipp Telemann, Otto von Guericke and SPD politician Erich Ollenhauer were from Magdeburg.
- FDP politician Burkhard Hirsch is from Magdeburg.
- The sister cities of Magdeburg are Brunswick, Nashville and Sarajevo.
People
- (Friedrich Otto) Richard Falckenberg (1851 - 1920), a German philosophy historian, born here.
- Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730 – 1794), an American Patriot.
- Kurt Singer, a philosopher
See also
External links
- Official Magdeburg homepage (English)
- Official Student Community WebUni
- Student Community Unihelp
- IKUS - the intercultural Students of Magdeburg (English/German)
- Satellite photo from April, 2005
- History society of Magdeburg and surround e.V.
Cities in Germany | German state capitals | Hanseatic League | Martin Luther | Towns in Saxony-Anhalt
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