Magdeburg
Magdeburg, the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, lies on the Elbe river. As of 2004 it had a population of 226,200.
History
Magdeburg was one of the most important medieval cities of Germany. Emperor 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.
- 929 Henry I arranged 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 received Magdeburg as a Morgengabe - a Germanic customary gift received by the new bride from the groom and his family after the wedding night.
- 937 A royal assembly took place in Magdeburg. At the same time, the abbey of St. Maurice, later the cathedral, was founded.
- 946 Queen Edith died and was buried in the abbey church crypt.
- 968 At the Synod of Ravenna, Magdeburg became elevated to the status of archbishopric and Adalbert received consecration as its first Archbishop.
- 973 Emperor Otto I dies and is buried in the cathedral of Magdeburg.
- 1035 Magdeburg received a patent giving the city the right to hold trade exibits and conventions, the basis of the later family of city laws known as Magdeburg rights. Many visitors from many countries trade in Magdeburg.
- 1524 Martin Luther is called to Magdeburg, where he preaches and causes the city's defection from Catholicism. In the following years Magdeburg gains a reputation as a stronghold of Protestantism and it becomes the first major city to publish the writings of Martin Luther. The emperor outlaws the unruly town.
- 1631 During the Thirty Years' War imperial troops storm the city and commit a massacre, killing about 20,000 inhabitants. After the war only a population of 400 remains in the totally destroyed town.
- 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 fail pull the hemispheres apart.
- 1945 During World War II Magdeburg (350.000 inhabitants) suffers almost totally destruction due to Allied air raids. Even the suburbs around the innercity were destroyed, notably the very impressive Gründerzeit areas in the North, called the Nordfront. It reputedly ranks as the second most-destroyed large city of Germany (only Dresden suffered even more). American and Soviet troops occupy the city, but the Americans soon depart.
- 1945-1990 In the years after the war the remains of the old city were remorselessly removed and only a few buildings near the Cathedral restored. Until today many surviving buildings of the Gründerzeit are left unhabited and after years of degradation are waiting to be demolished. Few remains to testimony of a once proud, densely built and rich decorated city. Greatest architectonical loss is perhaps the once impressive and enormous building of the "Justiz-Palast".
- 1990 Magdeburg becomes the capital of the new state of Saxony-Anhalt within reunified Germany. The city centre is almost exclusively rebuilt with modern flat roofed buildings.
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.
The predecessor of the cathedral was a church built in 937 within an abbey, called St. Maurice. Emperor Otto I 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 sufferred destruction 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
- Monastery "Unser Lieben Frauen" (literally "Our Beloved Lady"), 11th century, containing the church of St. Mary.
- Town hall (1698); a town hall has 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.
- Landtag; the seat of the government of Saxony-Anhalt is a Baroque palace built in 1724.
- Monuments: the city has monuments depicting emperor Otto I (old marketplace, 1240) and Otto von Guericke (1907).
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