The Free State of Saxony
Published: Thursday, Aug 22nd 2024, 05:20
Retour au fil d'actualité
Whether Augustus the Strong, Richard Wagner or the arithmetician Adam Ries - the list of Saxony's famous sons is long. As an electorate and a kingdom, Saxony has helped shape German history for centuries. Baroque splendor in Dresden or the porcelain manufactory in Meissen make today's eastern German state a popular travel destination, as do the landscapes of the Ore Mountains and Saxon Switzerland. With almost 4.1 million inhabitants, Saxony is the most populous of the East German states. Having disappeared from the map after the dissolution of the states in the GDR in 1952, it has been part of reunified Germany since 1990 and calls itself the "Free State". Saxony was once considered a center of industrialization in Germany. After the collapse of the GDR industry, semiconductor companies settled in Dresden, including Infineon. With the VW, BMW and Porsche factories in Zwickau and Leipzig, there is also a car industry again. However, no large corporations have their headquarters in Saxony. In addition to the Saxons, who are often mocked in Germany for their dialect, the state is also home to Lower Silesians, Vogtlanders and the Slavic-speaking Sorbs.
©Keystone/SDA
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Arabic