Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt is a state in east-central Germany with an outsized cultural legacy, the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation and the Bauhaus design movement. Its capital is Magdeburg. Despite a modest profile, it holds a remarkable concentration of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Saxony-Anhalt is largely flat fertile farmland in the north and east, rising to the Harz mountains in the southwest, drained by the Elbe and Saale rivers. The climate is temperate continental, relatively dry.

The state's culture is defined by its historic towns, from Luther's Wittenberg to the Bauhaus school in Dessau and the medieval cathedral city of Magdeburg. It blends deep religious and design history with rural traditions.

It was in Wittenberg that Martin Luther launched the Reformation in 1517, and in Dessau that the Bauhaus reshaped modern design. Formed after the Second World War and re-established in 1990, the state preserves this layered heritage.