Magdeburg

Industrial city and capital of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, on the River Elbe; population (2003 est) 224,100. Products include chemicals, metal products, precision instruments, paper, textiles, and machinery; food-processing is also important, primarily in sugar refining and flour milling. A former capital of Saxony, Magdeburg became capital of Saxony-Anhalt on German reunification in 1990. A large inland port, the city was linked by canal with the Rhine and Ruhr rivers in 1938. It was heavily bombed during World War II; about 65% of the city, including the entire old city, was destroyed.

Magdeburg was a leading member of the Hanseatic League, and has a 13th-century Gothic cathedral (damaged by bombing). There is a technical university here. Magdeburg county has an area of 11,530 sq km/4,451 sq mi, and a population of 1,250,000.

History First mentioned in 805 as a Saxon outpost, the town became a centre for the colonization of Slav territories under Otto I. Established as an archbishopric in 968, the charter it received from the archbishops later became the model of numerous medieval town charters in the Holy Roman Empire. Historically, Magdeburg became important because of its situation on the ancient trade route from Cologne in the west to Leipzig and beyond in the east. In the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) the city was almost completely destroyed and the population drastically reduced. A number of baroque house fronts have been rebuilt in the Cathedral Square.

Famous people The composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was born in the city, and his music features in the annual Organ Festival held in April. The physicist Otto von Guericke, and Baron von Steuben (Prussian officer who served as a general in the American Revolutionary War) were also born here.

Magdeburg

German cruiser. It was run aground by a Russian naval force in the Gulf of Finland in August 1914 and its code books retrieved intact. The salvage of these code books allowed the Allies to read German Naval codes for most of World War I.