Magdeburg

Magdeburg, city, capital of  state Saxony-Anhalt , east-central Germany. It lies along the Elbe River, southwest of Berlin. Magdeburg is situated at a natural crossroads on the Elbe. During the period of German partition, it was the most important inland port of East Germany; inland shipping remains significant. Although German reunification in 1990 brought steep declines in manufacturing activity.

Because the city’s important industrial and commercial facilities were restored and expanded after both World War II and German reunification, the city centre has uncharacteristically wide streets and mid-to-late 20th-century architecture throughout. The Romanesque and Gothic cathedral (1209–1520) dedicated to Saints Maurice and Catherine has survived, and the Monastery of Our Lady (begun c. 1070), the oldest church in the city, has been restored. The Magdeburg Rider, the oldest German equestrian statue (c. 1240), showing Otto the Great, can be seen in Magdeburg’s Cultural History Museum. The physicist Otto von Guericke, on whose name the famous Otto von Guericke Universität is named, was born here in Magdeburg.

Source: Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007, October 11). Magdeburg. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Magdeburg-Germany