In the city of Magdeburg, lies along the Elbe, southwest of Berlin, in east-central Germany

 At 1,200+ years old, Magdeburg is one of the oldest cities in Germany's eastern federal states. Its moving past, as well as its present, are reflected in the many attractions this city on the Elbe River has to offer.

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(in the capital of the Saxony-Anhalt state in east-central Germany) The city of Magdeburg, lies along the Elbe, southwest of Berlin. First mentioned in 805 as a small trading settlement on the frontier of the Slavic lands, it became important under the first Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I (the Great), who founded the Benedictine abbey here. In 962 it became the seat of an archbishopric, which played a major part in the German colonization of the Slavic lands east of the Elbe. Magdeburg's version of German municipal law, known as Magdeburg Rights, spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe. In the Late Middle Ages, Magdeburg was one of the most prosperous German cities (and a leading member of the Hanseatic League.)

+ Magdeburg has been destroyed twice in its history. The Catholic League sacked Magdeburg in 1631, resulting in the largest loss of the Thirty Years' War. During World War II the Allies bombed the city, destroying much of it. After the war, the city belonged to the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to 1990 (when German reunification was achieved).
+ Magdeburg is situated on Autobahn 2 and Autobahn 14, the connection point of the East (Berlin and beyond) with the West of Europe, as well as the North and South of Germany. There are many important cultural institutions in the city, including the Theater Magdeburg and the Museum of Cultural History.

+ Magdeburg embraced the Reformation in 1524 and was afterwards governed by Protestant titular archbishops. By the Peace of Westphalia (in 1648) the archbishopric became a secular duchy, passing to the electorate of Brandenburg (in1680). In 1806 the fortress of Magdeburg surrendered to Napoleon -- and was included in the kingdom of Westphalia until 1813. In 1815 the city became the capital of the newly constituted Prussian province of Saxony. Today Magdeburg is a center of food processing, particularly sugar refining and flour milling, and of metalworking and heavy engineering. (A chemical industry and textile milling are also significant.).

+ The Romanesque and Gothic Cathedral (1209–1520) dedicated to Saints Maurice and Catherine has survived, and the Monastery of Our Lady (begun around 1070, the oldest church in the city) has been restored. The Magdeburg Rider, the oldest German equestrian statue showing Otto the Great, can be seen in Magdeburg’s Cultural History Museum. The physicist Otto von Guericke, the composer Georg Telemann, and the soldier Frederick William, Freiherr (baron) von Steuben, were born in Magdeburg.

+ Known for being the historic city of Emperor Otto, Magdeburg is also a hub of science and research; a similar striking difference can also be seen in its architecture, where ancient structures sit alongside imaginative futuristic buildings.