In recent years, Saxony has made international headlines as a hotbed of political extremism. The Pegida movement (“Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West”) emerged in Dresden in 2014, when refugees from the Syrian civil war came to Dresden.
Pegida began to organize regular demonstrations against the alleged Islamization of Germany and its asylum policy.
In 2015, a series of xenophobic attacks and acts of violence against asylum seekers’ accommodation took place in the small Saxon town of Freital. In August 2018, right-wing extremist demonstrations and riots lasted for days in Chemnitz after it was announced that a German citizen had been killed by migrants.
The right-wing extremist terrorist group “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) found temporary shelter in Saxony in 1998. From there, between 2000 and 2007, they set out and murdered nine migrants and a policewoman.
Saxony is also known for its left-wing extremist tendencies. In the Leipzig district of Connewitz in particular, there are regular clashes between left-wing extremist groups and the police.
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has headed the Saxon government since 1990. Since the 2019 state elections, Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer has led a coalition government with the Greens and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).
At that time, the CDU received 32 percent of the vote. But now polls suggest that the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is classified by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” party, could overtake the CDU in the election on September 1.
Saxony’s revolutionary history
Saxony calls itself a “free state”. This status dates back to 1918, when the monarchy in Saxony was abolished to express that the state was no longer subordinate to a king. Today, the free state no longer has any special rights in Germany’s federal system.
After the Second World War, Saxony was part of the Soviet occupation zone in 1945 and of the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR), which emerged from it in October 1949.
The peaceful revolution that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification began in Saxony in 1989. In the autumn of 1989, the so-called “Monday demonstrations” began in the Saxon city of Leipzig, demanding political reforms and freedom of expression. The demonstrations spread to other cities and developed into a broader protest movement in the GDR.
On October 3, 1990, the day of German reunification, Saxony was restored as a federal state.
Population and economy
With over 4 million inhabitants, Saxony is the seventh most populous state in Germany. The state capital is Dresden with over 570,000 inhabitants. The most populous city is Leipzig with almost 620,000 inhabitants.
According to information on the website of the Federal Institute for Population Research, Saxony lost almost 700,000 inhabitants after reunification due to brain drain, which corresponds to a population decline of 14 percent. This trend is likely to continue, as the death rate is higher than the birth rate.
According to statistics from the state’s Commissioner for Foreigners, 331,866 foreigners lived in Saxony at the end of 2023. This corresponds to 8.1 percent of all residents. The proportion of foreigners in Saxony is thus well below the national average of 15.2 percent, as determined by the Federal Statistical Office last November. The largest group were Ukrainians, followed by Syrians and Poles.
Well over 80% of the Saxon population does not belong to any church. Almost 16% are members of the Protestant Church and just over 3% of the Catholic Church.
Since reunification, major German car manufacturers such as Volkswagen, BMW and Porsche have built their production facilities where the Trabant (Trabi) was once assembled. The website of the Saxon Ministry of Economic Affairs states: “About one in eight cars built in Germany comes from Saxony.” The switch to electric vehicles is expected to provide a further boost.
For over a quarter of a century, the region around Dresden has been considered Saxony’s Silicon Valley. According to the Saxon state government, the region is the leading center of the semiconductor industry in Europe and is among the top 5 worldwide.
The unemployment rate is low compared to other eastern German states. According to the Federal Employment Agency, it was 6.2 percent last year, and 5.7 percent nationwide.
Science and cultural heritage
Saxony is home to internationally renowned universities such as the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Leipzig. The Technical University has been recognized as a “University of Excellence” for its outstanding research and is funded by the federal and state governments.
In addition, there are numerous scientific institutions and innovation centers, including the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Research and Development and the Max Planck Institute for Basic Research.
Saxony welcomes around 8 million tourists every year. The most popular attractions include the spectacular rock formations of the so-called “Saxon Switzerland”, the Vogtland, Meissen with its world-famous porcelain, the half-timbered villages of Upper Lusatia and the World Heritage Ore Mountains, which were shaped by centuries of mining and are home to the famous German Christmas pyramids.
The cities are world-famous for their historical and cultural sights. These include baroque buildings such as the Zwinger, the Frauenkirche and the Semperoper in Dresden or the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), one of Germany’s most important composers, worked as a cantor at the famous St. Thomas Church in Leipzig.
Every year in spring, Leipzig is the meeting place for the literary scene. This is when the Leipzig Book Fair takes place, the most visited book fair in Germany.
This article was originally written in German.
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