Sachsen

Sachsen (Saxony)belonged from 1949 to 1990 to the DDR (see Deutsche Demokratische Republik) and is now a Freistaat of the Federal Republic (see Bundesrepublik Deutschland). Saxony, with Dresden as its capital and Leipzig, Meißen, famous for its porcelain industry, and Chemnitz (from 1953 to 1990 Karl-Marx-Stadt) as its other principal cities, was a kingdom from 1806 (a creation by Napoleon) until November 1918, after which it became a republic known as the Freistaat Sachsen, resuming this description in 1990. See also Freiberg.

The early medieval dukes of Saxony ruled over a different area (present Niedersachsen) until the fall of Heinrich der Löwe in 1180. The Saxony of the early 20th c. was the surviving territory of an electorate created in 1423 (see Friedrich der Streitbare). It played an important part in the Reformation under Friedrich der Weise, Luther's supporter. In the early 18th c. the state enjoyed a period of cultural florescence with Leipzig University in high repute, and Dresden developing into a baroque and rococo city of great magnificence. The Electors, however, wasted their substance as unsuccessful kings of Poland (see August II, der Starke), and the land suffered repeatedly as a bufferstate between Austria and Prussia, being habitually on the losing side in wars (1763, see Siebenjähriger Krieg; 1813, see Napoleonic Wars; 1866, see Deutscher Krieg), and having to forfeit territory, especially in 1815 and 1867.