MAGDEBURG

city, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), east-central Germany. It lies along the Elbe River, southwest of Berlin. First mentioned in 805 as a small trading settlement on the frontier of the Slavic lands, it became important under Otto I, who founded the Benedictine abbey of SS. Peter, Maurice, and Innocent there (c. 937). In 962 it became the seat of an archbishopric, the boundaries of which were fixed in 968, comprising the bishoprics of Havelberg, Brandenburg, Merseburg, Meissen, and Zeitz-Naumburg. The archbishopric played a major part in the German colonization of the Slavic lands east of the Elbe. Although it was burned down in 1188, Magdeburg became a flourishing commercial centre in the 13th century and was a leading member of the Hanseatic League. In that century also it established an autonomous municipal administration that, known as the Magdeburger Recht (Magdeburg Law), was later widely adopted throughout eastern Europe. Its citizens, in almost constant conflict with the archbishops, became nearly independent of them by the end of the 15th century. Magdeburg embraced the Reformation in 1524 and was thenceforth governed by Protestant titular archbishops. During the Thirty Years' War it successfully resisted a siege by imperial forces under Albrecht von Wallenstein in 1629 but was stormed in 1631 by Johann von Tilly, who burned and sacked the city and butchered about 20,000 of the city's 30,000 inhabitants. By the Peace of Westphalia (1648) the archbishopric became a secular duchy, passing to the electorate of Brandenburg on the death of the last administrator in 1680. In 1806 the fortress of Magdeburg surrendered to Napoleon without fighting 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. The fortress was dismantled in 1912. Heavy bombing in 1945 destroyed much of the city, including the Renaissance town hall (1691). The Romanesque and Gothic Cathedral of SS. Maurice and Catherine (12091520) survived, and the Church of Our Lady (begun c. 1070), the oldest church in the city, has been restored. The Magdeburger Reiter (Magdeburg Rider), the oldest German equestrian statue (c. 1240), and the two accompanying female figures, can be seen in the town's museum. There are numerous schools and technical colleges and a medical academy. The physicist Otto von Guericke, the composer Georg Telemann, and the soldier Frederick William, Baron von Steuben were born in Magdeburg. The city's important industrial and commercial facilities have been restored and expanded since World War II. It is now a centre of food processing, particularly sugar refining and flour milling, and of metalworking and heavy engineering. A chemical industry and textile milling are also significant. Magdeburg is situated at a natural crossroads on the Elbe at the junction of six major railway lines and seven arterial highways and is linked to the Rhine River by the Mittelland Canal and with Berlin and the lower Oder River by another system of canals. During the period of German partition, it was the most important inland port of East Germany. Pop. (1990 est.) 288,355.