History
The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:
- the former Duchy of Magdeburg and Principality of Halberstadt, which had been part of the Kingdom of Westphalia from 1807-1813;
- the parts of the Margraviate of Brandenburg that were situated to the west of the Elbe River, such as the Altmark;
- territory gained from the Kingdom of Saxony after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813: the towns and surrounding territories of Wittenberg, Merseburg, Naumburg, Mansfeld, Querfurt, and Henneberg;
- and territory given to Prussia after the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss: lands around Erfurt (formerly directly subordinate to the Emperor of the French as Principality of Erfurt), the Eichsfeld (formerly belonging to the Archbishopric of Mainz) and the former Imperial Cities of Mühlhausen and Nordhausen.
The Province of Saxony was one of the richest regions of Prussia with highly developed agriculture and industry. In 1932 the province was enlarged with the addition of the regions around Ilfeld and Elbingerode, which had previously been part of the Province of Hanover.
On 1 July 1944, the Province of Saxony was divided along the lines of its three administrative regions. The Erfurt Regierungsbezirk was merged with the Herrschaft Schmalkalden district of the Province of Hesse-Nassau and given to the state of Thuringia. The Magdeburg Regierungsbezirk became the Province of Magdeburg, and the Merseburg Regierungsbezirk became the Province of Halle-Merseburg.
In 1945, the Soviet military administration combined Magdeburg and Halle-Merseburg with the State of Anhalt into the Province of Saxony-Anhalt, with Halle as its capital. The eastern part of the Blankenburg exclave of Brunswick and the Thuringian exclave of Allstedt were also added to Saxony-Anhalt. In 1947, Saxony-Anhalt became a state.
Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt were abolished in 1952, but were recreated after the reunification of Germany in 1990 with some slight border changes as modern states of Germany.
Read more about this topic: Province Of Saxony
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