Magdeburg has a vibrant history
The Magdeburg Horseman - the first free-standing equestrian statue in the German-speaking world
The Magdeburg Horseman standing in front of the city hall is the first free-standing equestrian statue north of the Alps and, together with the Bamberg Horseman, one of only two surviving equestrian statues from the Middle Ages. It was probably sculpted around 1240 by craftsmen from the Magdeburg Cathedral Sculptory.
Magdeburg Cathedral - the first Gothic cathedral on German soil
The “St. Katharina and Mauritius” Cathedral is the oldest Gothic church on German-speaking soil and, with its height of 104 meters, the tallest sacral building in eastern Germany. Its origins date back to 937 B.C. when Otto I founded a monastery in honour of Saint Mauritius, whose church he had then transformed into a Romanesque cathedral in the year 955. The cathedral, together with the Ottonian imperial palace, formed the centre of the so-called “Third Rome”. When Otto I died in 973, his remains were interred in the cathedral itself.
However, after the Ottonian cathedral was destroyed in a city fire in 1207 B.C., reconstruction began just two years later and lasted for over 300 years until 1520.
The last building designed by Hundertwasser can be found in Magdeburg
The “Green Citadel of Magdeburg” on Breite Weg (Broadway) was the last building designed by the famous architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
Magdeburg - the cradle of the Holy Roman Empire
In 962, Emperor Otto the Great founded what was later known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which existed until 1806. The emperor's favourite residence was in Magdeburg during this time; thus he ended up building a palace and a lavishly furnished cathedral-like minster here. Otto the Great saw himself as the rightful heir to the Roman Caesars. This put 10th century Magdeburg on a par with the capitals of the Roman Empire - Rome - and the Eastern Roman Empire - Constantinople.
There would be no weathermen today if it hadn't been for Guericke back then
Otto von Guericke went down in history as one of the pioneers of weather forecasting.
Among other things, he constructed a two-meter-long sealed barometer filled with water, which he used to predict the weather in 1660. Using this barometer, he observed the fluctuations in air pressure, measured the changes in air temperature with various thermometers and used this to predict the weather patterns. This barometer was given the name “Magdeburg Weatherman”.
Germany's first public park was created in Magdeburg
Between 1825 and 1835, the first public park in Germany was originally created in Magdeburg. Today's Klosterbergegarten was designed by Peter Josef Lenné.
The garden clubhouse was built between 1828 and 1829 to the plans of the Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
Due to the construction of transportation routes, only 11 hectares of the original 33 hectares remain. However, these still enrich the quality of life in this part of Magdeburg today.
The first German motorized flight made its debut in Magdeburg
From 1905-1909, Hans Grade worked in Magdeburg as director of his own engine works.
First flight tests were carried out on the Cracauer Anger, where he undertook the first motorized flight in Germany in a self-built aircraft on October 28th, 1908 (flight was 8m in height, about 100m distance, however, it ended in a crash landing). From 1910, he built sports airplanes in series production in the town of Bork and opened the first German flying school.
The elite of Europe were educated in Magdeburg - 600 years ago at the Magdeburg Cathedral School
Bishop Adelberg of Prague, Archbishop Brun of Querfurt and Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg are just a few of those who attended the Magdeburg Cathedral School, an institution that later became famous. The seven liberal arts, i.e. grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music, were taught there, though sometimes under threat of corporal punishment. To this day, Magdeburg's educational and scientific institutions continue to educate Europe's elite.
Sachsenspiegel and the Magdeburg law - the legal basis for Europe
The jurist Eike von Repgow worked in Magdeburg and was the first person north of the Alps to record feudal law in a law book called the Sachsenspiegel at the beginning of the 13th century. The Sachsenspiegel translates as “Saxon-mirror”. As he writes in the introduction, he wanted to hold up a “mirror” to the Saxons as well as make the law comprehensible to the illiterate in an illustrated manuscript. Legal norms, such as trespassing, some of which are still generally valid today, were also incorporated into Magdeburg's municipal law, which was developed by the Magdeburg Court of Jurymen through juror's verdicts. The Magdeburg law spread throughout Europe like no other medieval municipal law. Jurisdiction was based on Magdeburg law not only in Halberstadt, Göttingen, Goslar, Leipzig and Dresden, but also in Prague, Warsaw, Königsberg and Kiev.
Otto von Guericke invented the concept of the air pump in Magdeburg
The first experimental physicist and later mayor of Magdeburg, Otto von Guericke, was born in Magdeburg in 1602. His most famous experiment is the Magdeburg half-sphere experiment, which serves to demonstrate the force of air pressure. It only became possible to carry out the experiment, for which a vacuum had to be created in the joined half-spheres, after Guericke invented the vacuum air pump in 1650. With this pump and the associated valves and vacuum chamber, he became the founder of vacuum technology and also invented the concept of the air pump that is still used today.
