The Central German Metropolitan Region (german: Metropolregion Mitteldeutschland) is one of the officially established

metropolitan regions in Germany There are eleven metropolitan regions in Germany consisting of the country's most densely populated cities and their catchment areas. They represent Germany's political, commercial and cultural centres. The eleven metropolitan regions in Germany ...

. It is centered on the major cities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and Halle, extending over Central German parts of the states of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

and

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

. The Central German metropolitan region is the only one located entirely within the former

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. The "region" is not actually a

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

in the geographic sense of the word as an agglomeration of nearby urban areas, rather it is a registered association, the ''Europäische Metropolregion Mitteldeutschland e.V.'' whose membership is composed of towns, cities, municipalities, and companies, colleges and chambers of commerce in the central German geographic area, whose representatives vote upon new members. For example,

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

joined the Metropolitan Region in 2009. The registered association owns the management company Metropolregion Mitteldeutschland Management GmbH. As such it forms a planning and marketing framework for the region while retaining the legal independence of its members.

History

Saxon Triangle (Sachsendreieck)

In 1997 the German Ministerial Conference for Regional Development declared the 'Saxon Triangle' (Dresden, Leipzig/Halle, and Chemnitz) as the seventh of 11 metropolitan regions in German.

Central German Metropolitan Region

Out of this initial conference the Initiativkreis Europäische Metropolregionen in Deutschland IKM (Initiative Group for European Metropolitan Regions in Germany) was formed in 2001 which developed the concept of the Central German Metropolitan Region in 2012. In 2013, Dresden and Magdeburg dropped out of the association and the membership has been focused more on cities and towns around Leipzig and Halle.

Members

The largest of the eight member cities are Leipzig in Saxony and Halle (Saale) in Saxony-Anhalt.

Member cities

The member cities have changed over time and the current member cities are as follows: *

(570,000 inhabitants) *

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

(245,500) *

Halle (Saale) Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the Germany, German States of ...

(236,000) *

(105,000) *

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

(99,000) *

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...

(97,000) *

Dessau-Roßlau Dessau-Roßlau () is a '' kreisfreie Stadt'' (urban district) in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Elbe and Mulde. The town was formed by merger of the towns of Dessau and Roßlau in the course of t ...

(87,000) Except for Zwickau and Wittenberg, all towns hold the status of an

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

(i.e. a county-free city).

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

are no longer part of the organization. Some surrounding rural districts have also joined the association.

Counties

6 rural districts (similar to

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

)(German:''

Landkreis In all German states, except for the three city states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a '' Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the (official term in all but two states) or (official term in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia ...

'') also subscribe to membership of the CGMR. *

Altenburger Land Altenburger Land is a district in Thuringia, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the district of Greiz, the Burgenlandkreis (Saxony-Anhalt), and the districts Leipzig, Mittelsachsen and Zwickau in Saxony. The district is a mem ...

(90.650 inhabitants) *

Burgenlandkreis Burgenlandkreis is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its area is . History The district was established as Landkreis Burgenland by the merger of the former Burgenlandkreis and Landkreis Weißenfels as part of the reform of 2007. On 16 ...

(181.968) *

Landkreis Leipzig Leipzig (official name: ''Landkreis Leipzig'') is a district ('' Kreis'') in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is named after the city Leipzig, which is partly surrounded by the district, but not part of it. It borders (from the west and clock ...

(258.008) *

Landkreis Mansfeld-Südharz In all German states, except for the three city states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a '' Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the (official term in all but two states) or (official term in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia ...

(138.013) *

Saalekreis Saalekreis is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The district seat is Merseburg. Its area is . It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts Kyffhäuserkreis (Thuringia), Mansfeld-Südharz, Salzlandkreis, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Nords ...

(185.494) * Landkreis Wittenberg (126.815)

Non-governmental partners

Apart from these administrative units, the metropolitan region publishes a list of industry partners which are official members of the regions planning framework.

Demographics

All towns and cities in the so-called metropolitan region suffered population decline after

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

; however in recent years the populations of Leipzig and Halle have been increasing again. Other urban areas, such as Dessau-Roslau are however still declining.

Transport

The region contains important trade corridors in central Europe, including the routes of several highways of the

International E-road network The international E-road network is a numbering system for roads in Europe developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The network is numbered from E1 up and its roads cross national borders. It also reaches Centr ...

as well as two major German expressways (A9 Munich-Berlin and A14 Dresden-Wismar). Leipzig-Halle is a major railway hub along the

Berlin–Palermo railway axis The Berlin–Palermo railway axis (german: Eisenbahnachse Berlin–Palermo, it, Asse ferroviario Berlino-Palermo) is project No. 1 of the Trans-European high-speed rail network ( TEN-R), which involves the creation of a high-speed rail line betw ...

which is part of the Trans-European high-speed rail network. Other railway mainlines connect it with Dresden, Frankfurt,

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...

and Prague. Leipzig-Halle airport serves as the main airport of the region. It is the second largest freight airport in Germany and a hub of DHL express service. The metropolitan region association has set up a working group on traffic and mobility, the members of which are delegated from various regional stakeholders, i.e. state ministries, cities, counties and public transport associations.https://www.mitteldeutschland.com/sites/default/files/uploads/2018/01/26/180123mitgliederagvemo.pdf

Gallery

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20120110152519/http://www.region-mitteldeutschland.com/en/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Central German Metropolitan Region Metropolitan areas of Germany Geography of Saxony Geography of Saxony-Anhalt Geography of Thuringia