Hotels in Magdeburg

Magdeburg: Elbe River City of Otto von Guericke

Magdeburg, capital of Saxony-Anhalt, sits on the west bank of the Elbe, roughly 130 km west of Berlin. The city's recorded history stretches back to 805 AD, when Charlemagne established a trading post here. Magdeburg Cathedral (Dom St. Mauritius und Katharina), begun in 1209, stands as Germany's oldest Gothic cathedral and marks the city's skyline. Otto von Guericke, mayor of Magdeburg in the 1640s–50s, conducted his famous vacuum experiment with the Magdeburg Hemispheres here in 1654 — a landmark moment in physics history now commemorated in the city museum.

The city was almost completely razed on 10 May 1631 during the Thirty Years' War — one of the worst massacres of the conflict — and again heavily bombed in January 1945. Reconstruction left a patchwork of Baroque survivors, GDR-era blocks, and modern rebuilds. The Grüne Zitadelle, a pink Hundertwasser building completed in 2005, stands as an unusual landmark near the old market. The Elbauenpark, a 100-hectare riverside park created for the Federal Garden Show in 1999, gives the city open green space directly accessible from central neighborhoods.

Practical Tips

• Getting there: Magdeburg Hauptbahnhof connects to Berlin Hbf in under 90 minutes by ICE.
• Getting around: Tram lines 1, 2, 5, and 6 cover the Dom, city centre, and Elbauenpark.
• Best season: April–October for Elbe cycling routes and open-air events at Domplatz.
• Currency: Euro (€); card payment widely accepted.