Due to its refoundation in 1990, Saxon is today considered one of the “new” Länder, although it is actually very old. Not only does the oldest and most influential medieval compendium of laws, written by Eike von Repgow, bear the name Sachsenspiegel (Saxon Mirror), but early in their history the Saxons provided the kings of Germany and once, under August the Strong, even the king of the Poles, for which the elector unceremoniously converted to Catholicism. This was a tactical move that had no consequences – at least with regard to the question of faith – because the majority of his subjects remained Protestants. Yes, the easygoing Saxons can be stubborn, too.
And proud! Of their inventions, for example. The list of Saxon patents ranges from the first European porcelain, manufactured in Meissen, to the first German steam engine, the first bra, the coffee filter and the 35mm single lens reflex camera to the first “microchip on the basis of 300-millimetre wafer technology”.
When it comes to cultural achievements, too, the Saxons have no trouble keeping up with anyone and everyone. That is proven by figures such as Fichte, Lessing, Nietzsche, Wagner, Schumann, Weber, Bach and Silbermann – to name just a few. Whether Saxon Staatskapelle, Dresden Philharmonie or Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kreuz Choir or St. Thomas’s Choir – they are all renowned. And while culinary snobs may turn their noses up at “Leipziger Allerlei”, a mix of local vegetables, the art world between Berlin and New York has now begun to fall into raptures at the mention of the Leipzig School. That is also part of an old tradition, one that did not just begin when the painters of the Brücke group revolutionized the art of the early 20th century.
Even the young Europe Centre of Arts in Hellerau, where ballet star William Forsythe will soon find a new home, is continuing a great tradition: Mary Wigman and Greta Palucca, for example, once helped to shape expressive dance in the garden city just outside Dresden. Today, when the whole of Dresden sings at the Music Festival, the Leipzig Book Fair answers with the maxim “Leipzig Reads”, demonstrating the enduring rivalry between the two Saxon cities, which is not only fought out in the cultural field.
