Saxony-Anhalt, one of Germany's 16 federal states, boasts a rich cultural and historical heritage.
Many of the world-famous architects associated with the Bauhaus in Dessau lived and worked here. The towns of Eisleben and, above all, Wittenberg preserve the memory of the great reformer Martin Luther. It was in Wittenberg that he famously nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church, setting the Reformation in motion.
Saxony-Anhalt is also home to the Chemical Triangle around Leuna and Bitterfeld in the eastern part of the state, which still accounts for around 10,000 jobs. To the west lies the Harz mountain range, while the Elbe River, one of Europe's major waterways, flows through the state from southeast to north.
The southern part of Saxony-Anhalt is being forced to reinvent itself as it undergoes structural change following the decision to phase out lignite coal. Unemployment remains slightly above the national average.
Home to around 2.1 million people, it is one of Germany's more sparsely populated states. Only two cities, the state capital Magdeburg and Halle, have more than 200,000 inhabitants.
Nevertheless, in September, international attention is likely to turn to this small eastern German state. For the first time in postwar German history, a candidate from a party that Germany's domestic intelligence agency has classified as "confirmed right-wing extremist" in parts could become the head of a state government. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose lead candidate is Ulrich Siegmund, holds a clear lead in all opinion polls.
AfD far ahead in latest polls
Just before the election, the AfD is polling at more than 40% in Saxony-Anhalt. The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has been the dominant governing party in the state since German reunification in 1990, trails far behind, with support ranging between 23% and 26%.
The state office for the protection of the constitution has classified the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist" organization, but this has done little to dent its popularity among voters. The Left Party is polling at 13%, while support for the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) stands at between 6% and 7%. It remains uncertain whether the Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) will succeed in returning to the state parliament.
CDU politician Reiner Haseloff served as state premier of Saxony-Anhalt for 15 years before stepping down in January 2026. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Haseloff said he had often felt, while sitting in the state parliament in Magdeburg, "as though I were in the final phase of the Weimar Republic's Reichstag, or later in Berlin's Sportpalast."
The Weimar Republic, Germany's first democracy, came to an end in 1933 when the Nazis seized power. It was in Berlin's Sportpalast that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, a close confidant of Adolf Hitler, delivered his notorious 1943 "total war" speech.
Haseloff's successor, Sven Schulze, also of the CDU, must now take on the AfD in the upcoming election. If he fails, the CDU's long dominance of state politics could come to an end. Most recently, the conservatives governed in coalition with the Social Democrats and the FDP.
Saxony-Anhalt's unusual political history
From 1994 to 2002, Saxony-Anhalt was also at the center of national political attention. In July 1994, the Social Democrat Reinhard Höppner formed a minority government with the ecologist Greens that relied on the support of the left-wing Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party.
Just five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, cooperation with the heirs to East Germany's former ruling party was widely seen across the country, especially by conservatives, as crossing a political red line.
Support for extremist parties has long been stronger in Saxony-Anhalt than in many other parts of Germany. In 1998, the far-right German People's Union (DVU), classified as right-wing extremist, won 12.9% of the vote and entered the state parliament. However, internal divisions within the party were so deep that it chose not to contest the 2002 state election.
What's driving AfD support in Saxony-Anhalt?
Experts attribute the AfD's strong showing in the polls largely to the widespread dissatisfaction many people in the state feel with developments in Germany. Many jobs disappeared in the years following reunification, particularly in the lignite mining and chemical industries.
Saxony-Anhalt also faces pronounced demographic challenges. With an average age of 48.3 years, it had Germany's oldest population in 2024. The state also has a pronounced gender imbalance among younger age groups, with approximately 120,240 men aged 18 to 29 compared with around 103,177 women. At the end of 2025, foreign nationals accounted for about 9% of the population, compared with roughly 15% nationwide. Many young people left the state and never returned.
Many people oppose further immigration, even though the state's foreign population remains comparatively small. Nevertheless, its size has increased markedly over the past decade. According to the state's Statistical Office, the number of people without German citizenship has more than doubled since 2015.
What would AfD rule mean for Saxony-Anhalt?
According to many observers, the success of the far-right DVU some 25 years ago demonstrates that right-wing extremist parties have long had a loyal core electorate in Saxony-Anhalt. Today, that electorate largely backs the AfD, regardless of its election manifesto or policy program.
Political scientist Benjamin Höhne of the Chemnitz University of Technology told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that he believes the AfD would seek to reshape the constitutional order if it were to take power in Saxony-Anhalt. Liberal democratic and rule-of-law principles, he argued, would be systematically eroded.
"I think the AfD is currently watching the United States very closely," he said. In his view, President Donald Trump's administration in the US is pursuing a similar course.
Höhne believes, however, that such radical agendas would be difficult to implement in a single federal state. "You cannot simply pull a lever in one state and expect everything to fall into line with a far-right script," he said.
One thing seems certain: on September 6, all eyes will be on this small state in the center of Germany.
This article was originally written in German.
