Magdeburg, the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, lies on the Elbe river and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Emperor Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death. One currency of Magdeburg is the local Urstromtaler (as well as the euro) *The Magdeburg hemispheres were a device created in 1654 by Otto von Guericke: it consisted in two hollow shells with rings for attaching ropes, put together with grease; the air was evacuted from within through a pump that he had invented some years before. Sixteen horses failed to pull the hemispheres apart.

Cathedral
Magdeburg's most impressive building, the Cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice, has a height of 104 m: the highest church building of eastern Germany. It is notable for its beautiful and unique sculptures, especially the "Twelve Virgins" at the Northern Gate, the depictions of Otto I the Great and his wife Editha as well as the statues of St Maurice and St Catherine. The statue of St Maurice (ca. 1250) is one of the few where Maurice is displayed as a black man with African features holding a sword and wearing chainmail. This is surprising, in light of the fact that Maurice was an Egyptian. It is in fact the oldest depiction of a black person in Europe. St Catherine is dressed like a young teenage girl from the time of the statue's creation would have been - the equivalent to a girl in jeans and T-Shirt today. (Quite a scandal then.)
The predecessor of the cathedral was a church built in 937 within an abbey, called St. Maurice. Emperor Otto I the Great was buried here beside his wife in 973. St. Maurice burnt to ashes in 1207. The exact location of that church remained unknown for a long time. The foundations were rediscovered in May 2003, revealing a building 80 m long and 41 m wide.
The construction of the new church lasted 300 years. The cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice was the first Gothic church building of Germany. The completion of the steeples took place only in 1520.
While the cathedral was virtually the only building to survive the massacres of the Thirty Years' War, it nevertheless suffered damage in World War II. But it was soon rebuilt and completed in 1955.
The place in front of the cathedral (sometimes called "new marketplace", Neuer Markt) was occupied by an imperial palace (Kaiserpfalz), which was destroyed in the fire of 1207. The stones of the ruin served for building the cathedral. The presumptive remains of the palace were excavated in the 1960s.

Sports
Magdeburg has a proud history of sports team, with football proving the most popular. 1. FC Magdeburg currently play in the Regionalliga Nord. Defunct clubs SV Victoria 96 Magdeburg and Cricket Viktoria Magdeburg were among the first football clubs in Germany. 1. FC Magdeburg is the only East German football club to have won a European club football competition. There is also the very successful handball team, SC Magdeburg Gladiators who are the only German team to win the EHF Champions League.

Other sights

• Unser Lieben Frauen Monastery (Our Beloved Lady), 11th century, containing the church of St. Mary. Today a museum for Modern Art. Home of the National Collection of Small Art Statues of the GDR (Nationale Sammlung Kleinkunstplastiken der DDR).
  
• The Magdeburger Reiter ("Magdeburg equestrian", 1240), the first equestrian sculpture north of the alps. It probably shows Emperor Otto I.
  
• Town hall (1698). This building stood on the marketplace since the 13th century, but was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War; the new town hall was built in a Renaissance style influenced by Dutch architecture. It has ben renovated and reopened in Oct 2005.
  
• Landtag; the seat of the government of Saxony-Anhalt is a Baroque palace built in 1724.
  The city has monuments depicting emperor Otto I (old marketplace, 1240) and Otto von Guericke (1907).
  
• Ruins of the greatest stronghold of the former kingdom of Prussia.
  
• Rotehorn-Park.
  
• Elbauenpark containing the highest wooden tower in the world.
  
• Hundertwasser-Building, finished in 2005.
  
• Johannischurch
  
• The Magdeburg Water Bridge, Europe's longest water bridge

Magdeburg is one of the major towns along the Elbe Cycle Route (Elberadweg).

In Fiction
In the best selling alternate history 1632 series by authors David Weber, Eric Flint and many others, over the first two novels, Magdeburg becomes the capital of the Confederated Principalities of Europe and later its successor federation and republic, the United States of Europe. Its ascension begun was begun initially as a symbolic and morale building gesture by Gustavus II Adolphus, angry and outraged at the Sack of Magdeburg by the putative Catholic army lead by Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly and his cavalry leader, General Pappenheim.
Thereafter, Magdeburg plays more and more of a central role being both centrally located, and in a much better locale as the impact of American thoughts and ideas begin to rip through the social fabric of The Germanies. Beginning centered in the small town of Grantville, WV which becomes displaced in time into May of 1631 into southern Thuringia, the series books and action drift northward over time into Magdeburg as the collaborative writings in long and short fiction explore the cultural, sociological, religious, and developmental impact that might occur if a town of no-nonsense coal miner tough Hillbillies found themselves with the limited material resources of a small town, but modern arms and an alarmed energized populus armed with modern political, social and religious developments in the heart of the war torn Germanies in the middle of the Thirty Years' War