Saxony , [ a ] officially the Free State of Saxony , [ b ] is a landlocked state of Germany , bordering the states of Brandenburg , Saxony-Anhalt , Thuringia , and Bavaria , as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden , and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of 18, square kilometres 7, sq mi , and the sixth most populous , with more than 4 million inhabitants.
The term Saxony has been in use for more than a millennium. The first Free State of Saxony was established in as a constituent state of the Weimar Republic. After World War II , it was under Soviet occupation before it became part of communist East Germany and was abolished by the government in Following German reunification , the Free State of Saxony was reconstituted with enlarged borders in and became one of the five new states of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony , the area inhabited by Saxons. Historically the region of Saxony has sometimes been referred to as Upper Saxony or Obersachsen in German to distinguish it from Lower Saxony. The state is also home to a minority of Sorbs , a West Slavic ethnic group native to the area, numbering an estimated 80, people.
Saxony has a long history as a duchy , an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire the Electorate of Saxony , and finally as a kingdom the Kingdom of Saxony. In , after Germany's defeat in World War I , its monarchy was overthrown and a republican form of government was established under the current name.
The state was broken up into smaller units during communist rule β , but was re-established on 3 October on the reunification of East and West Germany. In prehistoric times, the territory of present-day Saxony was the site of some of the largest of the ancient central European monumental temples , dating from the fifth century BC. Notable archaeological sites have been discovered in Dresden and the villages of Eythra and Zwenkau near Leipzig. The Germanic presence in the territory of today's Saxony is thought to have begun in the first century BC.
