"Magdeburg überrascht - Magdeburg... " a Magdeburg Travel Page by hunterV

"Magdeburg überrascht" - "Magdeburg Surprises!" - this is a modern travel slogan of this city.
Unfortunately, I did not have a chance of visiting this city recently.
I only have memories of my stay there in the "good old times".

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In 1981 when I was a student of the foreign languages college in Horlivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, I was selected to be a member of a Soviet group of students who had a German language seminar in Magdeburg.
That city was a county center at that time.
So it was my first trip abroad in my life that made me happy , of course, for a long time.
Now the city is the capital of Sachsen-Anhalt, one of the country's sixteen federal provinces.
The city must have changed a lot!
However, the main sites in the city center have remained as they were or must have been restored and renovated to make the city look still more beautiful.

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Botanical gardens

Lots of Sites

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We, the thirty members of the Soviet students' group, stayed in Magdeburg for about a month. We studied German at Erich Weinert Pedagogical College and stayed at a dormitory at its campus.
It was in August and September, a fine season and a good opportunity to browse the city's central streets and to visit its architectural gems:

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the Cathedral,
the Liebfrauenkirche (the Church of Our Dear Lady),
the City Park called Rotehorn located on the opposite bank of the Elbe.

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I liked to browse Marx Street, Otto von Guericke Street, Pieck Avenue and Friendship Promenade in the city. The city park attracts the visitors by its promenade, sculptures, City Hall and a good view of the cathedral and the church.

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City sites

My City Visits

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Of all the monuments of the city I was deeply impressed by is The Knight of Magdeburg, a bronze copy of the stone original that is kept in the city history museum.
The monument belongs to the oldest knight images in Germany. It represents a splendid figure of a horseman with a lady on each of his sides. The idea of the monument remained obscure for a long time. One of the interpretations says the monument embodies the idea of spiritual and secular character of emperor's power.

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I also visited the Botanical Gardens and was impressed by the collections.
Since I was an ardent cinemagoer, I also visited several city cinemas and could improve my listening comprehension skills by seeing several films in German, which was not possible at home at that time. Now I would have understood much more of their content!
As a matter of fact I could travel around the city quite freely either on foot or by tram just using the city map and without having to ask the way!

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We also paid a visit to the Harz, a highland region to the south of Magdeburg and, of course, Dresden. So the hosts carefully planned our weekends and we could explore quite a lot during our stay there. Besides, everybody, even students who used to study Russian, spoke only German with us for us to practise it.

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I still have the picture album with autographs of our teachers presented to the members of the Soviet group that was received in the best traditions of the inviolable Soviet-German friendship.
So much time has passed! I wish I could visit this city again and I wonder if I will find my way there. After that first trip to Germany I went there again and again and have already visited it nine times all in all, among them five times as an interpreter and I hope that is not the limit!

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I also have several black-and-white pictures and postcards.

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