“Saxony? What’s that?” This is a question we often hear. Our first response: One of the federal states of Germany. “And where is Saxony?” Between Berlin and Prague, we say, to make it easy. Maybe we add that Saxony shares borders with Poland and the Czech Republic and also with the German state of Bavaria. “How far is it from Frankfurt and Munich?” Dresden and Leipzig are just 45 minutes away by plane, we answer. And now comes the crucial question: “Why should we visit this Saxony?” No one would have asked this in the time before the Second World War, when Saxony was the economically strongest and most prosperous region in Germany. Business people came to Chemnitz, cradle of German engineering and the city with the highest industrial production in Germany, or to Leipzig, the center of commerce in Europe, a cosmopolitan city like London and Paris. And tourists came to Dresden, the richest and most beautiful city in Germany. But then Saxony fell behind the Iron Curtain. For many people all over the world, 1000 years of history fell into oblivion, 829 years of which saw Saxony ruled by a single family and playing a leading role in Europe.