And the region of Saxony has only a dynastic connection to the original Saxony, which was roughly Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Holstein and northwestern Saxony-Anhalt, and from where the Saxons came who settled southern England, founding the kingdoms of Wessex, Sussex and Essex, in whose names -sex is from Old English Seaxe. The two regions speak wholly different dialects. It is just that the title "Duke of Saxony" was inherited by a noble house that held a fief in what is now called Saxony. There are more such examples. The petty state of Liechtenstein has its name from the dynasty, who got their name from their original seat, a castle in Austria, and the district and former principality of Lippe (where I was born and grew up, BTW) is not on the Lippe river, but the princes of Lippe had their original seat on that river.Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Sep 06, 2026 2:34 pmIt's about the difference between 1) Saxony as a cultural geographic term, which included much of what is now Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and maybe Lower Saxony, too, and 2) different specific historic political entities within that area, like the old Kingdom of Saxony, the Prussian Province of Saxony (I'd have to look up what that was before it became a Prussian Province), the Principality, later Duchy, of Anhalt, and various thingies that usually, but not always, had "Saxony" in their name and were later merged into the State of Thuringia. Today's "Saxony" is the former Kingdom of Saxony, while today's "Saxony-Anhalt" was a merger of what used to be the Prussian Province of Saxony and what used to be the Duchy of Anhalt.
But the election result in Saxony-Anhalt (which is not in yet, but the prognoses are stabilizing) is of course deeply worrying, but it now seems as if the worst case, a majority for the far-right AfD in the state legislature, has not happened. But nevertheless, that party is a threat to democracy, and therefore has to be combated with all democratically legitimate means! There is already a discussion of banning it, but the hurdles for such a ban are (justly) very high, and a ban would make those who claim that Germany was "not really a democracy" where "the biggest opposition party is persecuted" feel vindicated. Also, there are other far-right parties such as the former NPD (who now call themselves Die Heimat), who currently do not play any significant role but would be ready to fill the gap. You may want to look at the Bremen state election of 2023 where the AfD was disqualified for formal reasons - and another far-right party promptly claimed their votes.
