Central Saxony district
IN THE CENTRE OF SAXONY

What is life like in Central Saxony?

Sportspeople are in their element in Central Saxony. There are more than 400 sports clubs with some 47,000 members. The many new sports halls and stadiums provide a good setting: outdoor pools and water parks, shooting and riding facilities, climbing centres, waterskiing facilities – everything under the sun. TU Bergakademie Freiberg and the Mittweida University of Applied Sciences work together with them to promote competitive sports.

The Central Saxon theatres association, with its two theatres in Döbeln and Freiberg (the latter being the oldest municipal theatre in the world), is extremely popular. With its floating stage at the Kriebstein dam and other venues such as Nikolaikirche Freiberg, Freudenstein Castle or Nikolaikirche Döbeln, it also puts the culture of the Ore Mountains and Central Saxony on display. Music lovers are even more dazzled by the Silbermann organs, 15 of which are still preserved in Central Saxony’s churches.

The Central Saxon summer cultural festival “Miskus”, featuring many open-air events, is a dream come true for theatre and music fans, and the pace does not slacken in the winter, with the Christmas mountain parades and the international “Kammlauf” cross-country skiing event in the snowy Ore Mountains.

Housing is inexpensive for Central Saxony’s 300,000 plus residents, with low basic rents (below 5 euros per m2) and reasonably priced building land (about 48 euros). The infrastructure and childcare are well-established – a good thing, considering that almost as many women are in work as men in Central Saxony. And at 1.53 children, the birth rate is above the German average – and rising. The district provides anyone coming here or returning home with a free family service, Nestbau-Zentrale.

Other sights include the towers of the world-famous Rochsburg Castle or the almost 1,000-year-old Mildenstein Castle, along with more recent additions such as the impressive railway bridges and viaducts made of brick and natural stone which cross almost every river valley. Between the villages there are traditional hiking trails such as the Luther Trail or Via Porphyria, which takes its name from another special feature of the region: beneath the fertile loess soil lies the largest volcanic area in Europe. Visitors to Geopark Porphyrland can trace the marks this has left on the landscape.

Central Saxony has a truly sterling history: silver ore has been mined in the southern Ore Mountains mining region for eight centuries. With more than 80 sites bearing testament to its mining history, the region has applied for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status.

What is it like to learn and work in Central Saxony?

Education is a top priority in this large rural district, the only one to have not one but two universities. On average, there are just eleven children per teacher.

Central Saxony makes the transition to work smooth with initiatives such as the “schools and business” working groups, the “Komm auf Tour” project or the careers portal. Or, if young people would rather study, the famous TU Bergakademie Freiberg is the oldest mining university in the world, and has close links with practice, as indeed does the Mittweida University of Applied Sciences.

More than 14,000 small and medium-sized companies can be found among Central Saxony’s woods and fields, from automotive suppliers and metalworking companies to businesses working in retail and hospitality, healthcare or the social services. There is a constant demand for skilled workers. Unemployment has become rare in Central Saxony.

Instead of industrial giants, what you will find here is “little leviathans”: many companies from Central Saxony are world leaders in small niches. As an employee, you can look forward to flexibility and family-friendliness.

In Central Saxony, sustainability and environmental protection are not just empty words: in the homeland of Hans Carl von Carlowitz, who formulated the concept of sustainability, there is a great deal of research and action on this topic. Claußnitz is home to Germany's first CO2-neutral school. Today, renewable energy sources provide almost 75 per cent of the region's electricity; Saxony's geothermal plants save 50,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.