Title: Regional Profile Report - Central Europe

2.1. General profile
The name “Mansfelder Land” is a common term to identify a region west of the central
German Harz mountain range among the towns of Eisleben, Mansfeld and Hettstedt 1 . In fact
there are different meanings about this term. In a historical view the “Mansfelder Land”
represents the area of the “Grafschaft Mansfeld” (a county established in 1780), while on the
other hand the term became a common name for the copper mining district in this region.
The copper mining took place in this area for centuries and ended in 1990. At the peak of its
production in the 1960s it employed around 40.000 people in the region. Today the term
“Mansfeld” is again represented in the name of the administrative district (Landkreis)
“Mansfeld-Südharz”. In 2007 this district was established by merging the former
administrational districts of “Mansfelder Land” and “Sangerhausen” 2 .
The administrative district “Landkreis Mansfeld-Südharz” is located on the Western border of
Saxony-Anhalt, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. The district is geographically
characterised by the transitory landscape from the Western mountain ranges of the “Harz”
and the “Kyffhäuser” to the lowlands of the “Magdeburger Börde” and the “Leipziger
Tieflandsbucht” in the East.
The district contains 84 municipalities with 158.232 inhabitants, covering in total 1448, 67
km². The most important towns are Sangerhausen (31.153 inhabitants), Lutherstadt Eisleben
(25.500), Hettstedt (15.021) and Mansfeld (10.361).
1 Werte unserer Heimat, Band 38, Mansfelder Land, 1982
2 From 1952 to 1990 the region was divided into three districts (Kreise): Eisleben, Hettstedt und Sangerhausen. All were
included in the superior district of “Bezirk Halle”.
Regional Profile Mansfeld-Südharz
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