Kings of Saxony
| Kingdom of Saxony | ||||||||||
| Königreich Sachsen (German) | ||||||||||
| State of the Confederation of the Rhine (1806–1813) State of the German Confederation (1815–1866) State of the North German Confederation (1867–1871) Federal state of the German Empire (1871–1918) |
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Motto Providentiae Memor "Providence Remember" |
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Anthem Various, none official Gott segne Sachsenland (1815) Sachsenlied ("Gott sei mit dir mein Sachsenland", 1842) |
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 The Kingdom of Saxony in 1895
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.svg) The Kingdom of Saxony within the German Empire.
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| Capital | Dresden | |||||||||
| Languages | Upper Saxon German | |||||||||
| Religion |
Lutheran, Roman Catholic |
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| Government | Constitutional monarchy | |||||||||
| King | ||||||||||
| • | 1806–1827 | Frederick Augustus I | ||||||||
| • | 1904–1918 | Frederick Augustus III | ||||||||
| Minister-President | ||||||||||
| • | 1831–1843 | Bernhard von Lindenau | ||||||||
| • | 1918 | Rudolf Heinze | ||||||||
| Legislature | Landtag (1831–1918) | |||||||||
| • | Upper Chamber | "First Chamber" | ||||||||
| • | Lower Chamber | "Second Chamber" | ||||||||
| Historical era | Napoleonic Wars / WWI | |||||||||
| • | Established | 20 December 1806 | ||||||||
| • | Disestablished | 13 November 1918 | ||||||||
| Area | ||||||||||
| • | 1910 | 14,993 km2 (5,789 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | ||||||||||
| • | 1910 est. | 4,806,661 | ||||||||
| Density | 321/km2 (830/sq mi) | |||||||||
| Currency |
Saxon Thaler, (1806–1857) Saxon Vereinsthaler, (1857–1873) German Goldmark, (1873–1914) German Papiermark (1914–1918) |
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| Today part of |
 Germany Poland
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.svg)
The Kingdom of Saxony (German: Königreich Sachsen), lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxony. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War I and the abdication of King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. Its capital was the city of Dresden, and its modern successor state is the Free State of Saxony.
Before 1806 Saxony was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a thousand-year-old entity which had once aspired to be a single state, but had become highly decentralised over the centuries. The rulers of Electorate of Saxony of the House of Wettin had held the title of elector for several centuries. When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved following the defeat of Emperor Francis II by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, the electorate was raised to the status of an independent kingdom with the support of France, then the dominant power in Central Europe. The last elector of Saxony became King Frederick Augustus I.
Following the defeat of Saxony's ally Prussia at the Battle of Jena in 1806, Saxony joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and remained within the Confederation until its dissolution in 1813 with Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. Following the battle, in which Saxony — virtually alone of the German states — had fought alongside the French, King Frederick Augustus I was deserted by his troops, taken prisoner by the Prussians and considered to have forfeited his throne by the allies, who put Saxony under Prussian occupation and administration. This was probably more due to the Prussian desire to annex Saxony than to any crime on Frederick Augustus's part, and the fate of Saxony would prove to be one of the main issues at the Congress of Vienna. In the end, 40% of the Kingdom, including the historically significant Wittenberg, home of the Protestant Reformation, was annexed by Prussia, but Frederick Augustus was restored to the throne in the remainder of his kingdom, which still included the major cities of Dresden and Leipzig. The Kingdom also joined the German Confederation, the new organization of the German states to replace the Holy Roman Empire.
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