At a glance
1,200 years Halle (Saale)
The Halloren made the city important in the Middle Ages by mining and trading in salt. The
first large-scale undertakings were established and enabled Halle to become well-known and
affluent. The rich sources of salt had been used since the early Bronze Age and did not finally run
out until 1964. In that year the Händel Festivals were held in Halle for the 13th time, a
tradition that started in 1922 with the first performance of a Händel opera at the Stadttheater,
now the opera house. Today, more than 50,000 music lovers from all over the world come to the
festivals in the city where the great composer was born. In 2006 the city celebrated its 1,200
years of history, because the existence of Halle was first documented in 806.
Inhabitants
With approx 231,000 inhabitants Halle (Saale) is one of the five largest cities in the new
federal states along with Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. Halle lies in the centre of
eastern Germany, and along with Leipzig, which is only 38 km away, it forms an urban pole in a
market area with 1.7 mill. people (50 km radius) and 9 mill. people (150 km radius).
500 years university
Halle is a city of the sciences and economic innovations. The more than 500-year old
Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg with an international student body (about 17,500
students), the Franckesche Stiftungen, the more than 350-year old Leopoldina, the oldest academy of
naturalists in Germany, the “Burg Giebichenstein” school of art and design and numerous prominent
institutes and companies underline this fact in an impressive fashion.
Culture and leisure
About 53% of the city is made up of parks, gardens, riverside and meadow land, which makes
Halle one of the greenest major cities in Germany.
The city has a traditional and modern cultural and artistic scene. Culture can be found in
Halle in the form of theatre, cabaret, variety, serious and light music, museums, cafes,
restaurants, bars and discotheques. Halle has much to offer from a gastronomical point of view,
with its speciality pubs, street cafes and gourmet restaurants.
Traffic infrastructure
The regional traffic infrastructure is highly modern and has a network density that you might
expect of one of Europe’s growth regions. The Leipzig/Halle intercontinental airport, the A 9, A
14, A 38 and A 143 motorways, numerous federal highways and the rail network with InterCity and
InterCityExpress connections, link the region around Halle with the rest of the world.
Business
The city of Halle has companies from a very wide range of industries and the greatest
possible range of products and services. New core businesses are being developed in the technology
and industrial sector. The service sector is also a growth market. The number of these companies
has doubled since 1990. About 70.6% of all companies in the city today operate in the services
sector.
| Traditional industry | Human resources |
|
Engineering
ABB Transformatorenwerke GmbH KSB AG Werk Halle |
193 450 |
|
Vehicle construction
ELH Eisenbahnlaufwerke Halle |
127 |
|
Food industry
Coca Cola Area Halle/Leipzig Halloren Schokoladenfabrik GmbH |
350 240 |
|
Services
Mitteldeutsches Druck- und Verlagshaus GmbH Dell Halle GmbH |
1,400 300 |
| Modern industry | |
|
Information, Communication, Entertainment
- 350 companies - 13 call centres |
approx. 4,000 approx. 2,700 |
|
Biotechnology
-15 companies |
approx. 650 |
|
Technology-orientated companies from various sectors
- 100 companies and scientific establishments |
approx. 2,500 |
Growth region
Proof is provided of the quality of locational factors in the Halle/Leipzig region by the
major investments made by global players from the widest possible range of industries.
