Saxony-Anhalt became part of the German Democratic Republic in 1949, but was dissolved in 1952 during administrative reforms and its territory was divided into the districts of Halle and Magdeburg.

The old Hanseatic towns Salzwedel, Gardelegen, Stendal and Tangermünde are located in the sparsely populated Altmark.

Finally, in the east, Dessau-Roßlau and Wittenberg are situated on the Elbe (as is the capital Magdeburg) in the Anhalt-Wittenberg region.

The U.S. Group Control Council, Germany (a precursor of the OMGUS) appointed the first non-Nazi officials in leading positions in the area.

Erhard Hübener, put on leave by the Nazis, was reappointed Landeshauptmann (state governor).

On 9 July the Soviet SVAG ordered the merger of the Free State of Anhalt, Halle-Merseburg, the governorate of Magdeburg (in its then borders), Allstedt (before Thuringia) and some Brunswickian eastern exclaves and salients (Calvörde and the eastern part of the former Blankenburg district[7]) with the Province of Saxony.

The SVAG appointed Hübener as president of the provincial Saxon administration, a newly created function.

On 3 September 1945 the new administration enacted by Soviet-inspired ordinance the mass expropriations, mostly hitting holders of large real estates, often of noble descent.

On the occasion of the first (and one and only) election in the Soviet zone, allowing parties truly to compete for seats in provincial and state parliaments, on 20 October 1946, the Province of Saxony was renamed as the Province of Saxony-Anhalt (German: Provinz Sachsen-Anhalt), taking the prior merger into account.

[8] On 3 December 1946 the members of the new provincial parliament elected Hübener the first minister-president of Saxony-Anhalt, with the votes of the CDU and Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD).

The region has historically been associated with the Lutheran faith, but under Communist rule, church membership was strongly discouraged and much of the population disassociated itself from any religious body.

When World War II ended in 1945, the property in Magdeburg, then part of East Germany, was returned and the branch was reestablished.

But on 30 August 1950 Communist police stormed the facilities and arrested the workers, and the Jehovah's Witnesses in the German Democratic Republic (DDR) were banned.

The percentage of foreigners in Saxony-Anhalt was 4.9 percent by 31 December 2018, the third lowest among the 16 states of Germany (together with Saxony and Thuringia).

[15] The largest foreign resident groups by 31 December 2022 were:[16] Minister-president Reiner Haseloff (CDU) retained his position in a coalition with former partner SPD and newly the FDP.

After the breakdown of communism and the German reunification in 1990, the collapse of non-competitive former GDR industries temporarily caused severe economic problems.

Massive investments in modern infrastructure have taken place since 1990, and the remaining and newly created businesses are highly competitive.