Following the first election for the Landtag in October 1946, the state was renamed to Province of Saxony-Anhalt (German: Provinz Sachsen-Anhalt) on the same day.

Compared to the administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, it comprised the Gaue Magdeburg-Anhalt, Halle-Merseburg and small parts of Southern Hanover-Brunswick and Thuringia.

Due to the post-war situation in Germany, the SMAD appointed state administrations in all subdivisions of their occupation zone in July 1945.

The abolition of the Chamber of States in 1958 and two ratifications of the constitution in 1968 and 1974 finally eliminated all kinds of federalism in the GDR until the peaceful revolution in 1989.

After the first free elections in the GDR, the five Länder were re-established with some smaller geographical adjustments in August 1990 to accede to the Federal Republic of Germany.