> The focus on electronics there [..]

Can you expand on this claim?

(I'm deliberately resisting quoting sources listing German regions top exports!)

TL;DR at the end of the 80's East Germany had paradoxically a more capable semiconductor industry than West Germany (not in terms of innovation, it trailed the state of the art by 5..10 years, but definitely in terms of scale), this was mainly because the Eastern Bloc was cut off from western microelectronics because of the COCOM embargo and had to bootstrap their own microelectronics industry, while Western Europe could just buy their chips on the world market from the cheapest bidder.

Those centers of technology with their attached universities were mainly located in Dresden (Robotron) and Jena (Carl Zeiss) and some smaller locations sprinkled over the southern half of East Germany.

This 'micro-electronics tradition' carried over into the 90's after the reunification and continues until the present time.

To expand upon your comment, my German co-worker explained to me that Dresden was a high-tech / semi-conductor industrial hub during GDR / East Germany. It was mostly state planning to build unis and industry in same place. This was continued after Germany reunited. Given their lower cost of living advantages, I can understand why Dresden was selected. From a political view, I can imagine that German gov't officials wants to encourage economic development of former GDR, as it continues to lag West Germany.