Thüringen (Thuringia)belonged from 1949 to 1990 to the DDR (see Deutsche Demokratische Republik) and is now a constituent Land in the centre of the Federal Republic (see Bundesrepublik Deutschland) with Erfurt as its capital. Other cities include Gera, Jena, Weimar, and Gotha. Since the foundation of the kingdom of Thuringia around the 4th c., the country has undergone many territorial changes. Ruled by landgraves during the Middle Ages, it subsequently split up into numerous petty states. In 1920 seven states formed the Freistaat Thüringen with Weimar as its capital; its eighth state, integrated in 1944, is Erfurt. Apart from Weimar and Jena, its cultural centres include the Wartburg. Erfurt is associated with the development of the Social Democratic Party (see SPD). In 1846 Carl Zeiss (1816-88) founded the first works for the production of optical instruments (initially mainly microscopes) in Jena, which is also well known for its glassworks (Schott's Jenaer Glas). Thuringia had a flourishing home industry for toys.

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