Thuringia

 

(thʊrĭn'jə) , Ger. Thüringen, state (1994 pop. 2,533,000), 6,273 sq mi (16,251 sq km), central Germany. It is bordered on the south by Bavaria, on the east by Saxony, on the north by Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, and on the west by Hesse. The region of Thuringia extends to the foot of the Harz Mts. in the north and is crossed by the Thuringian Forest, Ger. Thüringer Wald, which stretches from the Werra River in the west to the Thüringer Saale River in the southeast and rises to an altitude of 3,222 ft (982 m) in the Grosser Beerberg. Erfurt (the capital), Weimar, Jena, Gotha, Eisenach, Gera, Altenburg, Mühlhausen, and Suhl are the chief cities.

History

The ancient Thuringians, a Germanic tribe occupying central Germany between the Elbe and the Danube, were conquered by the Franks during the 6th cent. A.D. and were converted (8th cent.) to Christianity by St. Boniface. Charlemagne made Thuringia a march (frontier country) against the Slavs in the 9th cent., but it passed under the control of the Saxon dukes in the 10th cent.

In the 11th cent. the landgraves of Thuringia, with their seat at the celebrated Wartburg, emerged as princes of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled over much of the territory that is modern Thuringia. When Landgrave Louis IV died (1227) on a Crusade, Louis's widow, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, was expelled by his brother and successor, Henry Raspe, who later was antiking to Conrad IV. Although the succession to Thuringia was long contested after Henry's death in 1247, the major part eventually fell to the house of Wettin, i.e., to the margraves of Meissen, who in 1423 became electors of Saxony.

The division (1485) of the Wettin lands left most of the Thuringian territories in the hands of the Ernestine branch of the family, which also received the electoral title. Thuringia was split, under the Ernestines, into several duchies (see Saxe-Altenburg; Saxe-Coburg; Saxe-Gotha; Saxe-Meiningen; Saxe-Weimar). Principalities situated in Thuringia but not ruled by any of the branches of the Ernestine line were those of Reuss and Schwarzburg. Among the Ernestine duchies (which underwent several redivisions in the 17th, 18th, and 19th cent.) the most important, both politically and culturally, was Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (see under Saxe-Weimar).

All the Thuringian territories except Saxe-Meiningen sided with Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The Thuringian states had been members of the German Confederation from 1815; they joined the North German Confederation in 1866 and the German Empire in 1871. Their rulers were expelled in 1918, and in 1920 the state of Thuringia was founded under the Weimar Republic by the union of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (without the city of Coburg, which went to Bavaria), Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Meiningen, the two sister principalities of Reuss, and the two sister principalities of Schwarzburg.

As constituted in 1946 under Soviet military occupation, Thuringia consisted of the prewar state of Thuringia with the addition of former Prussian enclaves and border areas, notably Erfurt and Mühlhausen. In 1952 the state was abolished as an East German administrative unit, and Thuringia was split into the districts of Erfurt, Suhl, and Gera. It was reintegrated as a state shortly before German reunification in Oct., 1990. It is the smallest but most densely populated of the new German states. The heavily industrial region began to experience economic hardship by the 1990s; many of its largest industrial concerns went out of business.

Freistaat Thüringen Free State of Thuringia
Flag	Coat of arms
Details
Location
Coordinates	50°54′″N 11°0′″E / Expression error: unexpected / operator, Expression error: unexpected / operatorCoordinates: 50°54′″N 11°0′″E / Expression error: unexpected / operator, Expression error: unexpected / operator
Time zone	CET/CEST ([[UTC+1]]/[[UTC+2|+2]])
Administration
Country	Germany
NUTS Region	DEG
Capital	Erfurt
Minister-President	Dieter Althaus (CDU)
Governing party	CDU
Votes in Bundesrat	4 (from 69)
Basic statistics
Area	km² ( sq mi)
Population	Please give "pop_date" in YYYY-MM-DD format , e. g. 2005-12-31 [1]
- Density	/km² ( /sq mi)
Other information
GDP/ Nominal	€ 44.8 billion (2005)
Website	thueringen.de

The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) is located in central Germany. It has an area of  square kilometers ( sq mi) and 2.33 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen Bundesländer (federal states). The capital is Erfurt.

Geography

Thuringia borders on (from the northwest and clockwise) the German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bavaria and Hesse. The ridges of the western Harz mountains divide the region from Lower Saxony on the north-west and eastern Harz similarly separates Thuringia from the state of Saxony-Anhalt to the north-east. To the south and southwest, the Thuringer Wald effectively separates the ancient region of Franconia, now the northern part of Bavaria from the rolling plains of most of Thuringia and the central Harz range extends southwards along the western side into northwest corner of the Thüringer Wald region making Thuringia a low land basin of rolling plains nearly surrounded by ancient somewhat-difficult mountains. To the west across the mountains and south is the drainage basin of the Rhine River.

The most conspicuous geographical feature of Thuringia is the Thuringian Forest (Thüringer Wald, or also Thuringerwald), a mountain chain in the southwest. The Werra river ("Werratal"), a tributary of the Weser River separates this mountain chain from the volcanic Rhön Mountains, which are partially in Thuringia, Bavaria and Hesse. In the northwest Thuringia includes a small part of the Harz mountains. The eastern part of Thuringia is generally a plain. The Saale river runs through these lowlands from south to north.

See also List of places in Thuringia.

Thuringia is divided into 17 districts (Landkreise):

Altenburger Land Eichsfeld Gotha Greiz Hildburghausen Ilm-Kreis

Kyffhäuserkreis Nordhausen Saale-Holzland Saale-Orla Saalfeld-Rudolstadt Schmalkalden-Meiningen

Sömmerda Sonneberg Unstrut-Hainich Wartburgkreis Weimarer Land

Furthermore there are six urban districts:

1. Erfurt
2. Eisenach
3. Gera
4. Jena
5. Suhl
6. Weimar

Towns

Towns in Thuringia
position	town	inhabitants			district
		31 December 1970	31 December 2000	30 June 2005
1.	Erfurt	192.679	200.564	202.590	independent city
2.	Gera	106.841	112.835	104.737	independent city
3.	Jena	85.169	99.893	102.201	independent city
4.	Weimar	63.985	62.425	64.361	independent city
5.	Gotha	57.256	48.376	47.045	Gotha
6.	Eisenach	50.059	44.442	43.858	independent city
7.	Nordhausen	42.018	45.633	43.781	Nordhausen
8.	Suhl	28.177	48.025	43.202	independent city
9.	Altenburg	47.497	41.290	38.203	Altenburger Land
10.	Mühlhausen	46.135	38.695	37.480	Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis
11.	Saalfeld	31.048	29.511	28.148	Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
12.	Ilmenau	19.634	27.176	26.713	Ilm-Kreis
13.	Arnstadt	27.368	27.220	25.828	Ilm-Kreis
14.	Rudolstadt	30.087	27.528	25.584	Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
15.	Apolda	29.754	25.899	24.684	Weimarer Land
16.	Greiz	39.424	26.177	24.007	Greiz
17.	Sonneberg	29.811	24.837	23.928	Sonneberg
18.	Sondershausen	22.195	23.088	21.718	Kyffhäuserkreis
19.	Meiningen	24.876	22.240	21.642	Schmalkalden-Meiningen
20.	Sömmerda	15.959	21.977	20.885	Sömmerda
21.	Leinefelde-Worbis (formed on 16 March 2004)	4.315 (LF) 3.401 (WO)	15.056 (LF) 5.497 (WO)	20.816	Eichsfeld
22.	Bad Langensalza	16.813	19.917	18.760	Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis
23.	Schmalkalden	14.527	18.551	17.893	Schmalkalden-Meiningen
24.	Zeulenroda-Triebes (formed on 1 March 2006)	13.549 (ZR) 4.790 (TR)	14.600 (ZR) 4.230 (TR)	17.702	Greiz
25.	Heiligenstadt	12.464	17.291	17.175	Eichsfeld
26.	Bad Salzungen	11.466	17.086	16.551	Wartburgkreis
27.	Pößneck	19.547	14.341	13.592	Saale-Orla-Kreis
28.	Schmölln	13.968	13.193	12.693	Altenburger Land
29.	Zella-Mehlis (formed on 1 April 1919)	17.136	13.036	12.355	Schmalkalden-Meiningen
30.	Hildburghausen	10.652	12.466	12.351	Hildburghausen
31.	Eisenberg	13.859	11.764	11.489	Saale-Holzland-Kreis
32.	Waltershausen	14.219	11.725	11.307	Gotha

History

Herzogtum (Landgrafschaft) Thüringen Duchy (Landgraviate) of Thuringia Pagan kingdom, Frankish duchy, then State of the Holy Roman Empire 450 – 1247 →   → Capital Not specified Government Principality Historical era Middle Ages  - Thuringian kingdom     established   before 450  - Frankish invasion;     duchy established   632  - Landgraviate established 1130  - Comital line extinct 1247  - War of the Thuringian     Succession   1247–64

Named after the Thuringian people who occupied it around 300 AD, Thuringia came under Frankish domination in the 6th century, forming a part (from 1130 a landgravate) of the subsequent Holy Roman Empire.

After the extinction of the reigning Ludowingian line of counts in 1247 and the War of the Thuringian Succession (1247–64), the western half became independent under the name of Hesse, never to become a part of Thuringia again. Most of the remaining Thuringia came under the rule of the Wettin dynasty of the nearby Margravate of Meißen, the nucleus of the later duchy and kingdom of Saxony. With the division of the house of Wettin in 1485, Thuringia went to the senior Ernestine branch of the family, which subsequently subdivided the area into a number of smaller states, according to the Saxon tradition of dividing inheritance amongst male heirs. These were the Saxon Duchies, consisting, among others, of the states of Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Eisenach, Saxe-Jena, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg, and Saxe-Gotha; Thuringia became merely a geographical concept.

Thuringia generally accepted the Reformation. The Catholic faith was abolished as early as 1520; priests that remained loyal were driven away and churches and monasteries were largely destroyed, especially during the Peasants' War of 1525. In Mulhausen and elsewhere, the Anabaptists found many adherents. Thomas Munzer, the founder of this sect, was active in this city. Within the borders of Thuringia the Catholic faith was maintained only in the district called Eichsfeld, which was ruled by the Archbishop of Mainz, and to a small degree in the city and vicinity of Erfurt.

Within the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine organized in 1806, some reordering of territories began, confirmed at the Congress of Vienna (1814–15) with the creation of the German Confederation. The so-called Thuringian states within the German Empire were Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and the two principalities of Reuß.

In 1920, during the Weimar Republic that followed World War I, these small states merged into one state, called Thuringia; only Saxe-Coburg voted to join Bavaria instead. Weimar became the new capital of Thuringia.

According to the book Hitlers Bombe, a nuclear device was detonated here in March of 1945.

After July 1945, the state of Thuringia came under Soviet occupation, and was expanded to include parts of the Prussian Province of Saxony, such as the areas around Erfurt, Mühlhausen, and Nordhausen. Erfurt became the new capital of Thuringia.

In 1952, the German Democratic Republic dissolved its states, and created districts (Bezirke) instead. The three districts that shared the territory of Thuringia were based in Erfurt, Gera and Suhl.

The State of Thuringia was restored with slightly altered borders during Germany's reunification in 1990.

Politics

List of Minister-presidents of Thuringia

1. 1920 - 1921: Arnold Paulssen (DDP)
2. 1921 - 1923: August Frölich (SPD)
3. 1924 - 1928: Richard Leutheußer (DVP)
4. 1928 - 1929: Karl Riedel (DVP)
5. 1929 : Arnold Paulssen (DDP)
6. 1930 - 1932: Erwin Baum (Landbund)
7. 1932 - 1933: Fritz Sauckel (NSDAP)
8. 1933 - 1945: Willy Marschler (NSDAP)
9. 1945: Hermann Brill (SPD)
10. 1945 - 1947: Rudolf Paul (no party, then LDPD)
11. 1947 - 1952: Werner Eggerath (SED)
12. 1990 - 1992: Josef Duchac (CDU)
13. 1992 - 2003: Bernhard Vogel (CDU)
14. since 2003: Dieter Althaus (CDU)

June 13, 2004 state election

See also: Thuringia state election, 2004

Party	Party List votes	Vote percentage	Total Seats	Seat percentage
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	434,088	43.0%	45	51.1%
Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS)	263,717	26.1%	28	31.8%
Social Democratic Party (SPD)	146,297	14.5%	15	17.0%
Alliance '90/The Greens	45,649	4.5%	0	0.0%
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	36,483	3.6%	0	0.0%
Free Voters in Thuringia	26,302	2.6%	0	0.0%
The Republicans	19,797	2.0%	0	0.0%
National Democratic Party (NPD)	15,695	1.6%	0	0.0%
All Others	22,549	2.2%	0	0.0%
Totals	1,010,578	100.0%	88	100.0%

Transportation

• Autobahn: A4, A9, A38, A44, A71, A73
• Airports: Altenburg-Nobitz Airport, Erfurt Airport

See also

• Thüringer sausage
• Rulers of Thuringia
• 1632 a book set in Thuringia
• Thuringowa

External links

• Official government web site
• Tourist website for Thuringia (German)
• Tourist website with many pictures of thuringian landscapes (German)
• Alternative Tourist website for Thuringia (German) (English)
• Thuringia at the Open Directory Project
• Thuringian flags at [1] and [2]
• Searchengine for Thuringia with videos (German)

References

States of Germany during the Weimar Republic (1919–33)
States	Anhalt | Baden | Bavaria | Brunswick | Hesse | Lippe | Mecklenburg: Schwerin, Strelitz | Oldenburg | Prussia | Saxony | Schaumburg-Lippe | Thuringia (from 1920) | Waldeck (until 1929) | Württemberg
City-states	Bremen | Hamburg | Lübeck
Until 1920	Saxony: Altenburg, Coburg–Gotha, Meiningen, Weimar-Eisenach Reuß: Elder, Junior Schwarzburg: Rudolstadt, Sondershausen
Unofficial states	Bavarian Soviet Republic | Bottleneck | Rhenish Republic

States of Germany
Baden-Württemberg · Bavaria · Brandenburg · Hesse · Lower Saxony · Mecklenburg-Vorpommern · North Rhine-Westphalia · Rhineland-Palatinate · Saarland · Saxony · Saxony-Anhalt · Schleswig-Holstein · Thuringia City-states Berlin · Bremen · Hamburg

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