The 'Free State of Thuringia' (
German: ''Freistaat Thüringen'') is located in central
Germany. It has an area of 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''):
Furthermore there are six urban districts:
#
Erfurt
#
Eisenach
#
Gera
#
Jena
#
Suhl
#
Weimar
Towns
History
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.
The state of Thuringia (red) upon its formation in 1920
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
#
1920 -
1921:
Arnold Paulssen (
DDP)
#
1921 -
1923:
August Frölich (
SPD)
#
1924 -
1928:
Richard Leutheußer (
DVP)
#
1928 -
1929:
Karl Riedel (DVP)
#
1929 :
Arnold Paulssen (DDP)
#
1930 -
1932:
Erwin Baum (
Landbund)
#
1932 -
1933:
Fritz Sauckel (
NSDAP)
#
1933 -
1945:
Willy Marschler (NSDAP)
#
1945:
Hermann Brill (SPD)
#
1945 -
1947:
Rudolf Paul (no party, then
LDPD)
#
1947 -
1952:
Werner Eggerath (
SED)
#
1990 -
1992:
Josef Duchac (
CDU)
#
1992 -
2003:
Bernhard Vogel (CDU)
# since
2003:
Dieter Althaus (CDU)
June 13, 2004 state election
| 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% |
|---|
Seat results -- SPD in red, CDU in black, PDS in purple
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)
★
★ Thuringian flags at
[1] and
[2]
★
Searchengine for Thuringia with videos(German)
References
1. State population
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