Thuringia
The
Free State of Thuringia (
German:
Freistaat Thüringen) lies in central
Germany and is among the smaller of the country's sixteen
Bundesländer (federal states), being eleventh in size with an area of 16,200 km² and twelfth most populous with 2.45 million inhabitants. The capital is
Erfurt.
Thuringia borders on (from the north and clockwise) the German states of
Lower Saxony,
Saxony-Anhalt,
Saxony,
Bavaria and
Hesse.
The most conspicuous geographical feature of Thuringia is the
Thuringian Forest (
Thüringer Wald), a mountain chain in the southwest. 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):
 |
Map of Thuringia showing the boundaries of the districts |
Furthermore there are six independent cities, which don't belong to any district:
#
Erfurt#
Eisenach#
Gera#
Jena#
Suhl#
WeimarTowns
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 Ludowing 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. They consisted, 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.
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.
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
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% |
| The Republicans | 19,797 | 2.0% | 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% |
| National Democratic Party (NPD) | 15,695 | 1.6% | 0 | 0.0% |
| All Others | 22,549 | 2.2% | 0 | 0.0% |
| - bgcolor=lightgrey | Totals | 1,010,578 | 100.0% | 88 | 100.0% |
|---|
|
Seat results -- SPD in red, CDU in black, PDS in purple |
*
Thüringer sausage*
Rulers of Thuringia*
1632 a book set in Thuringia
*
Official government web site*
Tourist website for Thuringia (German)*
Alternative Tourist website for Thuringia (German, English)* Thuringia at
www.dmoz.org* Thuringian flags at [
1] and [
2]
*
Searchengine for Thuringia with videos(German)
