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Thuringia

Encyclopedia : T : TH : THU : Thuringia

 

State Service Flag

Civil Flag

Coat of arms

Statistics
Capital: Erfurt
Area: 16,171 km²
Inhabitants: 2 392 000 (2003)
pop. density: 148 people/km²
Website: [thueringen.de]
ISO 3166-2: DE-TH
Politics
Minister-president: Dieter Althaus (CDU)
Ruling party: CDU
Next voting: 2009
Map
250px
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.

Contents

Geography

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

  1. Altenburger Land
  2. Eichsfeld
  3. Gotha
  4. Greiz
  5. Hildburghausen
  6. Ilm-Kreis
  1. Kyffhäuserkreis
  2. Nordhausen
  3. Saale-Holzland
  4. Saale-Orla
  5. Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
  6. Schmalkalden-Meiningen
  1. Sömmerda
  2. Sonneberg
  3. Unstrut-Hainich
  4. Wartburgkreis
  5. Weimarer Land

Furthermore there are six independent cities, which don't belong to any district:

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

Towns

Towns in Thuringia
position town inhabitants district
31. Dec. 1970 31. Dec. 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 at 16th of 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 at 1st of 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 at 1st of 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

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.

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%
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%
Totals 1,010,578 100.0% 88 100.0%

Seat results -- SPD in red, CDU in black, PDS in purple
Enlarge
Seat results -- SPD in red, CDU in black, PDS in purple


See also

External links

 

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