Freistaat Thüringen Free State of Thuringia
Flag	Coat of arms
Details
Location
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Administration
Country	Germany
NUTS Region	DEG
Capital	Erfurt
Minister-President	Dieter Althaus (CDU)
Governing party	CDU
Votes in Bundesrat	4 (of 69)
Basic statistics
Area	16,171 km² (6,244 sq mi)
Population	2,293,000 (10/2007)[1]
- Density	142 /km² (367 /sq mi)
Other information
GDP/ Nominal	€ 44. This article is about the Coat of arms of the German state of Thuringia. Central European Time ( CET) is one of the names of the Time zone that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. Central European Summer Time ( CEST) is one of the names of UTC+2 Time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. UTC+1 is used in the following locations Central European Time West Africa Time Western European Summer Time UTC+2 corresponds to the following Time zones Eastern European Time Egypt Standard Time Central Africa Time Wikipedia talkFeatured lists for an explanation of this and other inclusion tags below -->This list of countries, arranged alphabetically Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, ( NUTS) for the French nomenclature d'unités territoriales statistiques, is a Geocode Erfurt (ˈɛɐ̯fʊɐ̯t is a City in central Germany. It is the Capital of the state of Thuringia with a population of 202619 (2006 A minister-president (Ministerpräsident is the Head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments who presides over the council of ministers Dieter Althaus (born in Heilbad Heiligenstadt, Thuringia, 1958 is a German politician ( CDU) The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) is the largest Political party in Germany. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) is the largest Political party in Germany. The Bundesrat ("federal council" or "upper house of German parliament" is the representation of the 16 Federal States ( Bundesländer) of Area is a Quantity expressing the two- Dimensional size of a defined part of a Surface, typically a region bounded by a closed Curve. Square Kilometre ( US spelling square kilometer) symbol km2, is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of The square mile is an imperial and US unit of Area equal the area of a square of one statute mile. In Biology a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular Species; in Sociology Population density (in agriculture standing stock and Standing crop) is a measurement of Population per unit area or unit volume 8 billion (2005)
Website	thueringen.de

The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) is located in central Germany. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. It has an area of 16,171 square kilometers (6,243. Square Kilometre ( US spelling square kilometer) symbol km2, is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of 7 sq mi) and 2. The square mile is an imperial and US unit of Area equal the area of a square of one statute mile. 29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen Bundesländer (federal states). Germany (Deutschland is a Federal Republic consisting of sixteen States, known in German as Länder (singular The capital is Erfurt. Erfurt (ˈɛɐ̯fʊɐ̯t is a City in central Germany. It is the Capital of the state of Thuringia with a population of 202619 (2006

Geography

Thuringia borders on (from the northwest and clockwise) the German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bavaria and Hesse. Lower Saxony ( German: Niedersachsen ch is pronounced before an s --> lies in north-western Germany and is second Saxony-Anhalt ( Sachsen-Anhalt) is one of the sixteen ''Bundesländer'' (federal states that make up the Federal Republic of Germany. The Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen ˈzaksən Swobodny Stat Sakska is the easternmost federal state of Germany. Bavaria ( German:, with an area of 70553 Km² (27241 square miles and almost 12 Hesse (Hessen is a state of Germany with an area The ridges of the western Harz Mountains divide the region from Lower Saxony on the north-west, while the eastern Harz similarly separates Thuringia from the state of Saxony-Anhalt to the north-east. The Harz is a mountain range in central Germany It is the highest mountain chain in northern Germany occupying parts of the German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt To the south and southwest, the Thuringian Forest effectively separates the ancient region of Franconia, now the northern part of Bavaria, from the rolling plains of most of Thuringia. The Thuringian Forest ( Thüringer Wald in German) running northwest to southeast forms a continuous stretch of ancient rounded mountains posing ample difficulties Franconia (Franken is a historic region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria and the area to its immediate west The central Harz range extends southwards along the western side into the northwest corner of the Thuringian Forest region, making Thuringia a lowland 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 Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge

The most conspicuous geographical feature of Thuringia is the Thuringian Forest, a mountain chain in the southwest. The Thuringian Forest ( Thüringer Wald in German) running northwest to southeast forms a continuous stretch of ancient rounded mountains posing ample difficulties The Werra River, a tributary of the Weser River, separates this mountain chain from the volcanic Rhön Mountains, which are partially in Thuringia, Bavaria, and Hesse. The Werra (ˈvɛʁa is a river in central Germany, the right source river of the Weser. The Weser (ˈveːzɐ is a River in north-western Germany. Formed at Hann The Rhön Mountains are a group of low mountains in central Germany, located in the states of Hesse, Bavaria and Thuringia. In the northwest, Thuringia includes a small part of the Harz. The eastern part of Thuringia is generally a plain. The Saale River runs through these lowlands from south to north. The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale (Sächsische Saale and Thuringian Saale (Thüringische Saale is a River in Germany and a left-bank

See also List of places in Thuringia. This is a list of geographical features in the state of Thuringia, Germany.

Thuringia is divided into 17 districts (Landkreise):

Furthermore there are six urban districts:

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

Towns

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 Thuringii tribe who occupied it ca. The Thuringii or Toringi were a Germanic tribe which appeared late during the Völkerwanderung in the Harz Mountains of central AD 300, Thuringia came under Frankish domination in the 6th century, forming a part of the subsequent Holy Roman Empire. The Franks or Frankish people (Franci or gens Francorum) were West Germanic tribes first identified in the 3rd century as an Ethnic group The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in

Thuringia became a landgraviate in 1130. Landgrave ( Dutch landgraaf, German Landgraf; French landgrave; Latin comes magnus, comes patriae 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. Hesse (Hessen is a state of Germany with an area Most of the remaining Thuringia came under the rule of the Wettin dynasty of the nearby Margraviate of Meissen, the nucleus of the later Electorate and Kingdom of Saxony. The House of Wettin was a dynasty of German Counts Dukes prince-electors (Kurfürsten and kings that ruled the area of today's The March or Margraviate of Meissen (Mark(grafschaft Meißen was a mediæval principality a march, of the Holy Roman Empire in the area of the modern The Electorate of Saxony (Kurfürstentum Sachsen or Duchy of Upper Saxony was an independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806 The Kingdom of Saxony (Königreich Sachsen lasting between 1806 and 1918 was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic 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. The House of Wettin was a dynasty of German Counts Dukes prince-electors (Kurfürsten and kings that ruled the area of today's 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. The Ernestine duchies, also called the Saxon duchies (although also the Albertine Appanage duchies of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz Saxe -Weimar (Sachsen-Weimar was a Duchy in Thuringia, Germany. Saxe -Eisenach (Sachsen-Eisenach was the name of three different duchies that existed at different times in the German province of Thuringia. The Duchy of Saxe-Jena was one of the Saxon Duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin Dynasty The Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen was one of the Saxon Duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin Dynasty Saxe-Altenburg (Sachsen-Altenburg was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty Saxe-Coburg (Sachsen-Coburg is a historical state in today's Bavaria, Germany. Saxe-Gotha (Sachsen-Gotha was a historical state in today's Thuringia, Germany.

Thuringia generally accepted the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time 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. For other conflicts referred to as peasant wars or revolts see Peasant revolt (disambiguation. In Mühlhausen and elsewhere, the Anabaptists found many adherents. Mühlhausen (official Mühlhausen/Thüringen) is a City in the Federal state Thuringia, Germany. Anabaptists ( Greek ανα (again twice + βαπτιζω (baptize thus "re-baptizers" are Christians of the Radical Reformation Thomas Munzer, the founder of this sect, was active in this city. Thomas Müntzer (ca 1488 – 27 May 1525 was an early Reformation-era German theologian and Anabaptist 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. The Eichsfeld is a historical region in the southeast of Lower Saxony and Thuringia (which is called "Untereichsfeld" = lower Eichsfeld and northwest of The Archbishopric of Mainz (Erzbistum Mainz or Electorate of Mainz (Kurfürstentum Mainz or Kurmainz) was an influential ecclesiastic and secular Prince-bishopric Erfurt (ˈɛɐ̯fʊɐ̯t is a City in central Germany. It is the Capital of the state of Thuringia with a population of 202619 (2006

This German map shows the various states of Thuringia within the German Empire in 1905. The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification

Some reordering of the Thuringian states occurred during the German Mediatisation from 1795-1814, and the territory was included within the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine organized in 1806. The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany in 1795 &ndash 1814, during The Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation (Rheinbund États confédérés du Rhin officially and Confédération du Rhin in practice) lasted The 1815 Congress of Vienna confirmed these changes and the Thuringian states' inclusion in the German Confederation; the Kingdom of Prussia also acquired some Thuringian territory and administered it within the Province of Saxony. The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of the major powers of Europe, chaired by the Austrian statesman Clemens Wenzel von Metternich The German Confederation (Deutscher Bund was the association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to serve as the successor to The Kingdom of Prussia (Königreich Preußen was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918 and from 1871 was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising }The Province of Saxony (Provinz Sachsen was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945 The Thuringian duchies which became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the Prussian-led unification of Germany were Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and the two principalities of Reuß. The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification The unification of Germany took place on January 18, 1871, when Prussian Chief Minister Otto von Bismarck managed to unify a number of independent The Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Herzogtum Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach was created in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach Saxe-Coburg and Gotha or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha served as the name of the two German duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha in Schwarzburg-Sondershausen was a small Principality in Germany in the present day state of Thuringia, with capital at Sondershausen. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a small state in Germany, in the present-day state of Thuringia formed in a resettlement of Schwarzburg dynasty family lands Reuss (Reuß was the name of several historical states located in present-day Thuringia, Germany. In 1920 after World War I, these small states merged into one state, called Thuringia; only Saxe-Coburg voted to join Bavaria instead. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Saxe-Coburg (Sachsen-Coburg is a historical state in today's Bavaria, Germany. Bavaria ( German:, with an area of 70553 Km² (27241 square miles and almost 12 Weimar became the new capital of Thuringia. Weimar (ˈvaɪmaʁ is a City in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of Thuringia (Thüringen north of the Thüringer Wald,

According to the 2005 book Hitlers Bombe, a nuclear device was detonated here in March 1945 by the Nazis. Hitlers Bombe ( Hitler's Bomb) is a Nonfiction book by the German historian Rainer Karlsch published in March 2005 which claims to However, full tests on the soil at the proposed test site were released by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), revealing no abnormal background levels of radiation after taking into account the already elevated background levels as a result of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear reactor accident in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union. The PTB release emphasized that while it could not necessarily rule out a German test conclusively, that soil analysis of that site revealed absolutely no evidence of it.

After July 1945, the state of Thuringia came under the Soviet occupation zone, and was expanded to include parts Prussian Saxony, such as the areas around Erfurt, Mühlhausen, and Nordhausen. The Soviet Occupation Zone ( German: Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ or Ostzone; Советская зона Германии Sovetskaya zona Germanii Erfurt (ˈɛɐ̯fʊɐ̯t is a City in central Germany. It is the Capital of the state of Thuringia with a population of 202619 (2006 Mühlhausen (official Mühlhausen/Thüringen) is a City in the Federal state Thuringia, Germany. Nordhausen is a City at the southern edge of the Harz mountains in the state of Thuringia, Germany. Erfurt became the new capital of Thuringia.

In 1952, the German Democratic Republic dissolved its states, and created districts (Bezirke) instead. The German Democratic Republic ( GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR; commonly known in English as East Germany) was a Socialist state Following the redrawing of Germany 's national boundaries after 1945 there were five states or Länder in the Soviet occupation zone: The three districts that shared the territory of Thuringia were based in Erfurt, Gera and Suhl. Gera is the third largest city in the German state of Thuringia after Erfurt, the Thuringian capital Suhl is a Town in Thuringia, Germany. Its Population in 2003 was 43610

The State of Thuringia was restored with slightly altered borders during Germany's reunification in 1990. German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung took place twice after 1945 first in 1957 the Saarland was permitted to join the Federal Republic of Germany

Politics

List of Minister-presidents of Thüringen

The state of Thuringia (red) upon its formation in 1920

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

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

See also: Thuringia state election, 2004

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