Thuringia

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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

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.

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.

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

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

External links

Thuringia | States of Germany | States in Weimar Republic | NUTS 1 Statistical Regions of Europe

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