rĭn`jə), Ger. Thüringen, state (1994 pop. 2,533,000), 6,273 sq mi (16,251 sq km), central Germany. It is bordered on the south by Bavaria, on the east by Saxony, on the north by Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, and on the west by Hesse. The region of Thuringia extends to the foot of the Harz Mts. in the north and is crossed by the Thuringian Forest, Ger. Thüringer Wald, which stretches from the Werra River in the west to the Thüringer Saale River in the southeast and rises to an altitude of 3,222 ft (982 m) in the Grosser Beerberg. Erfurt (the capital), Weimar, Jena, Gotha, Eisenach, Gera, Altenburg, Mühlhausen, and Suhl are the chief cities.
History
The ancient Thuringians, a Germanic tribe occupying central Germany between the Elbe and the Danube, were conquered by the Franks during the 6th cent. A.D. and were converted (8th cent.) to Christianity by St. Boniface. Charlemagne made Thuringia a march (frontier country) against the Slavs in the 9th cent., but it passed under the control of the Saxon dukes in the 10th cent.
In the 11th cent. the landgraves of Thuringia, with their seat at the celebrated Wartburg Wartburg (värt`b
..... Click the link for more information. , emerged as princes of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled over much of the territory that is modern Thuringia. When Landgrave Louis IV died (1227) on a Crusade, Louis's widow, St. Elizabeth Elizabeth, Saint, 1207–31, daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and wife of Landgrave Louis II of Thuringia. She is called St. Elizabeth of Hungary. She led a simple life, personally tended the sick and the poor, and spent long hours at prayer.
..... Click the link for more information. of Hungary, was expelled by his brother and successor, Henry Raspe, who later was antiking to Conrad IV. Although the succession to Thuringia was long contested after Henry's death in 1247, the major part eventually fell to the house of Wettin Wettin (vĕt`ĭn), German dynasty, which ruled in Saxony, Thuringia, Poland, Great Britain, Belgium, and Bulgaria.
..... Click the link for more information. , i.e., to the margraves of Meissen, who in 1423 became electors of Saxony.
The division (1485) of the Wettin lands left most of the Thuringian territories in the hands of the Ernestine branch of the family, which also received the electoral title. Thuringia was split, under the Ernestines, into several duchies (see Saxe-Altenburg Saxe-Altenburg (săks-ăl`tənbərg), Ger. Sachsen-Altenburg, former duchy, Thuringia, central Germany.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Saxe-Coburg Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Ernest I's brother was crowned (1831) as Leopold I , king of the Belgians, and Ernest's son Albert married (1840) Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Thus the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became the ruling dynasty of Belgium and of Great Britain (where the name was
..... Click the link for more information. ; Saxe-Gotha Saxe-Gotha (săks-gō`thə), Ger. Sachsen-Gotha, former duchy, Thuringia, central Germany.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Meiningen (săks-mīn`ĭng-ən), Ger. Sachsen-Meiningen, former duchy, Thuringia, central Germany.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Saxe-Weimar Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, which resulted from the reunion in 1741, was the most important of the Thuringian principalities. It gained its greatest prosperity and cultural importance under Duke Charles Augustus , the patron and friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who made Weimar , the
..... Click the link for more information. ). Principalities situated in Thuringia but not ruled by any of the branches of the Ernestine line were those of Reuss and Schwarzburg. Among the Ernestine duchies (which underwent several redivisions in the 17th, 18th, and 19th cent.) the most important, both politically and culturally, was Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (see under Saxe-Weimar).
All the Thuringian territories except Saxe-Meiningen sided with Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The Thuringian states had been members of the German Confederation from 1815; they joined the North German Confederation in 1866 and the German Empire in 1871. Their rulers were expelled in 1918, and in 1920 the state of Thuringia was founded under the Weimar Republic by the union of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (without the city of Coburg, which went to Bavaria), Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Meiningen, the two sister principalities of Reuss, and the two sister principalities of Schwarzburg.
As constituted in 1946 under Soviet military occupation, Thuringia consisted of the prewar state of Thuringia with the addition of former Prussian enclaves and border areas, notably Erfurt and Mühlhausen. In 1952 the state was abolished as an East German administrative unit, and Thuringia was split into the districts of Erfurt, Suhl, and Gera. It was reintegrated as a state shortly before German reunification in Oct., 1990. It is the smallest but most densely populated of the new German states. The heavily industrial region began to experience economic hardship by the 1990s; many of its largest industrial concerns went out of business.
Thuringia
German ThüringenHistoric region and state (pop., 2002 est.: 2,411,000), Germany. It includes the land around the Thuringian Forest in what was formerly southwestern East Germany and covers 6,244 sq mi (16,171 sq km). The capital is Erfurt. The Germanic Thuringians appeared after c. AD 350 and were conquered by the Huns in the mid-5th century. In 1485 Thuringia became part of Saxony and was divided into several states; they joined the German Empire in 1871 and were reunited after World War I. Following the partition of Germany in 1945, the state became part of East Germany; it was reconstituted as a state of reunified Germany in 1990. The economy is largely industrial.
Thuringia
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