Thuringia

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Freistaat Thüringen Free State of Thuringia
	Civil flag State flag
Time zone:	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Administration
Capital:	Erfurt
Prime Minister:	Dieter Althaus (CDU)
Governing party:	CDU
Votes in Bundesrat:	4 (from 69)
Basic Statistics
Area:	16,171 km² (6,244 sq.mi.)
Population:	2,319,000 (31. Aug. 2006)
- Density:	143 /km² (371 /sq.mi.)
Further Information
GDP:	€ 44.8 billion (2005)
	- 2 % of German GDP
NUTS-Region:	DEG
ISO 3166-2:	DE-TH
Website:	thueringen.de
Location within Germany

The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) is located in central Germany. It has an area of 16,200 km² and 2.33 million inhabitants, making it the fourth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen Bundesländer (federal states). The capital is Erfurt.

1 Geography
- 1.1 Towns
2 History
3 Politics
- 3.1 List of Minister-presidents of Thuringia
- 3.2 June 13, 2004 state election
4 Transportation
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] 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. The Werra river ("Werratal") separates this mountain chain from the Rhön Mountains, which are partially in Thuringia. 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.

[edit] Towns

Towns in Thuringia
position	town	inhabitants			district
position	town	31 December 1970	31 December 2000	30 June 2005	district
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 on 16 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 on 1 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 on 1 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

[edit] 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 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. 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.

[edit] Politics

[edit] 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)

[edit] June 13, 2004 state election

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%
Free Democratic Party (FDP)	36,483	3.6%	0	0.0%
Free Voters in Thuringia	26,302	2.6%	0	0.0%
The Republicans	19,797	2.0%	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%