Thuringia

Map

Thuringia,^[a] officially the Free State of Thuringia,^[b] is a state of central Germany, covering 16,171 square kilometres (6,244 sq mi), the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.^[4]

Erfurt is the capital and largest city. Other cities are Jena, Gera and Weimar. Thuringia is bordered by Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It has been known as "the green heart of Germany" (das grüne Herz Deutschlands) from the late 19th century due to its broad, dense forest.^[5] Most of Thuringia is in the Saale drainage basin, a left-bank tributary of the Elbe.

Thuringia is home to the

Thuringia had an earlier existence as the

The name Thuringia or Thüringen derives from the Germanic tribe

The Thuringian Realm existed until after 531, the Landgraviate of Thuringia was the largest state in the region, persisting between 1131 and 1247. Afterwards the state known as Thuringia ceased to exist; nevertheless the term commonly described the region between the Harz mountains in the north, the White Elster river in the east, the Franconian Forest in the south and the Werra river in the west. After the Treaty of Leipzig, Thuringia had its own dynasty again, the Ernestine Wettins. Their various lands formed the Free State of Thuringia, founded in 1920, together with some other small principalities. The Prussian territories around Erfurt, Mühlhausen and Nordhausen joined Thuringia in 1945.

The coat of arms of Thuringia shows the lion of the Ludowingian Landgraves of 12th-century origin. The eight stars around it represent the eight former states which formed Thuringia. The flag of Thuringia is a white-red bicolor, derived from the white and red stripes of the Ludowingian lion. The coat of arms and flag of Hesse are quite similar to the Thuringian ones, since they are also derived from the Ludowingian symbols.

Symbols of Thuringia in popular culture are the Bratwurst and the Forest, because a large amount of the territory is forested.

History

Named after the Thuringii Germanic tribe who occupied it around AD 300, Thuringia came under Frankish domination in the 6th century.

Thuringia became a

The modern German black-red-gold tricolour flag's first appearance anywhere in a German-ethnicity sovereign state, within what today comprises Germany, occurred in 1778 as the state flag of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, a defunct principality in the modern state's borders.

Some reordering of the Thuringian states occurred during the

Free State of Thuringia

In 1920, after World War I, these small states merged into one state, called the Free State of Thuringia (Freistaat Thüringen); only Saxe-Coburg voted to join Bavaria instead. Weimar became the new capital. The coat of arms of this new state was simpler than those of its predecessors. The Landtag of the newly established state first convened in 1920 in Weimar. Its deputies were elected for three years according to proportional representation, with a minimum voting age of 21. Between 1920 and 1932, under the Weimar Republic, six Landtag elections were held.

Thuringia was one of the states where the

The present State of Thuringia was recreated with slightly altered borders during German reunification in 1990.

Geography

Topography

From the northwest going clockwise; Thuringia borders on the German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bavaria and Hesse.

The landscapes of Thuringia are quite diverse. The far north is occupied by the

There are two large rivers in Thuringia. The Saale, a tributary of the Elbe, with its tributaries the Unstrut, Ilm and White Elster, drains the most part of Thuringia. The Werra – the headwater of the Weser – drains the south-west and west of the state. Furthermore, some small areas on the southern border are drained by tributaries of the Main, itself a tributary of the Rhine. There are no large natural lakes in Thuringia, but it does have some of Germany's biggest dams, including the Bleiloch Dam and the Hohenwarte Dam on the River Saale, as well as the Leibis-Lichte Dam and the Goldisthal Pumped Storage Station in the Thuringian Highlands. Thuringia is Germany's only state with no connection to navigable waterways.

The geographic centre of the Federal Republic is in Thuringia, within the municipality of Vogtei next to Mühlhausen. The centre of Thuringia is eight kilometres south of the capital's Cathedral, in the municipality of Rockhausen.

Climate

Thuringia's climate is temperate with humid westerly winds predominating. Increasingly as one moves from the north-west to the south-east, the climate shows continental features: winters can be cold for long periods, and summers can become warm. Dry periods are often recorded, especially within the Thuringian Basin, leeward to mountains in all directions. It is Germany's driest area, with annual precipitation of only 400 to 500 mm.

Artern, in the north-east, is warm and dry, with a mean annual temperature of 8.5 °C and mean precipitation of 450 mm; contrast this with wet, cool Oberhof, in the Thuringian Forest, where temperature averages only 4.4 °C and mean annual precipitation reaches 1300 mm.

Nature and environment

Due to many centuries of intensive settlement, most of the area is shaped by human influence. The original natural vegetation of Thuringia is forest with

Environmental damage in Thuringia has been reduced to a large extent after 1990. The condition of forests, rivers and air was improved by modernizing factories, houses (decline of coal heating) and cars, and contaminated areas such as the former Uranium surface mines around Ronneburg have been remediated. Today's environmental problems are the salination of the Werra river, caused by discharges of K+S salt mines around Unterbreizbach and overfertilisation in agriculture, damaging the soil and small rivers.

Environment and nature protection has been of growing importance and attention since 1990. Large areas, especially within the forested mountains, are protected as natural reserves, including Thuringia's first national park within the Hainich mountains, founded in 1997, the Rhön Biosphere Reserve, the Thuringian Forest Nature Park and the South Harz Nature Park.

Demographics

Demographic history

During the Middle Ages, Thuringia was at the border between

) kept growing).

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% 1834 1,172,375 —     1864 1,435,115 +22.4% 1890 1,737,544 +21.1% 1910 2,160,692 +24.4% 1950 2,932,242 +35.7% 1960 2,737,865 −6.6% 1970 2,759,084 +0.8% 1980 2,730,368 −1.0% 1988 2,723,268 −0.3% 1994 2,517,776 −7.5% 1995 2,503,785 −0.6% 1996 2,491,119 −0.5% 1997 2,478,148 −0.5% 1998 2,462,836 −0.6% 1999 2,449,082 −0.6% 2000 2,431,255 −0.7% 2001 2,411,387 −0.8% 2002 2,392,040 −0.8% 2003 2,373,157 −0.8%

Year Pop. ±% 2004 2,355,280 −0.8% 2005 2,334,575 −0.9% 2006 2,311,140 −1.0% 2007 2,289,219 −0.9% 2008 2,267,763 −0.9% 2009 2,249,882 −0.8% 2010 2,235,025 −0.7% 2011 2,181,603 −2.4% 2012 2,170,460 −0.5% 2013 2,160,840 −0.4% 2014 2,156,759 −0.2% 2015 2,170,714 +0.6% 2016 2,158,128 −0.6% 2017 2,151,205 −0.3% 2018 2,143,145 −0.4% 2019 2,133,378 −0.5% 2020 2,120,237 −0.6% 2021 2,108,863 −0.5% 2022 2,126,846 +0.9%

Source: Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik [de][1]

The 1981 census projected that Thuringia's population would reach 2,221,222 by 2011. The population counted in the 2011 census was 2,181,603, which is about 1.78% less.

Significant foreign resident populations

Nationality	Population (31 December 2022)
Ukraine	32,150
Syria	16,435
Poland	14,255
Romania	13,475
Vietnam	7,385
Afghanistan	6,250
Bulgaria	5,320
Russia	4,340
Turkey	4,130
Hungary	3,835

Current population

The current population is 2,120,237 (31 December 2020) with an annual rate of decrease of about 0.5%, which varies widely between the local regions. In 2012, 905,000 Thuringians lived in a municipality with more than 20,000 inhabitants, this is an urbanization rate of 42% which continues to rise.

In July 2013, there were 41,000 non-Germans by citizenship living in Thuringia (1.9% of the population − among the smallest proportions of any state in Germany). Nevertheless, the number rose from 33,000 in July 2011, an increase of 24% in only two years. About 4% of the population are migrants (including persons that already received German citizenship). The biggest groups of foreigners by citizenship are (as of 2012): Russians (3,100), Poles (3,000), Turks (2,100) and Ukrainians (2,000). The number of foreigners varies between regions: the college towns Erfurt, Jena, Weimar and Ilmenau have the highest rates, whereas there are almost no migrants living in the most rural smaller municipalities.

The Thuringian population has a significant sex ratio gap, caused by the emigration of young women, especially in rural areas. Overall, there are 115 to 120 men per 100 women in the 25–40 age group ("family founders") which has negative consequences for the birth ratio. Furthermore, the population is getting older and older with some rural municipalities recording more than 30% of over-65s (pensioners). This is a problem for the regional labour market, as there are twice as many people leaving as entering the job market annually.

Natural and spatial tendencies

The birth rate was about 1.8 children per women in the 1970s and 1980s, shrinking to 0.8 in 1994 during the economic crisis after the reunification and rose again to more than 1.4 children in 2010, which is a higher level than in West Germany. Nevertheless, there are only 17,000 births compared to 27,000 deaths per year, so that the annual natural change of the Thuringian population is about −0.45%. In 2015 there were 17,934 births, the highest number since 1990.

Migration plays an important role in Thuringia. The internal migration shows a strong tendency from rural areas towards the big cities. From 2008 to 2012, there was a net migration from Thuringia to Erfurt of +6,700 persons (33 per 1000 inhabitants), +1,800 to Gera (19 per 1000), +1,400 to Jena (14 per 1000), +1,400 to Eisenach (33 per 1000) and +1,300 to Weimar (21 per 1000). Between Thuringia and the other German states, the balance is negative: In 2012, Thuringia lost 6,500 persons to other federal states, the most to Bavaria, Saxony, Hesse and Berlin. Only with Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg the balance is positive. The international migration is fluctuating heavily. In 2009, the balance was +700, in 2010 +1,800, in 2011 +2,700 and in 2012 +4,800. The most important countries of origin of the Thuringia migrants from 2008 to 2012 were Poland (+1,700), Romania (+1,200), Afghanistan (+1,100) and Serbia/Montenegro/Kosovo (+1,000), whereas the balance was negative with Switzerland (−2,800) and Austria (−900).

Vital statistics

^[8]

• Births January–November 2016 = 17,008
• Births January–November 2017 = −16,641
• Deaths January–November 2016 = −25,644
• Deaths January–November 2017 = 26,854
• Natural growth January–November 2016 = 8,636
• Natural growth January–November 2017 = −10,213

Cities, towns and villages

Of the approximately 850 municipalities of Thuringia, 126 are classed as towns (within a district) or cities (forming their own urban district). Most of the towns are small with a population of less than 10,000; only the ten biggest ones have a population greater than 30,000. The first towns emerged during the 12th century, whereas the latest ones received town status only in the 20th century. Today, all municipalities within districts are equal in law, whether they are towns or villages. Independent cities (i.e. urban districts) have greater powers (the same as any district) than towns within a district.

Rank	City	District	Pop. 31 December 2020[1]	Change*	CoA	Image
1	Erfurt	independent	213,692	+0.68
2	Jena	independent	110,731	+0.47
3	Gera	independent	92,126	−0.55
4	Weimar	independent	65,098	+0.35
5	Gotha	Gotha	45,273	−0.05
6	Nordhausen	Nordhausen	40,969	−0.35
7	Eisenach	Wartburgkreis	41,970	−0.12
8	Suhl	independent	36,395	−1.68
9	Mühlhausen	Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis	35,799	−0.38
10	Altenburg	Altenburger Land	31,101	−1.27

* Average annual change in percent within the last three years (13 December 2009 to 31 December 2012), adjusted from incorporations and the 2011 Census results.

Religion

Since the

• 
  EKD Protestant membership in 2011 (municipalities)
• 
  Catholic membership in 2011 (municipalities)

Politics

National

Thuringia is a stronghold for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party emerged as the largest in Thuringia in the 2021 national elections.^[10] In 2017 the party got 22.7%, while in 2021 they got 24.0%.

List of minister-presidents of Thuringia

October 2019 state election

Summary of the 27 October 2019 preliminary election results for the Landtag of Thuringia

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-	Seats %
	The Left (Die Linke)	343,780	31.0	2.8	29	1	32.2
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	259,382	23.4	12.8	22	11	24.4
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	241,049	21.7	11.8	21	13	23.3
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	90,987	8.2	4.2	8	5	8.9
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grünen)	57,474	5.2	0.5	5	1	5.6
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	55,493	5.0	2.5	5	5	5.6
	National Democratic Party of Germany	6,044	0.5	3.1	0	±0	0
	Others	54,179	4.9	1.4	0	±0	0
Valid votes		1,108,388	98.8	0.2
Blank and invalid votes		13,426	1.2	0.2
Total		1,121,814	100.0		90	1
Electorate / voter turnout		1,729,242	64.9	12.2
Source: Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik

Local government

Thuringia is divided into 17 districts (Landkreise):

Furthermore, there are five urban districts:

• Erfurt (EF)
• Gera (G)
• Jena (J)
• Suhl (SHL)
• Weimar (WE)

Economy

Thuringia's economy is marked by the economic transition that happened after the German reunification and led to the closure of most of the factories within the Land. The unemployment rate reached a peak in 2005. Since that year, the economy has seen an upturn and the general economic situation has improved.

Agriculture and forestry

Agriculture and forestry have declined in importance over the decades. Nevertheless, they are more important than in most other areas of Germany, especially within rural regions. 54% of Thuringia's territory is in agricultural use. The fertile basins such as the large Thuringian Basin or the smaller Goldene Aue, Orlasenke and Osterland are in intensive use for growing cereals, vegetables, fruits and energy crops. Important products are apples, strawberries, cherries and plums in the fruit sector, cabbage, potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes (grown in greenhouses), onions, cucumbers and asparagus in the vegetable sector, as well as maize, rapeseed, wheat, barley and sugar beets in the crop sector.

Meat production and processing is also an important activity, with swine, cattle, chickens and turkeys in focus. Furthermore, there are many milk and cheese producers, as well as laying hens. Trout and carp are traditionally bred in aquaculture in many villages.

Most agricultural enterprises are large cooperatives, founded as Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft during the GDR period, and meat producers are part of multinational companies. Traditional private peasant agriculture is an exception, as is organic farming.

Thuringia's only wine-growing district is around Bad Sulza north of Weimar and Jena along the Ilm and Saale valley. Its production is marketed as Saale-Unstrut wines.

Forestry plays an important role in Thuringia because 32% of the Thuringian territory is forested. The most common trees are spruce, pine and beech. There are many wood and pulp-paper factories near the forested areas.

Industry and mining

Like most other regions of central and southern Germany, Thuringia has a significant industrial sector reaching back to the mid-19th-century industrialisation. The economic transition after the German reunification in 1990 led to the closure of most large-scale factories and companies, leaving small and medium-sized ones to dominate the manufacturing sector. Well-known industrial centres are

Mining was important in Thuringia since the later Middle Ages, especially within the mining towns of the

General economic parameters

The GDP of Thuringia is below the national average, in line with the other former East German Lands. Until 2004, Thuringia was one of the weakest regions within the European Union. The accession of several new countries, the crisis in southern Europe and the sustained economic growth in Germany since 2005 has brought the Thuringian GDP close to the EU average since then. The high economic subsidies granted by the federal government and the EU after 1990 are being reduced gradually and will end around 2020.

The unemployment rate reached its peak of 17.1% in 2005. Since then, it has decreased to 5.3% in 2019, which is only slightly above the national average. The decrease is caused on the one hand by the emergence of new jobs and on the other by a marked decrease in the working-age population, caused by emigration and low birth rates for decades. The wages in Thuringia are low compared to rich bordering Lands like Hesse and Bavaria. Therefore, many Thuringians are working in other German Lands and even in Austria and Switzerland as weekly commuters. Nevertheless, the demographic transition in Thuringia leads to a lack of workers in some sectors. External immigration into Thuringia has been encouraged by the government since about 2010 to counter this problem.

The economic progress is quite different between the regions of Thuringia. The big cities along the A4 motorway such as Erfurt, Jena and Eisenach and their surroundings are booming, whereas nearly all the rural regions, especially in the north and east, have little economic impetus and employment, which is a big issue in regional planning. Young people in these areas often have to commute long distances, and many emigrate soon after finishing school.

The unemployment rate stood at 5.9% in 2023 and was higher than the German average.^[12][13]

Tourism

Tourism is an important branch of the economy. Thuringia has a number of well known destinations: Wartburg castle (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Classical Weimar (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Bauhaus Weimar (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Thuringian Forest, Oberhof or Rennsteig (ridge walk). City tourism with the centers of Erfurt, Weimar, Jena, Eisenach and Mühlhausen is experiencing dynamic growth. A total of around 9.2 million overnight stays were booked in 2016, compared to 8.3 million ten years earlier. Around 6% of the bookings were made by foreign guests.^[15]

• 
  Wartburg
• 
  Goethe–Schiller Monument in Weimar
• 
  Thuringian Forest
• 
  Oberhof
• 
  Erfurt skyline
• 
  Krämerbrücke in Erfurt
• 
  Oldtown of Mühlhausen
• 
  Friedenstein Palace, Gotha

Infrastructure

Transport

As Germany's most central state, Thuringia is an important hub of transit traffic. The transportation infrastructure was in very poor condition after the

During the 1930s, the first two

A few small airports are in Thuringia. In public transport is Erfurt–Weimar Airport, used for charter flights to the Mediterranean and other holiday destinations. In private flights, Leipzig–Altenburg Airport is a further key airport.

International hub airports are Frankfurt Airport, Berlin Brandenburg Airport and Munich Airport in adjacent states.

Thuringia is the only state without barge or ship waterways; its rivers are too small to be navigable to them.

Energy and water supply

The traditional energy supply of Thuringia is lignite, mined in the bordering Leipzig region. Since 2000, the importance of environmentally unfriendly lignite combustion has declined in favour of renewable energies, which reached an amount of 40% (in 2013), and more clean gas combustion, often carried out as Cogeneration in the municipal power stations. The most important forms of renewable energies are Wind power and Biomass, followed by Solar energy and Hydroelectricity. Furthermore, Thuringia hosts two big pumped storage stations: the Goldisthal Pumped Storage Station and the Hohenwarte Dam.

The water supply is granted by the big dams, like the Leibis-Lichte Dam, within the Thuringian Forest and the Thuringian Highland, making a drinking water exporter of Thuringia.

Health

Health care provision in Thuringia improved after 1990, as did the level of general health. Life expectancy rose, nevertheless it is still a bit lower than the German average. This is caused by a relatively unhealthy lifestyle of the Thuringians, especially in high consumption of grains, industrial seed oils, refined carbohydrates and alcohol, which led to significant higher rates of obesity compared to the German average.

Health care in Thuringia is currently undergoing a concentration process. Many smaller hospitals in the rural towns are closing, whereas the bigger ones in centres like Jena and Erfurt get enlarged. Overall, there is an oversupply of hospital beds, caused by rationalisation processes in the German health care system, so that many smaller hospitals generate losses. On the other hand, there is a lack of family doctors, especially in rural regions with increased need of health care provision because of overageing.

Education

In Germany, the educational system is part of the sovereignty of the Länder; therefore each Land has its own school and college system.

School system

The Thuringian school system was developed after the reunification in 1990, combining some elements of the former

Thuringia is home to a K-12 international school in the city of Weimar, Thuringia International School (ThIS). The school was established in the year 2000 and is accredited by the Council of International Schools and authorised to offer the International Baccalaureate PYP, MYP and DP. Students who graduate from the school are able to gain admission to colleges and universities around the world.

Universities

The German higher education system comprises two forms of academic institutions: universities and polytechnics (Fachhochschule). The University of Jena is the biggest amongst Thuringia's four universities and offers nearly every discipline. It was founded in 1558, and today has 21,000 students. The second-largest is the Technische Universität Ilmenau with 7,000 students, founded in 1894, which offers many technical disciplines such as engineering and mathematics. The University of Erfurt, founded in 1392, has 5,000 students today and an emphasis on humanities and teacher training. The Bauhaus University Weimar with 4,000 students is Thuringia's smallest university, specialising in creative subjects such as architecture and arts. It was founded in 1860 and came to prominence as Germany's leading art school during the inter-war period, the Bauhaus.

The polytechnics of Thuringia are based in

Thuringia's leading research centre is Jena, followed by Ilmenau. Both focus on technology, in particular life sciences and optics at Jena and information technology at Ilmenau. Erfurt is a centre of Germany's horticultural research, whereas Weimar and Gotha with their various archives and libraries are centres of historic and cultural research. Most of the research in Thuringia is publicly funded basic research due to the lack of large companies able to invest significant amounts in applied research, with the notable exception of the optics sector at Jena.

Personalities

• 
  Ernst Haeckel
• 
  Max Weber
• 
  Carl Zeiss
• 
  Otto Schott