Thuringia

Thuringia (German: Thüringen) is a Bundesland of Germany. It lies in central Germany and has an area of 16,251 km2 (6,274.5 sq mi). This means Thuringia is the sixth smallest state in Germany by area. It has 2.1 million inhabitants, so it is the fifth smallest state in Germany by population. The capital is Erfurt. History 1920 the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, the Duchies of Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg and Saxe-Gotha (part of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and the Principalities of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Greiz and Gera united to make the Free State of Thuringia. 1949 Thuringia and Erfurt became a new state of the DDR 1952 It became divided in three Districts Bezirke (Erfurt, Gera and Suhl) 1990 Thuringia became a Bundesland in the reunited Germany. Geography Thuringia borders on the German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bavaria and Hesse. The most conspicuous geographical feature of Thuringia is the Thuringia Forest (Thüringer Wald). In the northwest Thuringia includes a small part of the Harz mountains. The Saale river runs through Jena. The biggest mountain in Thuringia is with 982m the Großer Beerberg in the Thuringia Forest. List of Minister-Presidents of Thuringia 1945: Hermann Brill 1945 - 1947: Rudolf Paul 1947 - 1952: Werner Eggerath 1990 - 1992: Josef Duchac 1992 - 2003: Bernhard Vogel (CDU) 2003 - 2009: Dieter Althaus (CDU) 2009 - 2014: Christine Lieberknecht (CDU) since 2014: Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke) Cities in Thuringia Erfurt Gera Jena Weimar Suhl Eisenach Gotha References