Grand Duchy of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach The Duchy of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach ( ) was created in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe - Weimar and Saxe - Eisenach . It was raised to a Grand duchy in 1815 by resolution of the Vienna Congress . In 1877 , it officially changed its name to the Grand Duchy of Saxony ( ) , but this name was rarely used . The Grand Duchy came to an end in the German Revolution of 1918 – 19 with the other monarchies of the German Empire . It was succeeded by the Free State of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach , which was merged into the new state of Thuringia two years later . The full grand ducal style was Grand Duke of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach , Landgrave in Thuringia , Margrave of Meissen , Princely Count of Henneberg , Lord of Blankenhayn , Neustadt and Tautenburg . The Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach branch is the most genealogically senior extant branch of the House of Wettin . Geography . The Grand Duchy of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach consisted of three larger areas , each of which formed a administratively , plus several exclave s . Neighboring countries were Prussia , Saxony , Bavaria , Hesse - Kassel ( until 1866 , when it was incorporated in the Prussian province of Hesse - Nassau ) , and all the other Thuringian states ( Saxe - Altenburg , Saxe - Coburg - Gotha , Saxe - Meiningen , Reuss Elder Line , Reuss Junior Line , Schwarzburg - Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg - Sondershausen ) . The northern part of the Weimar district was flat and part of the Thuringian Basin ; the southern and eastern parts were situated on the Ilm - Saale Plateau and in the Saale valley . The northern part of Eisenach district was hilly ( Hörselberge and Hainich hills ) ; the central part with the town of Eisenach was in the Hörsel valley ; further south were the mountains of the Thuringian Forest , followed by the Werra valley , the Kupenrhön mountains and finally , in the far south , the main chain of the Rhön mountains . The district Neustadt was located in hills with altitudes between 200 and 400 meters . The main rivers in the country were : The highest elevation in the grand duchy were the Kickelhahn ( ) near Ilmenau , the Ellenbogen ( ) in the Rhön and the Ettersberg ( ) near Weimar . In 1895 , the Grand Duchy of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach was administratively divided into three districts : Furthermore , the districts of Weimar and Eisenach were each subdivided into two . In the case of Weimar , these were : Weimar and Apolda , in the case of Eisenach they were the Eisenach and Dermbach . In all , there were 31 cities and 594 municipalities in the Grand Duchy . The Grand Dukes of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach granted " city " status to three localities in the state , namely Berka / Werra ( Eisenach district , 1847 ) , Ruhla ( Eisenach district , 1886 , administered jointly with the Duke of Saxe - Gotha ) and Münchenbernsdorf ( Neustadt district , 1904 ) . In 1840 , there were 13 cities with over 2 , 000 inhabitants . In the 70 years to 1910 , the Grand Duchy industrialized heavily and the population of the largest cities grew , while the medium sized cities remained constant or even lost population . The population of Stadtlengsfeld shrank dramatically after the Jewish emancipation , when most of the city ' s Jewish citizens migrated to larger cities . In 1910 , several other towns had grown past the 2 , 000 inhabitants mark : Ruhla ( Weimar part : 3917 v . 1533 : + 156 % ) , Blankenhain ( 3405 v . 1689 : + 102 % ) , Bad Sulza , ( 3052 v . 1422 : + 115 % ) , Auma ( 2978 v . 1701 , + 75 % ) , Triptis ( 2948 v . 1480 : + 99 % ) , Tiefenort ( 2539 v . 1237 : + 105 % ) , Bad Berka ( 2379 v . 1228 : + 94 % ) , Oberweimar ( 2095 v . 621 : + 237 % ) , Oldisleben ( 2064 v . 1332 : + 55 ) and Mihla ( 2008 v . 1294 : + 55 % ) . History . The duchies of Saxe - Weimar and Saxe - Eisenach had been ruled in personal union by the House of Wettin since 1741 , after the Eisenach line had died out upon the death of Duke Wilhelm Heinrich . The first Duke of the personal union was Ernest Augustus I , who built the Belvedere Palace in Weimar . His son Ernest Augustus II reigned for only three years , and died at the age of 20 years . At the age of 18 , he married the one year younger Brunswick Princess Anna Amalia , a niece of King Frederick II of Prussia . A year later she gave birth to her son , Charles Augustus and after another year , when she was already a widow , to her son Constantine . As Dowager Duchess Anna Amalia actively took up the regency , with the approval of the Empress Maria Theresa and the support of her ethical Minister Baron von Fritsch . As educator for her sons , she employed the poet Christoph Martin Wieland , who was a professor at the university of Erfurt . At 18 years of age , Charles Augustus married Princess Louise of Hesse - Darmstadt . He employed the poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe , with whom he soon became friends . Goethe , in turn , invited the authors Johann Gottfried Herder s and Friedrich Schiller to Weimar , thus laying the foundation for the Weimar Classicism circle , which was supported in the background by Anna Amalia . Later regents would see it as main task to guard this heritage . In 1804 Duke Charles Augustus ' eldest son and heir Charles Frederick married Maria Pavlovna Romanova , sister of Emperor Alexander I of Russia , a conjugal union which decisively promoted the rise of the Ernestine Saxe - Weimar dynasty . It also gave the duchy some protection during the turmoil of the Napoleonic wars . Though at first an ally of Prussia in the Napoleonic War of the Fourth Coalition , Duke Charles Augustus escaped his deposition by joining the Confederation of the Rhine on 15 December 1806 . After the official merger in 1809 , the Duchy of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach consisted of the separate districts around the capital Weimar in the north and Eisenach in the west . Thanks to their Russian connection , the duchy gained substantially from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 . In the east , it gained the district of Neustadt an der Orla ( 629 km² ) . It also received most of Erfurt , which had been an exclave of Mainz before the war . It further gained smaller possessions , such as Blankenhain and Kranichfeld . In the Rhön area , the Eisenacher Oberland was created from adjacent former parts of Hesse - Kassel and territories held by the secularized Fulda monastery . Finally , the country was raised to a " Grand Duchy " . The cosmopolitan Grand Duke gave his grand duchy the first liberal constitution in Germany , on 5 May 1816 . Students of the University of Jena organized themselves as Germany ' s first fraternity , the and celebrated Wartburg Festival at the Wartburg in October 1817 . Many liberal - minded people participated and the speakers , most of them students , must be regarded as having been among the earliest democrats in Germany . Maria Pavlovna , who was Grand Duchess from 1828 , featuring composers like Franz List and Peter Cornelius . Her art - loving son Charles Alexander ( 1818 - 1901 ) , who was Grand Duke from 1853 , also supported the arts , and music in particular . He was married to Sophie , who supported his plans , and he rebuilt the decaying Wartburg the romantic historicism style of the day and had it painted by Moritz von Schwind . He also supported , albeit half - heartedly , the founding of the School of Applied Arts in Weimar , which merged to form the Bauhaus in 1919 . In 1901 Charles Alexander was succeeded by his grandson William Ernest , who was married to Caroline Reuss of Greiz and later to Princess Feodora of Saxe - Meiningen ( 1890 – 1972 ) . In 1903 , the Grand Duchy officially changed its name to " Grand Duchy of Saxony " . However , many people continue to call it Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach , to avoid confusion with the neighbouring Kingdom of Saxony . William Ernest abdicated the throne on 9 November 1918 , thereby ending the monarchy in the state . It continued as the Free State of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach , until 1920 , when it merged with most of its neighbours to form Thuringia , with Weimar as the state capital . Religion . In the Grand Duchy of Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach , as in all the Thuringian states , the Lutheran faith was the most prevalent . Specifically , in 1895 , the reported religious affiliations of the 339 , 217 were : In the district of Eisenach , the distribution was slightly different . Of the 95 , 226 inhabitants were : The Catholic and Jewish minorities in the district Eisenach lived mainly in the Rhön . The area around the town of Geisa was predominantly Catholic and belonged to the Diocese of Fulda . Constitution and administration . Under the Constitution of 5 May 1816 ( revised 15 October 1850 ) , Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach was a constitutional monarchy , hereditary in the male line . Under the Electoral Act of 1852 , the Landtag had 31 members , of whom 21 were elected in general elections . One member was elected by the landed former Imperial Knight s , four were elected by other wealthy landowners , and five by voters who had an annual income exceeding 1000 Thaler from other sources . The latter group of voters were popularly called " thousand taler men " . The elctoral Act of 17 April 1896 enlarged the parliament to 33 members . The Grand Duchy had one vote in the Bundesrat and three members in the Reichstag . In 1909 , general suffrage was introduced , under the auspices of Alfred Appelius , the later Speaker of the Landtag . The large landowners and the " thousand taler men " retained their extra votes , and five new special members were added to the parliament , representing the University of Jena , the Chamber of Commerce , the Chamber of Trae , the Chamber of Agriculture and the Chamber of Labour The highest court in the land was the Court of Appeals in Jena , which dealt with appeals from all Thuringian states . There were Regional Courts in Weimar and Eisenach . The Grand Duchy had one infantry regiment , which was part of the Prussia n 11th Army Corps . Economy . Agriculture . In 1895 , 37 . 9 % of the workforce were employed in the agriculture and forestry industries , 38 . 9 % worked in the manufacturing sector , and 16 . 4 % were employed in the service sector . Until 1900 , agriculture was the most important branch in the economy of the Grand Duchy . A total of 56 % of the duchy ' s territory was used for agriculture , mainly in the districts Weimar and Neustadt and the exclaves Allstedt and Oldisleben in the Goldene Aue area . The harvest of 1895 consisted of : Fruit was mainly grown in the Saale valley , around Jena and Bürgel . There was some viticulture north of Jena , between Dornburg and Camburg . Stock breeding was also widespread . In 1892 , there were 19 , 121 horses in the Grand Duchy , 119 , 720 cattle , 113 , 208 sheep , 122 , 974 pigs , 46 , 405 goats and 16 , 999 beehives . Game was only found near Eisenach , in Eichenzell and int the Ilmenau exclave , where the grand duke ' s largest hunting ground was located on the banks of the Gabelbach . About 50 % of the forests were state - owned ( 450 km² ) . The dominant tree species were beech ( in the Weimar district ) , pine ( especially in the Neustadt district ) and spruce ( in the Eisenach district and around Ilmenau ) . The Grand Duchy ' s State Forestry Office was based in Eisenach . Manufacturing Industries . A versatile array of manufacturing industries developed in the Grand Duchy . For example , in Bürgel and Ilmenau , there were porcelain factories ( in all , there were 39 such factories in the country ) . In Ilmenau and Jena , glass was made ( in particular , in the Schott factories ) . The glass industry was specialized in industrial glass ( for example measuring devices such as thermometers in the area around Ilmenau ) and optical products , around Jena . In 1846 , Carl Zeiss found a precision engineering and optical company that quickly developed into a world leader . In 1917 , the company had employees . In 1889 , Ernst Abbe founded the Carl - Zeiss - Stiftung , which became the sole share holder of the companies Carl Zeiss AG and Schott AG . The textile industry was also important . It was concentrated in Apolda ( mostly hosiery knitting mills ) and Neustadt an der Orla . Other major textile plants could be found in Wenigenjena , Eisenach , Weida , Remda and Blankenhain . In 1895 , the textile industry employed approximately people . Ruhla was a center of the metalworking industry . The country ' s first car plant was built in 1895 in Eisenach . Chemical industries , such as a paint factory , could also be found in Eisenach . Furthermore , there were a paper mill in Oberweimar and a toy factory in Ilmenau . Wicker - work was manufactured in the Kuppenrhön area and pipes were made in Geisa . In 1895 , there were 257 breweries in the Grand Duchy ; the largest of these were in Apolda and Ilmenau . Mining industry . Ilmenau and Ruhla were important mining centers in the Thuringian Forest . Around 1900 , potash industry began to develop in the Werra valley , around Vacha and Berka / Werra . There were salt works in Creuzburg and Bad Sulza . Trade . The major transport centers were Weimar and Eisenach . Many banks opened branch offices here . In 1895 , there were 23 branch offices of savings banks in the Grand Duchy , and they were managing deposits totalling approximately 40 million Reichsmark . The Grand Duchy was part of the Thuringian Toll Union , except for the exclaves Ostheim , Oldisleben , and Allstedt . Education . There was one state university in the Grand Duchy , the University of Jena , which was funded by Saxe - Weimar - Eisenach together with the other Thuringian states . There were several art and music schools in Weimar , and in Ilmenau , there was the Technische Universität Ilmenau , a privately owned university providing technical and scientific education . Gymnasiums existed in Weimar , Eisenach and Jena ; Realschule s were found in Weimar , Apolda , Jena , Eisenach , Neustadt and Ilmenau . In 1895 , there were 462 primary schools , and any child would received at least four years of primary education . Large libraries of volumes each were maintained in Weimar and Jena . In 1869 , a State Museum was founded in Weimar .