Free State of Thuringia
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| Coordinates: 50°51′40″N 11°3′7″E / 50.86111°N 11.05194°E | |
| Country | Germany |
| Capital | Erfurt |
| Government | |
| • Body | Landtag of Thuringia |
| • Minister-President | Bodo Ramelow (The Left) |
| • Governing parties | The Left / SPD / Greens |
| • Bundesrat votes | 4 (of 69) |
| • Bundestag seats | 19 (of 736) |
| Area | |
• Total | 16,171 km2 (6,244 sq mi) |
| Population (2020-12-31)[1] | |
• Total | 2,120,237 |
| • Density | 130/km2 (340/sq mi) |
| Demonym | Thuringian |
| GDP | |
| • Total | €71.430 billion (2022) |
| • Per capita | €33,656 (2022) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| ISO 3166 code | DE-TH |
| NUTS Region | DEG |
| HDI (2018) | 0.928[3] very high · 12th of 16 |
| Website | thueringen.de |
Thuringia,[a] officially the Free State of Thuringia,[b] is one of Germany's 16 states with 2.1 million people, its 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, its 11th-largest in area.[4]
Erfurt is the capital and largest city. Other cities include 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 Rennsteig, Germany's best-known hiking trail. Its winter resort of Oberhof makes it a well-equipped winter sports destination – half of Germany's 136 Winter Olympic gold medals had been won by Thuringian athletes as of 2014.[6] Thuringia was favoured by or was the birthplace of three key intellectuals and leaders in the arts: Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Schiller. The state has the University of Jena, the Ilmenau University of Technology, the University of Erfurt, and the Bauhaus University of Weimar.
The Frankish Duchy of Thuringia was established around 631 AD by King Dagobert I. The modern state was established in 1920 by the Weimar Republic through a merger of the Ernestine duchies, save for Saxe-Coburg. After World War II, Thuringia came under the Soviet occupation zone in Allied-occupied Germany, and its borders were reformed, to become contiguous. Thuringia became part of the German Democratic Republic in 1949, but was dissolved in 1952 during administrative reforms, and divided into the Districts of Erfurt, Suhl and Gera. Thuringia was re-established in 1990 following German reunification, slightly re-drawn, and became one of the new states of the Federal Republic of Germany.
- ^ "Upps".
- ^ "Bruttoinlandsprodukt, Bruttowertschöpfung | Statistikportal.de". Statistische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder | Gemeinsames Statistikportal (in German). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
- ^ "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- ^ "Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik". statistik.thueringen.de. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
- ^ Verein Fur Naturkunde, Kassel (30 July 2009). A. Trinius (1898). Retrieved 21 February 2014.
- ^ "Thüringen - Training Grounds for Olympic Athletes". Archived from the original on 22 February 2008.
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