Free State of Thuringia

Origins

After 1918 the small Ernestine and Schwarzburg states and Reuss sought union. On 1 May 1920 Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Gotha, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and the People's State of Reuss merged into the Land of Thuringia, with Weimar as capital. Coburg chose Bavaria instead.

Rule and society

Thuringia had textile, toy, glass and optical industries, including Carl Zeiss in Jena. In 1923 a left-wing government was removed by the federal army. The Bauhaus left Weimar for Dessau in 1925 under nationalist pressure. In 1930 Wilhelm Frick became Thuringia's interior minister, the first Nazi to hold a ministerial post. Buchenwald concentration camp was built near Weimar in 1937.

Decline and legacy

After 1945 Thuringia was in the Soviet zone and became a Land of the German Democratic Republic. In 1952 it was divided into the districts of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl; the state was re-established in 1990.