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The Free State of Thuringia
Germany's center. Thuringia lies in the geographical center
of Germany and encompasses as its heartland the bowl-shaped Thuringian
Basin and the Thuringian Forest. It stretches westward to the
Werra River and southeastward past the Saale River to the Weisse
Elster River. To the southwest lies the Rhön, and in the
south the state abuts the Franconian Forest. Thuringia borders
on five federal states; further improvement and enlargement of
the transportation network is consequently one of the state government's
paramount objectives. The autobahns A 4 and A 9, which traverse
Thuringia in a west-east and north-south direction respectively,
are presently being widened to six lanes. With the construction
of a new traffic axis through the Thuringian Forest (an autobahn
and a stretch of track for high-speed trains), an urgently needed
link is being created, one which will do justice to Thuringia's
central location and which would have been completed much earlier
had Germany not been divided. Erfurt (213,000 inhabitants), the
state capital, is referred to as the "city of flowers”.
The old part of the city is graced with an unusually large number
of patrician houses, churches and monasteries which virtually
make it an architectural open-air museum.
Territorial fragmentation and culture. Thuringia was particularly
affected by Germany's earlier territorial fragmentation. The region's
rulers competed intensely with one another, especially in the
cultural sphere, and took great pride in their role as patrons
of the fine arts. By far the most prominent among them was Duke
Karl August of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach (1757-1828). He brought
to his court the poet and translator of Shakespeare's works Christoph
Martin Wieland (1733-1813), the poet and philologist Johann Gottfried
von Herder (1744-1803), and above all Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749-1832). Thus at that time, around 1800, Weimar became a center
of German and European intellectual life. In this city Goethe
wrote some of his most famous works, including the final version
of "Faust”. Weimar was also home to Friedrich von Schiller
from 1787 to 1789 and from 1799 to 1805. Here he wrote, among
other works, his "William Tell”. In the second half
of the 19th century, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) composed and gave
concerts in this city distinctive for its keen appreciation of
the fine arts. Here, in 1919, Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus,
a school of architecture which sought to overcome the divisions
between art, handicraft and technology. In 1925 the Bauhaus moved
to Dessau, and a few years later to Berlin, where, in 1933, it
fell victim to the barbarity which followed Hitler's seizure of
power. The year 1933 also marked the demise of the first German
republic, the Weimar Republic, whose constitution had been drafted
and adopted in Weimar in 1919.
Weimar has been selected as Europe's city of culture for the year
1999, the 250th anniversary of Goethe's birth. Johann Sebastian
Bach, the scion of a renowned family of musicians, was born in
Eisenach in 1685. Ensconced in the nearby Wartburg in 1522, Martin
Luther translated the New Testament into German - a key step in
the development of the modern German literary language. Thuringia
is marking the 450th anniversary of the reformer's death with
a "Luther Year 1996”.
Meeting at the Wartburg in 1817, representatives of patriotic
student groups known as Burschenschaften called for a united Germany.
Industry and crafts. In Thuringia, where important roads
intersected, commerce and the craft trades found favorable conditions
for growth. Woad, a plant yielding blue coloring matter, brought
the region early prosperity. A tradition of weapons craftsmanship
led Suhl to become the "armorer's workshop” for hunting
and sporting guns. The industrialization of Germany in the 19th
century began in Saxony and Thuringia; important branches were
mining (potash), porcelain, glass, toys, and above all machine
tools and the optical industry associated with the names Zeiss and Schott in Jena.
Thuringia has once again picked up the thread of these old traditions.
In the wake of the wrenching economic changes brought on by the
fall of the Wall, new structures in line with market conditions
have been developed which make it possible to attract future-oriented
technologies to the Free State of Thuringia. With three universities,
a number of Fachhochschulen, roughly 50 research institutions
and 20 technology centers, Thuringia now has a strong academic
and scientific base. Jena continues to be the heart of the optical
industry. Machinery is manufactured above all in Gera and Erfurt.
The state capital is also a center for microelectronics. In Eisenach,
the traditional automobile industry with its suppliers predominates;
the new Opel plant there has the highest productivity of any automobile
plant in Europe. Other major industries in Thuringia are the electronics,
glass, fine ceramics, wood processing, textile, clothing and chemical
industries.
Half of Thuringia's land area is given over to farming, and some
of the farmland has soil of the highest quality. Important crops
are grain, rape, potatoes and sugar beets. Since time immemorial,
Thuringia has also enjoyed an excellent reputation for the processing
of agricultural products into foods for human consumption.
Germany's "green heart”. Extensive forests and
broad expanses of fields as well as romantic valleys and gorges
make the Thuringian Forest an attractive hiking and winter sports
area. The Rennsteig, which runs along the crests of the ridges
of the Thuringian Forest for a length of 168 kilometers, is -
next to the Eselsweg in the Spessart region - Germany's oldest
and most famous hiking path. The state's wealth of medicinal and
mineral springs has fostered the growth of many health resorts.
Approximately 170 artificial lakes afford optimal conditions for
water sports enthusiasts. Of course visitors are also drawn to
Thuringia by its rich cultural heritage. The 300-kilometer-long
"Thuringian Classical Route”, which was opened in 1992,
takes people to the state's most beautiful spots, to castles and
palaces, to museums and memorials - always calling to mind the
time when Thuringia was the center of German intellectual life.
Meiningen is once again the home of a flourishing theater; in the 19th century, this city became famous throughout Europe for its court theater troupe "The Meiningen Company”. Its spectacular success was attributable to the patronage of the local sovereign, Duke George II of Saxe-Meiningen, who also directed the company. Today this theater is one of the most popular in Germany.