Thuringia

A region before a modern state

The modern Free State should not be projected unchanged onto earlier centuries. A useful starting point is the Wartburg above Eisenach, a seat of the medieval landgraves of Thuringia. Its history connects courtly power, religious life and literature. Later, during his stay at the castle, Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German. These associations belong to a regional history that long predates today’s political boundaries. 1

The building itself also asks for careful reading. UNESCO distinguishes its surviving medieval fabric from substantial nineteenth-century reconstruction. What visitors see records both the Middle Ages and later ideas about how the past should look. That makes the Wartburg a valuable companion to Erfurt’s streets: in both places, heritage includes the history of preservation and reinterpretation. 1

Courts, culture and several centres

Weimar offers another perspective. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, ducal patronage helped make the town a meeting place for writers and thinkers. Goethe, Schiller and Herder are central to the cultural history represented by its houses, library, parks and court buildings. UNESCO’s Classical Weimar designation recognises this group of places rather than a single monument. 2

Read beside the Wartburg, Weimar helps explain why a regional history cannot be told through one capital alone. Different places carried different forms of influence. A castle, a library and a writer’s home preserve evidence of political resources as well as cultural achievement. This is one way to approach Thuringia as a landscape of connected centres, rather than simply as the territory surrounding present-day Erfurt. 1 2

The state created in 1920

In 1920, seven successor states to former monarchies united to form Thuringia. Coburg did not join, and neither did the Prussian administrative district of Erfurt. The distinction is essential: Erfurt’s position in the region did not yet make it part of the newly formed state. A map of cultural connections and a map of government would have shown different relationships. 3

After the revolution of 1918, the former principalities had become republics, described in German as Freistaaten. A provisional constitution in 1920 was followed by the constitution of 11 March 1921, establishing representative democracy. The name “Free State” belongs to that republican history. 4

The founding was consequently both a territorial reorganisation and a change in the basis of political authority. It brought formerly separate states together within a democratic constitutional framework.

Dictatorship and changing boundaries

The Nazi takeover dismantled that framework. In 1933 and 1934, the destruction of parliamentary institutions and the transfer of state powers to the Reich ended Thuringia’s autonomy. A regional name could remain while meaningful democratic self-government disappeared. 4

Erfurt’s own administrative history followed a different territorial path. It remained Prussian until 1945, when the Soviet military administration incorporated the former Prussian administrative district of Erfurt into Thuringia. The regional court’s institutional history records this change directly. It is a reminder that the relationship between Erfurt and Thuringia was made through political decisions, rather than fixed for all time. 5

For the city’s experience of National Socialism, persecution and war, read War & dictatorship. That chapter follows local institutions and places where the consequences of dictatorship can be examined in greater detail.

From a Land to GDR districts

The post-war Land received a constitution in 1946. In 1952, however, the GDR eliminated the functioning state structures as part of its centralisation. The constitutional court’s historical account identifies this as the end of the post-war state constitution’s period of application. 4

The districts of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl were created on Thuringian territory. A regional identity thus continued in a political system organised through different administrative units. Erfurt’s role as a district centre must be distinguished from its role as the capital of a federal state. 3

The linked chapter GDR & Stasi explores this period through everyday life, state surveillance, imprisonment and the democratic movement of 1989.

Re-establishment and a democratic constitution

The protests and political changes of 1989 reopened the question of regional statehood. The State Archives describe the restoration of Thuringia as part of a broader transformation involving demands for civil freedoms and the end of the SED’s monopoly on power. 6

Thuringia was re-established on 3 October 1990, alongside German reunification. The choice of a capital was debated; parliament ultimately selected Erfurt. The state parliament adopted the new constitution at the Wartburg on 25 October 1993, and voters approved it in a referendum on 16 October 1994. These events connected a new institutional framework with a place already carrying several layers of historical meaning. 6

The constitutional court’s account emphasises that experience under two dictatorships informed the design of constitutional protection after reunification, including the ability of individuals to challenge state action. 4

Reading Erfurt within Thuringia

Erfurt’s story becomes clearer when its local landmarks are read alongside these changes in borders and government. Regional belonging, administrative membership and the location of a capital are related questions, but they do not always have the same answer.

Return to the Erfurt timeline to follow the city across the centuries. For a different scale of attention, explore Steigerwald, where the relationship between a city and its surroundings can be approached through woodland, shared resources and environmental learning.