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Thuringia

Free State of Thuringia
Freistaat Thüringen
State of Germany
Flag of Free State of Thuringia
Flag
Coat of arms of Free State of Thuringia
Coat of arms
Deutschland Lage von Thüringen.svg
Coordinates: 50°51′40″N 11°3′7″E / 50.86111°N 11.05194°E / 50.86111; 11.05194
Country Germany
Capital Erfurt
Government
 • Minister-President Bodo Ramelow (The Left)
 • Governing parties The Left / SPD / Alliance '90/The Greens
 • Bundesrat votes 4 (of 69)
Area
 • Total 16,171 km2 (6,244 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)
 • Total 2,170,714
 • Density 130/km2 (350/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code DE-TH
GDP/ Nominal €57/ $63 billion (2015)
GDP per capita €27,000/ $30,000 (2015)
NUTS Region DEG
Website thueringen.de

The Free State of Thuringia (English /θəˈrɪniə/; German: Freistaat Thüringen, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈtyːʁɪŋən]) is a federal state in central Germany. It has an area of 16,171 square kilometres (6,244 sq mi) and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states. Most of Thuringia is within the watershed of the Saale, a left tributary of the Elbe. The capital is Erfurt.

Thuringia has been known as "the green heart of Germany" (das grüne Herz Deutschlands) from the late 19th century, due to the dense forest covering the land.

It is home to the Rennsteig, Germany's most well-known hiking trail, and the winter resort of Oberhof making it a well known winter sports destination. Half of Germany's 136 Winter Olympic gold medals (through the Sochi games in 2014) have been won by Thuringian athletes.

Johann Sebastian Bach spent the first part of his life (1685–1717) and important further stages of his career in Thuringia. Goethe and Schiller lived in Weimar and both worked at the University of Jena, which today hosts Thuringia's most important science centre. Other Universities in this federal state are the Ilmenau University of Technology, the University of Erfurt, and the Bauhaus University of Weimar.


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