Eisenach

Eisenach
Wartburg in Eisenach
Coat of arms
Eisenach
Coordinates: 50°58′34″N 10°19′14″E / 50.97611°N 10.32056°E / 50.97611; 10.32056Coordinates: 50°58′34″N 10°19′14″E / 50.97611°N 10.32056°E / 50.97611; 10.32056
Country	Germany
State	Thuringia
District	Urban district
Government
• Mayor	Katja Wolf
Area
• Total	103.84 km2 (40.09 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	42,417
• Density	410/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	99817
Dialling codes	03691
Vehicle registration	EA
Website	www.eisenach.de

Eisenach is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of Erfurt, 70 km (43 miles) southeast of Kassel and 150 km (93 miles) northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situated near the former Inner German border. A major attraction is Wartburg castle, which has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1999.

Eisenach was an early capital of Thuringia in the 12th and 13th centuries. St. Elizabeth lived at the court of the Ludowingians here between 1211 and 1228. Later, Martin Luther came to Eisenach and translated the Bible into German. In 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach was born here. During the early-modern period, Eisenach was a residence of the Ernestine Wettins and was visited by numerous representatives of Weimar classicism like Johann Wolfgang Goethe. In 1869, the SDAP, one of the two precursors of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was founded in Eisenach.

Car production is an important industry in Eisenach. The Automobilwerk Eisenach was founded in 1896. In the German Democratic Republic, the Wartburg was produced here.