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The Free State of Saxe-Gotha (German : Freistaat Sachsen-Gotha), initially also known as the Republic of Gotha (German: Republik Gotha), emerged after the World War I from the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It existed from November 1918 to May 1, 1920: It united with six other states to form the State of Thuringia.
On November 9, 1918, the Gotha Reichstag representative Wilhelm Bock (USPD) proclaimed the Gotha Republic on the main market in Gotha and declared Duke Carl Eduard deposed. Five days later, on November 14, the joint state parliament of Saxony-Coburg and Saxony-Gotha held its last meeting in Gotha. At this meeting, the Duke announced his resignation. Finally, the state parliament dissolved itself. The two former duchies went their separate ways in the political developments that followed.
The executive committee of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Gotha took over the Duke's responsibilities in Gotha under the leadership of Otto Geithner. After a delegate conference of the workers' and soldiers' councils on November 30, the executive was taken over by three "People's Representatives for the State of Gotha", who signed "State Ministry, The People's Representatives". These were Wilhelm Bock, Emil Grabow and Adolf Schauder, with Bock resigning at the beginning of February and being replaced by Albin Tenner. The state administration was headed by State Minister von Bassewitz until May 1919.
On January 23, 1919, they set February 23 as the election day for the State Assembly of Gotha. The USPD won the absolute majority. The election campaign was overshadowed by the occupation of Gotha by Reichswehr units of General Maercker on February 18, 1919. This was triggered by military preparations against the meeting of the National Assembly in Weimar. The workers' movement responded to the occupation with a general strike, which in turn triggered a civil strike. On March 26, 1919, the people's representatives Schauder, Grabow and Tenner were confirmed as members of the government by the newly elected state assembly with 10 votes to 8.
On April 12, 1919, the separation of Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Coburg was completed with the "State Treaty on the Administration of the Common Affairs of the Free States of Coburg and Gotha". After Carl Eduard had rejected a compensation offer of 15 million marks for the loss of his property, the "Law on the Confiscation of the Gotha House Fideikommiß, the Lichtenberg Fideikommiß, the Ernst-Albert Fideikommiß, the Schmalkalden Forests and the House Allod" was passed by the state assembly on July 31, 1919. It was the only expropriation of princes in Germany and was later annulled by a ruling of the Reich Court on June 18, 1925. The "Community Treaty on the Merger of the Thuringian States" was approved by all parties on May 28, 1919. The decision on a constitution based on a draft by Hermann Brill was made on December 23, 1919, as the last Thuringian state to do so, with the "Law for the Provisional Government Power in the Republic of Gotha," after a first draft incorporating the council system failed to come into force in the summer.
On the occasion of the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 in Berlin, the state government led by the USPD called for a general strike in the Free State of Gotha. The workers armed themselves and stormed, among other things, the Gotha prison. In response, a Reichswehr unit was sent from Erfurt to Gotha on March 13, 1920. As a result, there were civil war-like clashes in Gotha with more than 100 deaths, after which the decimated Reichswehr Association withdrew to Erfurt on March 18. On March 20, a Marburg unit was transferred to Gotha, which drove 15 workers to the village of Mechterstädt near Gotha and shot them there during the Mechterstädt murders.
Another general strike followed from March 26 to 31. The eight members of the bourgeois parties in the state assembly demanded the resignation of the state government due to the events and finally resigned their seats in order to force new elections by failing to pass a quorum. Since the state assembly continued to meet with the USPD members, the opposition filed a complaint to the Reich Minister of the Interior on March 31 because of the unconstitutional conditions. This, as well as the executive committee to which the people's representatives had submitted themselves, were the triggers for the Reich Execution against Saxony-Gotha on April 10, 1920, which meant the declaration of a state of emergency, the appointment of the Reich Government Commissioner Wilhelm Holle and later the dissolution of the state assembly and new elections.
Since the People's Representatives were not prepared to cooperate with the Reich Commissioner, he appointed a Civil Service Government on May 10, 1920, with State Councilors Wilharm and Muther. In the new elections on May 30, the USPD lost its majority in the state parliament. On June 15, a bourgeois state government was formed with the People's Representatives Max Heyn (Landbund), Otto Liebetrau (DDP) and Friedrich Pfeffer (DVP).
The state assembly elected on May 30 was dissolved again on January 7, 1921, as the USPD representatives began to boycott the sessions of the state assembly in July and render the parliament incapable of acting by resigning their seats. On March 6, 1921, the new elections for the regional representation took place. The Gothaer Heimat Bund, an association of bourgeois parties, regained the majority and formed the regional government with Max Heyn (Landbund), Otto Liebetrau (DDP) and Johannes Rasch (DVP) until March 30, 1923.
With the founding of the Land Thüringen on May 1, 1920, the Free State of Saxony-Gotha formally ceased to exist as a sovereign federal state, but the Gotha state government was still an important institution until the election of the Thuringian state government on November 10, 1920. The "Law on the Administration of the Former Thuringian States in the Transitional Period" of December 9, 1920 finally converted the Free State of Gotha into a higher-order municipal association with regional representation and regional government, which was abolished on April 1, 1923.
On January 23, 1919, they set February 23 as the election day for the Gotha National Assembly. The USPD obtained an absolute majority. The election campaign was overshadowed by the occupation of Gotha by Reichswehr units of General Maercker on 18 February 1919. The trigger was a military preparation against the gathering of the National Assembly of Weimar. The occupation was responded to by the labor movement with a general strike, which in turn triggered a civil strike. On March 26, 1919, the people's representatives Schauder, Grabow and Tenner were confirmed as members of the government by the newly elected regional assembly by a vote of 10 to 8.
The separation of the two parts of the former duchy was finally completed on 12 April 1919, when a state treaty was signed on the management of the common administration of the Free States of Coburg and Gotha. [1] [2]
On the occasion of the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 in Berlin, the state government led by the USPD in the Free State of Gotha called for a general strike. In the process, the workers armed themselves and stormed the Gotha prison, among other things. In response, on 13 March 1920, a Reichswehr unit was sent from Erfurt to Gotha. As a result, it reached Gotha in civil war clashes with over 100 dead, after which on 18 March the Reichswehrverband retreated to Erfurt. On March 20, a unit from Marburg was transferred to Gotha, and the Mechterstädt murders took place, where 15 workers died in the village of Mechterstädt, near Gotha.
Party | Percent | Seats |
---|---|---|
Gothaer Heimatbund (Landbund, DDP, DNVP, DVP) | 52.3 | 8 |
SPD | 5.4 | 1 |
USPD | 10.5 | 1 |
KPD | 31.8 | 5 |
Thuringia, officially the Free State of Thuringia, is one of Germany's 16 states — with 2.1 million people its 12th-largest by population and with 16,171 square kilometers its 11th-largest in area.
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was an Ernestine duchy in Thuringia ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-day states of Thuringia and Bavaria in Germany. It lasted from 1826 to 1918. In November 1918, Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was forced to abdicate. In 1920, the northern part of the duchy was merged with six other Thuringian free states to form the Free State of Thuringia: Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Altenburg and Saxe-Meiningen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, as well as the People's State of Reuss. The southern part of the duchy, as southernmost of the Thuringian states, was the only one which, after a referendum, became part of the Free State of Bavaria.
Coburg is a Landkreis (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Kronach, Lichtenfels, Bamberg and Haßberge, and by the state of Thuringia. The district surrounds, but does not include the city of Coburg.
Gotha is a Kreis (district) in western central Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis, Sömmerda, the Kreis-free city Erfurt, Ilm-Kreis, Schmalkalden-Meiningen and the Wartburgkreis.
Dr. Hermann Louis Brill was a German resistance fighter, doctor of law and politician (SPD).
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Gotha is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, 20 kilometres west of Erfurt and 25 km east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918. The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha originating here spawned many European rulers, including the royal houses of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal and Bulgaria.
Saalfeld is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the Saxon House of Wettin.
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Saxe-Eisenach was an Ernestine duchy ruled by the Saxon House of Wettin. The state intermittently existed at three different times in the Thuringian region of the Holy Roman Empire. The chief town and capital of all three duchies was Eisenach.
The Ernestine duchies, also known as the Saxon duchies, were a group of small states whose number varied, which were largely located in the present-day German state of Thuringia and governed by dukes of the Ernestine line of the House of Wettin.
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was a duchy ruled by the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin in today's Thuringia, Germany. The extinction of the line in 1825 led to a major re-organisation of the Thuringian states.
The coat of arms of the German state of Thuringia was introduced in 1990. Like the 1949 coat of arms of Hesse it is based on the Ludovingian lion barry, also known as the "lion of Hesse", with the addition of eight mullets.
The Landtag of Thuringia is the parliament of the German federal state of Thuringia. It convenes in Erfurt and currently consists of 88 members from seven parties. According to the free state's constitution, the primary functions of the Landtag are to pass laws, elect the Minister-President and control the government of Thuringia.
The Thuringian states refers to the following German federal states within the German Reich:
The Ruhr uprising, or March uprising, was a left-wing workers' revolt in the Ruhr region of Germany in March and April 1920. It was triggered by the call for a general strike in response to the right-wing Kapp Putsch of 13 March 1920 and became an armed rebellion when radical left workers used the strike as an opportunity to attempt the establishment of a soviet-style council republic.
The Free State of Coburg emerged from the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the end of the First World War. It existed from November 1918 until its union with the Free State of Bavaria on 1 July 1920.
The first Müller cabinet, headed by Chancellor Hermann Müller of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), was the third democratically elected government of Germany and the second in office after the Weimar Constitution came into force in August 1919. The cabinet was based on the same three centre-left parties as the preceding Bauer cabinet: the SPD, Centre Party and German Democratic Party (DDP), a grouping known as the Weimar Coalition. It was formed on 27 March 1920 after the government of Gustav Bauer (SPD) resigned as a result of the unsuccessful Kapp Putsch, which it was seen as having handled badly.
Saxony in the German Revolution (1918–1919) followed a path that went from early control by workers' and soldiers' councils to the adoption of a republican constitution in a series of events that roughly mirrored those at the national level in Berlin. Because some members of the revolutionary councils, which were set up in major cities such as Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz, wanted a soviet-style council government while others favored a parliamentary republic, there was considerable internal disagreement that caused a split between the two groups. In early February 1919, elections were held for a state assembly, the Volkskammer, in which the moderates gained control. An outbreak of violence at the time of the March 1919 Kapp Putsch led the national government to forcibly remove the Leipzig workers' council, the last one remaining in the state. Saxony went on to become a constituent state within the Weimar Republic in November 1920.
The State of Thuringia was a German state during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, as well as a state of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany and East Germany. The state capital was Weimar, the largest city Gera.