Thuringia, officially the Free State of Thuringia, is a state of central Germany, covering 16,171 square kilometres (6,244 sq mi), the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states, and third smallest area state. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Bodo Ramelow is a German politician who has served since 4 March 2020 as Minister-President of Thuringia, an office he previously held from 2014 to 5 February 2020. He is the first head of a German state government to serve non-consecutive terms in office since Eberhard Diepgen, who served twice as Governing Mayor of Berlin. A member of The Left, he previously chaired the party's group in the Landtag of Thuringia. On 8 October 2021, he was elected to a one-year term as President of the Bundesrat. His term lasted from 1 November 2021 until 31 October 2022.
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.
Andreas Bausewein is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who serves as mayor of Erfurt.
Wiebke Muhsal is a German politician with the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Since 2014, she is a member of the Landtag of Thuringia and deputy chairman of the AfD caucus. She is also her party's critic on family and education policy and is a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Youth and Sports.
Ursula Fischer is a German former national politician (PDS).
Birgit Klaubert is a German politician and former vice president of the Thuringian regional parliament ("Landtag"). From 2014 to 2017 Klaubert served as Thuringia's Minister for Education, Youth and Sport.
Almuth Beck is a German former teacher and politician (SED/PDS).
The 2019 Thuringian state election was held on 27 October 2019 to elect the members of the 7th Landtag of Thuringia. The outgoing government was a coalition consisting of The Left, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and The Greens, led by Minister-President Bodo Ramelow.
The 2024 Thuringian state election was held on 1 September 2024 to elect the members of the 8th Landtag of Thuringia. It was held on the same day as the 2024 Saxony state election.
Martina Renner is a German politician of The Left who has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013 and one of six deputy leaders of her party since 2018.
The 2020 Thuringian government crisis, also known as the Thuringia crisis, was triggered by the election of Thomas Kemmerich (FDP) as Thuringian Minister President with votes from the AfD, CDU and FDP on February 5, 2020. The election attracted considerable national and international attention because, for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, a Minister President was elected with votes from a far-right populist party, in this case the AfD.
Susanne Hennig-Wellsow is a German politician. She was federal co-chairwoman of The Left from 2021 to 2022 and has served as a member of the Bundestag for Thuringia since 2021. Previously, she was a member of the Landtag of Thuringia from 2004 to 2021, leader of the Thuringia branch of The Left since November 2013, and leader of the state parliamentary group since December 2014.
Wartburgkreis II – Eisenach is an electoral constituency represented in the Landtag of Thuringia. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 6. It covers the city of Eisenach and central-western parts of Wartburgkreis.
Anja Siegesmund is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens. Between 2014 and 2023, she served as Minister of the Environment in the state government of Thuringia in the coalition government of Bodo Ramelow. Until 31 January 2023, she was also Second Deputy Minister-President of Thuringia. From 2009 to 2014 she was leader of the Greens parliamentary group in the Landtag of Thuringia. She was a member of the Landtag from 2009 to 2015, then again from 2019 to 2020. In December 2022 she announced her imminent resignation from her political offices; on 1 February 2023 she was succeeded by Bernhard Stengele.
Birgit Pommer is a German politician of The Left who has served as President of the Landtag of Thuringia since November 2019. She is the first member of her party to serve as speaker of any state parliament. Prior, she served as Minister for Infrastructure and Agriculture in the first Ramelow cabinet.
Karola Stange is a German politician of The Left who has served as a member of the Landtag of Thuringia since 2009. She has also been a member of the Erfurt city council since 1999, and unsuccessfully ran for mayor of the city in 2006 and 2018.
The second Ramelow cabinet is the current state government of Thuringia, sworn in on 4 March 2020 after Bodo Ramelow was elected as Minister-President by the members of the Landtag of Thuringia. It is the 8th Cabinet of Thuringia
Gerd Schuchardt is an electrical engineer who built his career and reputation in East Germany before 1990 in microprocessor technology and related forward-looking branches of science. He was interested in politics, but had avoided involvement in the country's ruling SED (party) or any of the various so-called "bloc parties" which it controlled. In January 1990, with the winds of political change - somewhat implausibly, as many still thought at the time - blowing across from the Kremlin in Moscow, the party leaders in East Berlin no longer felt able to stand against domestic pressures for a return to democratic politics after more than half a century of one-party dictatorship. Gerd Schuchardt became an activist member of the re-awakening Social Democratic Party. After reunification in October 1990 state-level democratic politics returned to Thuringia: Schuchardt became a leading figure in Thuringian state politics, selected by party members as the Social Democratic Party's lead candidate in the 1994 Thuringian state election. He led his party to what turned out to be its best electoral result in Thuringia to date. In the resulting "Grand coalition" government that ensued he served as vice-minister-president until 1999 under the leadership of Bernhard Vogel (CDU) and as Minister for the Sciences, Research and the Arts.
The State of Thuringia was a state of the German Empire in the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era, as well as a state of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany and East Germany. The state capital was Weimar, the largest city Gera.
