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Subject: [Saxony] Re: Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany
Date: 1 Nov 2003 13:24:30 -0700

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Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/Te.2ADEAE/267.2

Message Board Post:

Ruth, the death certificate was actually referring not to the Kingdom of Saxony (in German: Sachsen; capital: Dresden), but rather to the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (in German: Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach), slightly smaller in area than the U.S. state of Rhode Island, in the region known as Thuringia (in German: Thüringen). The capital of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was the city of Weimar. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, under Duke, after 1816 Grand Duke Carl August, the city of Weimar became an intellectual center of world renown, Goethe having done his most important writing there. Along with Weimar and Eisenach, a third important city in the Grand Duchy was Jena, where, under Carl August, Schiller did much of his important work. There is a university in Jena.

In 1920, following World War I, most of the small Thuringian states were consolidated into a new state called Thuringia (in German: Thüringen). The city of Weimar was the capital of the new state of Thuringia from 1920 until 1945. The city of Erfurt belonged to Prussia until 1945. Following World War II and the break-up of the state of Prussia, the city of Erfurt became part of the surrounding state of Thuringia and is Thuringia's capital today.

The confusion with the state of Saxony arises for many people because of the "Saxe-" (in German: "Sachsen-"), which began the names of a number of the small Thuringian states. This came about because the rulers of those states were related to the House of Wettin, the ruling house of Saxony.

I will refer you to a map of today's Germany. Kind of in the middle of the country, you will see the state of Thuringia:


www.rootsweb.com/~wggerman/state.htm


Hope this is of some help.

Robert

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