State of Thuringia (1920–1952)

The State of Thuringia (German: Land Thüringen, [lant ˈtyːʁɪŋən]) was a state of the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1933, of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 and of East Germany from 1949 to 1952. Following German reunification, the renamed Free State of Thuringia became a member state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990.

The State of Thuringia formed in the aftermath of World War I and the German revolution of 1918–1919. The eight small Thuringian states that had been part of the German Empire drove out their ruling royal houses and adopted republican constitutions in 1918–1919. On 1 May 1920, all except Coburg, which chose to become part of Bavaria, combined to create the State of Thuringia within the Weimar Republic.

From the beginning, Thuringia's Landtag (state assembly) was politically fractured, leading to a series of short-lived, unstable governments. When the Communist Party was brought into a coalition in 1923, the German government sent troops into Thuringia's major cities to force the communist ministers to withdraw. In 1929 Thuringia became the first German state to have members of the Nazi Party in its government. The year they were in office is seen as Adolf Hitler's trial run for his rise to power. The Nazis gained full control of the Thuringian government in August 1932, five months before Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

After World War II, Thuringia became part of the Soviet Occupation Zone and then of East Germany. It was enlarged by the addition of the Erfurt district, which had been part of Prussia, and in 1948 Erfurt replaced Weimar as the state's capital. In 1952, Thuringia was split into three regional districts and formally dissolved by the East German government in 1958.