The Free State of Thuringia : Germany

Germany’s center.

Thuringia lies in the geographical center of Germany and encompasses as its heartland the bowl-shaped Thuringian Basin and the Thuringian Forest. It stretches westward to the Werra River and southeastward past the Saale River to the Weisse Elster River. To the southwest lies the Rhon, and in the south the state abuts the Franconian Forest. Thuringia borders on five federal states; further improvement and enlargement of the transportation network is consequently one of the state government’s paramount objectives.

The autobahns A 4 and A 9, which traverse Thuringia in a west-east and north-south direction respectively, are presently being widened to six lanes. With the construction of a new traffic axis through the Thuringian Forest (an autobahn and a stretch of track for high-speed trains), an urgently needed link is being created, one which will do justice to Thuringia’s central location and which would have been completed much earlier had Germany not been divided. Erfurt (211,000 inhabitants), the state capital, is referred to as the “city of flowers". The old part of the city is graced with an unusually large number of patrician homes, churches and monasteries which virtually make it an architectural open-air museum.

Territorial fragmentation and culture

Thuringia was particularly affected by Germany’s earlier territorial fragmentation. The region’s rulers competed intensely with one another, especially in the cultural sphere, and took great pride in their role as patrons of the fine arts. By far the most prominent among them was Duke Karl August of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach (1757-1828).

Schleswig-Holstein : Germany

Hub of the Baltic region.

Schleswig-Holstein is the only German state bordered by two seas: the North Sea and the Baltic. The sparsely populated state (2.7 million inhabitants) makes the most of its geographical location between Scandinavia and Eastern Europe: It is a hub for the countries encircling the Baltic Sea, which with a total population of more than 50 million constitute one of Europe’s regions of the future. In order to preserve Schleswig-Holstein’s natural beauty, great importance is accorded to environmental protection measures. Efforts to keep the seas clean as well as nature and soil conservation measures are therefore key priorities of state policy.

Forever undivided.

As early as 1460, a treaty stated that the region’s two parts, Schleswig and Holstein, should remain “forever undivided". In Schleswig-Holstein not only German and the dialect Low German are spoken but Frisian and Danish as well. The Frisians, an ethnic group numbering 40,000, live on the state’s western coast with its many outlying islands. Some 50,000 Danes live in Schleswig-Holstein, a fact attributable to Denmark’s role in the region’s history. As a consequence of this mixture of nationalities, the state has a cosmopolitan attitude toward visitors: Approximately 13 million people come here every year,

Saxony-Anhalt : Germany

State in the heart of Germany.

Saxony-Anhalt stretches from the Altmark heathland, which borders the state of Lower Saxony to the north, across the fertile lowlands of the Magdeburger Borde and the industrial areas around Halle and Bitterfeld to the vineyards along the Saale and Unstrut rivers, the northernmost wine-growing region in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Elbe River flows through the state over a distance of about 300 kilometers. In the southwestern portion of the Magdeburger Borde rise the Harz Mountains; their highest peak is the Brocken (1,142 meters). Extensive and extraordinarily scenic landscape reserves include the Hochharz National Park and the Elbe Reserve, where beavers can still be found living in the wild. Saxony-Anhalt’s history as a state in its

own right is brief: It existed only from 1947 to 1952 and was not reestablished until the unification of Germany on 3 October 1990. Some of its regions are among the oldest heartlands of German culture. The Altmark in the north was long under the influence of Brandenburg; the south and the east were dominated by Saxony. Anhalt was constituted in 1212 under the Ascanian princes and experienced its cultural zenith in the 18th century under Prince Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau. The Russian empress Catherine the Great descended from the princes of Anhalt-Zerbst.

The Free State of Saxony : Germany

Industrial center of the east.

With approximately 250 inhabitants per square kilometer, Saxony is the most populous of the new federal states. It is a state with a long industrial tradition: Prior to the Second World War, the triangle formed by the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz was the industrial heart of Germany. Leipzig (471,000 inhabitants) was one of the main centers of peaceful resistance to the regime of the former GDR. After unification, a great many industrial firms were unable to compete and were shut down.

Today, however, the Leipzig/Halle economic region is experiencing a strong upswing in the commercial and services sectors. Many banks have opened branches in Leipzig, and the city is well on its way to becoming one of Germany’s most important financial centers after Frankfurt am Main and Dusseldorf. Siemens AG is building a high-performance and innovation center for microelectronics in Dresden; Volkswagen AG is manufacturing cars in Mosel near Zwickau (103,000 inhabitants) and automobile engines in Chemnitz. Foron AG in Scharfenstein was awarded the Federal Environmental Prize in 1993 for the development of the first CFC-free refrigerator. The Ore Mountains, the Vogtland and Upper Lusatia carry on their traditional toy and textile industries.

Saarland : Germany

An eventful history. The political evolution of the smallest German state (apart from the city-states) mirrors The vicissitudes of German history in the 20th century. After World War I, upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Versailles in 1920, this coal and steel region was detached from the German Reich and placed under the administration of the League of Nations. In 1935 the people of the Saar voted by a majority of more than 90 percent in favor of its political reintegra-tion into Germany.

The same thing happened after World WarII. France, the occupying power, closed off the border between the Saarland and the rest of Germany. In a referendum held in 1955, the Saar-landers again voted by a large majority in favor of the of the Saar to the Federal Republic. France’s consent to this wish was a milestone in the process of Franco-German reconciliation. The reintegration of the Saarland on 1 January 1957 was effected in accordance with Article 23 of the Basic Law (the German constitution) - setting a precedent for the process of German unification in 1990.

Rhineland-Palatinate : Germany

In the middle of Europe. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate was formed after World War II, on 30 August 1946, by the French military government. Traditional structures were not taken into account; instead parts of Germany were merged that had never before belonged together: parts of the Prussian Rhine provinces, the territory of Hesse on the left bank of the Rhine, and the strongly Bavarian-influenced Palatinate. These regions have become closely knit over time, however, and Rhineland-Platinate has acquired its own identity.

Rhineland-Palatinate has profited greatly from its geographical location. The extensive modernized network of autobahns and federal highways, the convenient rail connections between the cities of Mainz, Kaisers-lautern, Trier, Ludwigshafen and Koblenz, the major waterways Rhine and Mosel, as well as the state’s proximity to three economically powerful centers - the Rhine-Main, Rhine-Neckar and Rhine-Ruhr regions -have created optimal framework conditions for the development of Rhineland-Palatinate into one of Germany’s most dynamic regions.

Scolarship, Culture and Leisure : Germany

North Rhine-Westphalia’s 2 higher education institutions and trade and technical schools prepare well over 510,000 students for Professional careers. A network of technology centers and transfer sites - including nine institutes operated by the Max Planck Society, five run by the Fraunhofer Society, and ZENIT, a center for innovation and technology in Mulheim an der Ruhr - ensures that small and medium-sized businesses are also able to profit from higher education know-how.

Well over twelve million people visit the state’s 570 museums every year, for example Bonn’s Museum Mile, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Dusseldorf State Art Collection and the Folkwang Museum in Essen. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia contributes to the maintenance of more than 70,000 architectural monuments. Prominent representatives of the modern fine arts pursue their work at the academies of art in Dusseldorf and Cologne.

100 public theaters and 15 opera houses ensure cultural diversity and international renown, as do the Ruhr Festival, the NRW Theater Encounter and the Oberhausen Days of Short Films. Pina Bausch and her dance theater are just as well known in New York and Tokyo as they are in their native city of Wuppertal. Given this wealth of cultural offerings it is no wonder that nearly 13 million people (booking 36 million overnight stays) visit North Rhine-Westphalia every year, many of whom are likewise attracted by the unspoiled scenery of the Munsterland with its charming moated castles or by recreational opportunities such as skiing in the Sauerland or windsurfing on one of the state’s many artificial lakes.