Info Thüringen 90/93 englisch.qxd 18.05.2010 13:27 Uhr Seite 1 THÜRINGEN BLÄTTER ZUR LANDESKUNDE he peaceful revo- the 6th century, the lution in the DDR Ludowingian landgra- Tand the subse- viate of Thuringia of quent reunification in- the 12th and 13th cen- augurated the renais- tury and even earlier sance for Thuringia as historic contexts. In the political administra- 19th century, demands tive unit. In this sense to unify Thuringia be- 1989/90 signifies a dis- came louder and were tinctive turning-point gradually accomodated in the history of the during the 20th cen- federal state. Over the tury. In 1920, seven centuries, the region duchies and prince- between Harz and the doms amalgamated to Thuringian Forest, the Free State of Thu- Werratal and Pleißen- ringia with Weimar as land is a prime ex- its capital. After the end ample of German par- of World War II in 1945, ticularism. Yet, a sense the Prussian territories of “unity within diver- were joined together sity” persisted among and therewith the town the Thuringian people. of Erfurt became the This relates back to the capital of the young Thuringian kingdom of state. However, due to The Free State of Thuringia 1990/93 the implementation of the DDR’s “de- deeply rooted identity. This found ex- mocratic centralism”, the Free State of pression during the peaceful revolution Thuringia was dissolved again in 1952. in 1989, when one of the very first de- In its place, the districts of Erfurt, Gera mands was the re-establishment of Thu- and Suhl were established. ringia as a Free State. Historians, such The Thuringians, similar to the as Gunther Mai, have repeatedly em- Saxonians, are said to have a particular- phasized “(...) the strong Thuringian ly strong bond with their country and a identity and the very early calls for reu- Info Thüringen 90/93 englisch.qxd 18.05.2010 13:27 Uhr Seite 2 nification”. A survey showed that within it appears, it was possible to build upon the Thuringian population the idea lively associations and collective me- of unity was particularly pronounced mory reaching far back into the 1500 amongst the DDR inhabitants. Evident- year old history of Thuringia even in ly, even four decades of SED-rule could 1989/90. This sense of identity provided neither accomplish the diminution of a stable basis for the 1990 founded the German identity, nor the memories federal state. Thuringia’s constitution of the disintegrated land Thuringia. As was drafted in 1993. The Process of State Formation 1990 ne of the peaceful revolution’s cipated from the SED, from the citizens goals in autumn 1989, alongside and the freely developing media con- Odemocratization, freedom of opi- tinuously increased. nion, freedom of travel etc, was the re- Against this background, a govern- establishment of the dissolved states ment-commission under the DDR Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxony- council of ministers was formed and Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. The took up its work on December 18, 1989. local patriotism of the DDR-citizens The commission’s task was the prepar- persisted as the fifteen districts could ation of policies and legal texts regard- never produce a deeper sense of iden- ing the forthcoming structure of the tity. As articifial constructs by the SED- ‘Länder’. It continued its work even regime, the districts never served as an after the elections to the ‘Volkskam- identity-fostering frame of reference. mer’, the parliament of the DDR on The rapid advancement of the societal March 18, 1990 under the CDU-govern- changes also prompted the question on ment headed by Thomas de Mazière. the re-establishment of the former free A landslide victory by an alliance of states. CDU (Christian Democratic Union), the The structural adjustments to the DSU (German Social Union) and the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD) ‘Democratic Dawn’ (Demokratischer were at the centre of attention together Aufbruch) (48. 2 per cent of the votes) with a change in attitude from merely represented a clear signal towards the transforming the DDR-system towards uniterrupted re-unification of Germany. the de facto re-unification of Germany The election results had been particu- after the Fall of the Wall on November larly clear in Thuringia (district of Er- 9, 1989. The transitional government of furt 60.7 per cent, Suhl 60.5 per cent, the DDR under the chairmanship of Gera 58.8 per cent). Hans Modrow (SED) merely envisaged From now on, the overarching goal an administrative reform on the lower was the establishment of a new “feder- level. Yet, the pressure deriving from ative republic”. Accompanied by major the new political parties or those eman- public interest, the commission discus- Info Thüringen 90/93 englisch.qxd 18.05.2010 13:27 Uhr Seite 3 sed shape and assignments of the new district of Halle) that traditionally be- federal states. After the economic-, longed to the Thuringian cultural area, social-, and monetary union with the pushed to become an integrated part of BRD entered into force on July 1, the Thuringia. Nonetheless, those demands Volkskammer adopted the ‘Law on the went unaccounted for in the ‘Law on Re-creation of the Federal States’ on the Re-creation of the Federal States’. In July 22, 1990. Herewith, the legal basis the aftermath, all efforts towards this in co-ordination with the Unification end by the citizens’ initiative ‘North- Treaty (Einigungsvertrag) was constitu- Thuringia’, which included an appeal to ted. With the realisation of the German the Federal Constitutional Court, ended unification process, the new federal without success. In contrast, 16 bor- states Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, oughs of the Thuringian Vogtland were Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt allowed to join Saxony. and Thuringia came into existence. Parallel to the larger structural and Despite controversial debates and a territorial decisions, the re-establish- variety of proposals over the re-intro- ment of the Free State Thuringia went duction of federalism, the re-establish- ahead. The DDR-government installed ment of the five formerly dissolved sta- offices of ‘government authority’ (Re- tes was never seriously contested. Only, gierungsbevollmächtigte) as an interim the partition of Saxony-Anhalt was con- solution to the dissolution of the dis- sidered. It was also swiftly decided that tricts’ parliaments^ on May 31, 1990. the three south-western districts could Josef Duchac took this office in Erfurt, not be the centre of the new Thuringia. Peter Lindau in Gera and Werner Moreover, it was written in the ‘Law on Ulbrich for the district of Suhl. All of the Re-creation of the Federal States’ them were members of the Christian (Ländereinführungsgesetz) of July 22, Democratic Union^ (CDU). In August, 1990: “Taking into account the results Josef Duchac, who was to become produced by a public survey (...) the prime minister of Thuringia, took over district councils of Alternburg, Schmölln the office of state reprensentative that and Atern request the integration into entailed far-reaching authority over the Thuringia”. These surveys showed clear three districts. On May 16, for the first majorities for Thuringia in Artern (dis- time the ‘advisory committee’ for the trict Halle) and Schmölln (district Leip- re-establishment of the Free State Thu- zig). Altenburg (district Leipzig), on the ringia covened at the initiative of the contrary together with Senftenberg and CDU instead of the initially planned Bad Liebenwerda was an exception, ‘round-table Thuringia’. According to mainly because the district council the election-results of the DDR People’s overrode the citizens’ vote. In fact, 55.8 Assembly (Volkskammer) and the fede- per cent (yet, by a low degree of partici- ral parliaments, 11 parties and unions pation) voted for Saxony, however, the were represented in this committee. district council (Kreistag) opted with This body had to develop and compile 38 to 25 votes for Thuringia. Numerous policy recommendations for the future muncipalities within the districts of state parliament and government for the Naumburg, Weißenfels, Nebra and San- areas of development, administrative gershausen (all situated in the larger structuring and on the new constitution. Info Thüringen 90/93 englisch.qxd 18.05.2010 13:27 Uhr Seite 4 The Free State Thuringia 1990 – 1993 n October 3, 1990 the federal build-up of a functional state admini- state Thuringia was reborn. With stration took priority, often with the Othe beginn of the territorial valid- support by the Old Federal States (par- ity of West German Constitutional Law ticularly by states of Hesse and Rhine- to the new federal states on the territory land-Palatinate). In June 1991, the state of the DDR, the re-unification of Ger- administrative department took office, many proceeded. Now Thuringia, as a other to the events in Saxony and result of the three former DDR-districts’ Saxony-Anhalt that were governed by consolidation, became an equal mem- the intermediary authority of the go- ber-state of the federative republic. On vernmental districts. An administrative October 11, the treaties concerning the reform in 1994 reduced the total num- integration of the districts Artern, Al- ber of districts, which had been kept tenburg and Schmölln were signed. small by the SED (Socialist Unity Party Herewith, the ‘Law on the Re-creation of Germany), from 35 to 17. Next to the of the Federal States’ (Ländereinfüh- 17 districts, there were six non-district rungsgesetz) executed. With a surface municipalities: Erfurt, Eisenach, Gera, area of 16.171 km and a population of Jena, Suhl and Weimar. 2.6 million, Thuringia ranked on 11th At this point, the question, which of and on 10th place respectively among the cities was going to become capital, the 16 states of the Federal Republic of remained unresolved.