The Landtag of Thuringia is the

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

of the German

federal state A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the c ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

. It convenes in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

and currently consists of 88 members from five

parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

. 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.

Elections

Elections are held every five years using the German

Mixed-member proportional representation Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a type of representation provided by some mixed electoral system, mixed electoral systems which combine local Winner-take-all system, winner-take-all elections with a Compensation (el ...

(MMP) system, with an

election threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various w ...

of 5% vote share to receive any seats. All German citizens 18 years of age or older living in Thuringia are entitled to vote. If a party wins more constituency seats than its overall share of the vote, the overall size of the Landtag increases because of these overhang and leveling mandates.

Current composition

The 2024 Thuringian state election was disastrous for the Left, which lost more than half of its seats, and the three parties that are governing on the federal level: The so-called traffic light coalition consisting of SPD, Greens and FDP, the latter two of which lost all of their seats. This election was the first time in the history of the Federal Republic that a far-right party (

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

) won first place.

Historical composition

TH Landtagswahl 1990.svg, 1st Landtag. TH Landtagswahl 1994.svg, 2nd Landtag. TH Landtagswahl 1999.svg, 3rd Landtag. TH Landtagswahl 2004.svg, 4th Landtag. TH Landtagswahl 2009.svg, 5th Landtag. TH Landtagswahl 2014.svg, 6th Landtag. File:2019 Thuringian state election - Landtag chart.svg, 7th Landtag. File:Landtag of Thuringia 2024.svg, 8th Landtag.

History

The Landtag of the newly established Free State of Thuringia (''Freistaat Thüringen'') first convened in 1920 in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

. Its deputies were elected for three years according to a

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

system, with a minimum voting age of 21. During the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

period until 1933, six state elections were held. Upon the 1929 elections, Thuringia became one of the first German federal states where the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

gained real political power.

Wilhelm Frick Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a German prominent politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and convicted war criminal who served as Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor ...

was appointed Minister of the Interior for the state of Thuringia after the NSDAP won six delegates to the Landtag. In the 1932 elections the Nazis emerged as the strongest party with 26 of 61 seats and

Fritz Sauckel Ernst Friedrich Christoph Sauckel (27 October 1894 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician and convicted war criminal. As General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment ('' Arbeitseinsatz'') from March 1942 until the end of the Second Wor ...

assumed the office of Minister-President. Following the

Nazi seizure of power The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He quickly rose t ...

in Berlin, the Landtag was abolished in the ''

Gleichschaltung The Nazi term (), meaning "synchronization" or "coordination", was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler—leader of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, Germany—established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all ...

'' process by the "

Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich () of 30 January 1934, was a sweeping constitutional change to the structure of the German state by the government of Nazi Germany. It was one of the key pieces of legislation that served as the basis f ...

" of 30 January 1934. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the State of Thuringia was re-established as part of the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

. On 13 June 1946 the Soviet Military Administration summoned a state assembly (''Landesversammlung'') chaired by Ricarda Huch; the first post-war Landtag elections] were held on 20 October 1946 and the constituent meeting took place on November 21 at the Elephant hotel in Weimar. By the time of the

Constitution of East Germany The original Constitution of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic; ) was promulgated on 7 October 1949. It was heavily based on the Weimar Constitution () and nominally established the GDR as a liberal democratic republic. In 1968, the Ea ...

in 1949, the Landtage were largely deprived of power and the second state elections on 15 October 1950 were already held under the terms of the National Front unity list. In 1952, the East German government dissolved the federal states and Thuringia was divided into districts () centered in

Gera Gera () is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of ...

and Suhl. The State of Thuringia was restored during Germany's reunification and Landtag elections were again held on 14 October 1990. After the 2019 general election there was a government crisis. It was triggered by the election of Thomas Kemmerich (FDP) as Prime Minister of Thuringia with the votes of the AfD (despite the secret ballot), on February 5, 2020. The process received a lot of attention both nationally and internationally because for the first time In the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, a prime minister came into office thanks to decisive votes from the

right-wing extremist Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

AfD. The Thuringian state government then consisted only of the Prime Minister for four weeks. Kemmerich resigned on February 8, 2020 and was in office until Bodo Ramelow ( The Left) was elected Prime Minister on March 4, 2020. After Kemmerich's election, no members were named for the

German Bundesrat The German Bundesrat (, ) is a legislative body that represents the sixteen '' Länder'' (federated states) of Germany at the federal level (German: ''Bundesebene''). The Bundesrat meets at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin. Its se ...

(Federal Council), and he himself also decided not to represent Thuringia there. Kemmerich was accused of lacking involvement in government affairs. After the controversial election of Kemmerich, there was an announcement of the resignation of the CDU federal chairwoman

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (; Kramp; born 9 August 1962), sometimes referred to by her initials of AKK, is a retired German politician who served as Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany), Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2021 and as Leader of th ...

, the withdrawal of the Thuringian CDU state and parliamentary group leader Mike Mohring, the dismissal of the federal government's Eastern Commissioner Christian Hirte by chancelor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

and the failure of the FDP to meet the five percent hurdle the Hamburg state election 2020.

Elections

Current composition

Historical composition

History

See also

Notes

References

External links