The Rieth is a district in the north of the

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 ...

n state capital

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 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Rieth is a

prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. Some research ...

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...

with 5650 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2012) on an area of 0.72 km², built in 1969. Before the

fall of communism The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...

, however, considerably more people lived in this district. Neighbouring districts are ''Hohenwinden-Sulza'' (industrial area) in the east, ''Ilversgehofen'' (

Gründerzeit The (; ) was a period of Economic history of Europe (1000 AD–present), European economic history in mid- and late-19th century German Empire, Germany and Austria-Hungary between Industrialization in Germany, industrialization and the great P ...

district) in the south, ''Berliner Platz'' (prefabricated housing area) in the west, ''Moskauer Platz'' (prefabricated housing area) in the northwest, ''Gispersleben'' (village) in the north and ''Roter Berg'' (prefabricated housing area) in the northeast. The district is situated on the river

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 ...

, its centre is the ''Platz der Völkerfreundschaft'' with the shopping centre ''Vilnius-Passagen''. The adjoining district ''Berliner Platz'' is de facto regarded by many Erfurters as belonging to the Rieth and is often referred to as the Rieth. The Rieth is connected to the Erfurt city centre by Erfurt Stadtbahn tram lines 1 and 6. The name Rieth frequently appears in Thuringia as a component of place names. These are river floodplains reclaimed in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, which had previously become marshy and had been drained. Today's Rieth district is also located in such a

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

between the Gera River in the west and the river

Schmale Gera Schmale Gera is a river of Thuringia, Germany. It is a distributary of the Gera in Erfurt. It flows into the Gramme near Werningshausen Werningshausen is a municipality in the Sömmerda district A district is a type of administrative di ...

in the east. The Rieth was the first

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

housing estate with a complex centre in its centre, but the ''Johannesplatz'' was the first prefabricated housing estate to be built in Erfurt in 1965.

External links

* Rieth {{Thuringia-struct-stub