Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach - Geography

Geography

The Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach consisted of three larger areas, each of which formed a Kreis administratively, plus several exclaves. Neighboring countries were Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Hesse-Kassel (until 1866, when it was incorporated in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau), and all the other Thuringian states (Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Reuss Elder Line, Reuss Junior Line, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen).

The northern part of the Weimar district was flat and part of the Thuringian Basin; the southern and eastern parts were situated on the Ilm-Saale Plateau and in the Saale valley. The northern part of Eisenach district was hilly (Hörselberge and Hainich hills); the central part with the town of Eisenach was in the Hörsel valley; further south were the mountains of the Thuringian Forest, followed by the Werra valley, the Kupenrhön mountains and finally, in the far south, the main chain of the Rhön mountains. The district Neustadt was located in hills with altitudes between 200 and 400 meters.

The main rivers in the country were:

• the Saale flowing through Jena in the east
• the Werra in Vacha and Eisenach, and its tributaries the Felda and Ulster in the west
• the Unstrut in the exclaves Allstedt and Oldisleben in the north
• the Weisse Elster in Berga in the far east
• the Ilm, flowing through Ilmenau, Apolda and the capital Weimar in the centre. Acting Prime Minister Goethe once described Weimar as "Athens on the Ilm".

The highest elevation in the grand duchy were the Kickelhahn (861 m above sea level) near Ilmenau, the Ellenbogen (814 m above sea level) in the Rhön and the Ettersberg (477 m above sea level) near Weimar.

In 1895, the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was administratively divided into three districts (Kreise:

Furthermore, the districts of Weimar and Eisenach were each subdivided into two Bezirke. In the case of Weimar, these were: Weimar]] and Apolda, in the case of Eisenach they were the Eisenach]] and Dermbach. In all, there were 31 cities and 594 municipalities in the Grand Duchy. The Grand Dukes of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach granted "city" status to three localities in the state, namely Berka/Werra (Eisenach district, 1847), Ruhla (Eisenach district, 1886, administered jointly with the Duke of Saxe-Gotha) and Münchenbernsdorf (Neustadt district, 1904).

In 1840, there were 13 cities with over 2,000 inhabitants. In the 70 years to 1910, the Grand Duchy industrialized heavily and the population of the largest cities grew, while the medium sized cities remained constant or even lost population. The population of Stadtlengsfeld shrank dramatically after the Jewish emancipation, when most of the city's Jewish citizens migrated to larger cities.

In 1910, several other towns had grown past the 2,000 inhabitants mark: Ruhla (Weimar part: 3917 v. 1533: +156%), Blankenhain (3405 v. 1689: +102%), Bad Sulza, (3052 v. 1422: +115%), Auma (2978 v. 1701, +75%), Triptis (2948 v. 1480: +99%), Tiefenort (2539 v. 1237: +105%), Bad Berka (2379 v. 1228: +94%), Oberweimar (2095 v. 621: +237%), Oldisleben (2064 v. 1332: +55) and Mihla (2008 v. 1294: +55%).