Thuringia
Thuringia is called the “Green heart of Germany”.
There are a lot of woods in Thuringia. In particular, the Thuringian Forest provides ample opportunities for walking and hiking in warmer weather, as well as a variety of winter sports.
Niederdorla in Northwest Thuringia claims to be the most central municipality in Germany. Niederdorla also provides an interesting archaeological site: a prehistoric and protohistoric sacrificial bog (German: Opfermoor).
Apropos pre- and protohistory: The federal state got its name from the Thuringii or Toringi, a Germanic tribe. But you also find Celtic and Slavonic traces in Thuringia: the Celtic oppidum Steinsburg, Slavonic toponyms (like Cospeda, Ilmnitz, Zwätzen – villages which are today part of Jena) and archaeological excavations like Espenfeld.
Today Thuringia is a modern federal state with more than 40 important research institutions and world-renowned companies.
The list of famous people who were born, lived and worked in Thuringia is long:
Johann Sebastian Bach is a Thuringian. Franz Liszt spent his last years here.
There are the Bauhaus masters like Henry van de Velde and Walter Gropius.
You find works by Lucas Cranach the Elder and the Younger in a lot of churches and museums.
In Thuringia, Martin Luther went to school and studied, became a monk and translated the New Testament.
The European Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (or Thuringia) lived in the castle Wartburg, the place where later Luther translated the New Testament, and where the Minnesänger met – Wolfram from Eschenbach and others inspiring Richard Wagner to write his opera “Tannhäuser and the Minnesingers’ Contest at Wartburg”.