is a town situated in the forest of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

in the district of

Wartburgkreis Wartburgkreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the west of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) the districts Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis, Gotha, Schmalkalden-Meiningen, and the districts Fulda, Hersfeld-Rotenburg and W ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, immediately next to the

Rennsteig The () is a ridge walk as well as an historical boundary path in the Thuringian Forest, Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest in Central Germany. The long-distance trail runs for about from and the valley in the northwest to and the r ...

. Thal and Kittelsthal are parts of the town.

History

Within the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

(1871-1918), part of Ruhla belonged to the

Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (german: Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) was a historical German state, created as a duchy in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been in personal union since 1741. It was raised ...

and part to the Duchy of

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-d ...

Culture and sights

Church of St. Concordia

The church was built in 1660-61 and has never been changed since then. It is one of about eight angle churches in Germany and is considered to be among the two "real" angle churches, i.e. it was originally built as an angle church whereas the other churches only became angle churches after some reconstruction. The church consists of two wings that are situated at a right angle. Where the two wings meet there is the spire and the altar space from where both wings can be overlooked. Since Ruhla was largely spared from destruction during World War I and II, St Concordia was not affected either. Hence it is the only angle church that has been conserved unaltered and in its original state since its first construction. Since 2004 it is home to the series "Kultur im Winkel" (Culture in the angle f the church. Miniathür Wartburg

Mini-a-thür

The park (derived from ''miniature'' and , the German name for Thuringia) shows about 120 models of sights of Thuringia, among the

Creuzburg Creuzburg is a town and a former municipality on the Werra river in the Wartburgkreis in Thuringia, Germany. Since December 2019, it is part of the town Amt Creuzburg. Geography Creuzburg is in the area known as the Muschelkalk. Three mountains ...

, Erfurt Hauptbahnhof, the Planetarium Jena and the

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the p ...

. It was the birthplace of the composer Friedrich Lux. One of his operas is called '' The Blacksmith of Ruhla''.

Personalities

* Friedrich Lux (1820-1895), organist and composer * Alexander Ziegler (1822-1887), travel writer and philanthropist * Bruno Hassenstein (1839-1902), German cartographer *Arno Schlothauer (1872-1942), author, poet and researcher * Dieter Neuendorf (born 1940 in Ruhla), ski jumper * Marko Baacke (born 1980), nordic combiner * Ron Spanuth (born 1980), cross-country skier * Juliane Seyfarth (born 1990), ski jumper

Trivia

''Finkenzuchter'' - Ruhla was a Mecca of finch farming in the 19th century. This leisure activity was based on the mining tradition of carrying a songbird (to act as an early warning against toxic gases). In the 1960s, the town had an urban cowherd who, as a tourist attraction, picked up the cows at the gathering place 'calf number' in the summer months. ''Steinquader'', a stone quarry from the ''Gerberstein'' made of Ruhla granite, has been available for over one hundred years at the road crossing at the ''Glasbachswiese'' at the Rennsteig. It had been designated as a monument, but had to refrain from transport because of the lack of carrying capacity of the bridges.Siegfried Mahron: '' Der Rennsteig ''. Our Little Wanderheft No. 86. VEB F.A.Brockhaus Verlag Leipzig, Leipzig, 1967, p. 23

References

External links

Church of St. Concordia
(Information available in German, English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian) * {{Authority control Wartburgkreis Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Saxe-Coburg and Gotha