Blankenhain is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Weimarer Land Weimarer Land is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the east of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the northeast clockwise) the district Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt, the district Saale-Holzland and the district-free city Jena, the ...

district, in

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 lar ...

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 ...

. It is south of

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

History

Until the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, Blankenhain had been a part of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. After the Fourth Coalition's defeat at Jena and Auerstedt,

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

attached the Lordship of Blankenhain to the

Principality of Erfurt The Principality of Erfurt (german: Fürstentum Erfurt; french: Principauté d'Erfurt) was a small state in modern Thuringia, Germany, that existed from 1807 to 1814, comprising the modern city of Erfurt and the surrounding land. It was subordi ...

, directly subordinate to himself as an "imperial state domain" (french: domaine réservé à l'empereur), separate from the

Confederation of the Rhine The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine, also known as Napoleonic Germany, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austria an ...

(nominally a French

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its int ...

set up to replace the now-defunct Holy Roman Empire), which the surrounding

n states had joined. After the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

was restored to

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

on 21 June 1815, becoming the capital of one of the three districts (') of the new Province of Saxony, but some southern and eastern parts of Erfurter lands joined Blankenhain in being transferred to the newly promoted Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach the following September. Blankenhain remained within Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach through the era of the German Empire (1871–1918) and into the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

until it merged with 7 of the 8 other

Saxon duchies The Ernestine duchies (), also known as the Saxon duchies (, although the Albertine appanage duchies of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz were also "Saxon duchies" and adjacent to several Ernestine ones), were a group of small states whose numb ...

to form the

Free State 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 ...

(german: Freistaat Thüringen). After being controlled briefly by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, from July 1945, the state of Thuringia came under the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...

, and was expanded to include parts of Prussian Saxony, including

, which became the new capital of Thuringia. In 1952,

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

dissolved its states, and created districts (') instead, with Blankenhain sitting within the rural district , in . The State of Thuringia was restored with slightly altered borders during German reunification in 1990.

Sons and daughters of the city

Otto Hammann Otto Hammann (23 January 1852 in Blankenhain – 18 June 1928 in Fürstenberg/Havel) was a German journalist and a German Foreign Office official 1894–1916. Biography Hammann was engaged in journalism from 1877 to 1893 and was appointed, in 18 ...

(1852-1928), jurist * Jörg Schneider (born 1948), paleontologist * Christina Grosse (born 1970), actress

People who are connected to Blankenhain

* Johann Christoph Bach (1689-1740), organist, cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach * Max Burchartz (1887-1961), graphican and painter, lived for a long time in Blankenhain * Wilhelm Hegeler (1870-1943), writer, lived for several years in Blankenhain * Max Oehler (1881-1943), painter, had a garden in Blankenhain, painted the city and its surroundings

References

External links

* * *

Wikisource has texts related to Blankenhain: ** Blanckenhain in the ' (by

Matthäus Merian Matthäus is a given name or surname. Notable people with the name include: ;Surname * Lothar Matthäus, (born 1961), German former football player and manager ;Given name * Matthäus Aurogallus, Professor of Hebrew at the University of Wittenbe ...

and Martin Zeiler) ** "" The Gallows-tree of Blankenhain"from ' 'The Folklore of the Kingdom of Saxony''by Johann Georg Theodor Grässe {{Authority control Weimarer Land Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach