Wingerode is a municipality in the district of Eichsfeld 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. In 1996, Wingerode celebrated its 850th anniversary. It was founded in 1146. In 1174

Henry the Lion Henry the Lion (german: Heinrich der Löwe; 1129/1131 – 6 August 1195) was a member of the Welf dynasty who ruled as the duke of Saxony and Bavaria from 1142 and 1156, respectively, until 1180. Henry was one of the most powerful German p ...

, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, bought the village from

Volkenroda Abbey Volkenroda Abbey (Kloster Volkenroda) is a former Cistercian monastery in the municipality of Körner in the district Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis of Thuringia, Germany. History The abbey was founded in 1131 and settled by monks from Altenkamp, altho ...

. Since the 17th century, the local Ignatius chapel has been the object of pilgrimages. Wingerode belonged to the

Electorate of Mainz The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...

until the secularization of 1802 and was subject to the jurisdiction of the von Hanstein family. From 1802 to 1807, the village was

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 ...

n, and then it came to the

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a kingdom in Germany, with a population of 2.6 million, that existed from 1807 to 1813. It included territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the ...

. From 1815 to 1945 it was part of the Prussian Province of Saxony. At the end of World War II, it was in 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 in 1949 became part of

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 ...

. From 1961 until

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governm ...

in 1990, Wingerode was affected by the closure of the nearby inner German border. Since 1990, the municipality is part of the re-established state of

References

Eichsfeld (district) {{Eichsfeld-geo-stub