Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach () was a 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 to a grand duchy in 1815 by resolution of the Congress of Vienna. In 1903, it officially changed its name to the Grand Duchy of Saxony (), but this name was rarely used. The grand duchy came to an end in the German Revolution of 1918–19 with the other monarchies of the German Empire. It was succeeded by the Free State of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, which was merged into the new Free State of Thuringia two years later.
The full grand ducal style was Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen, Princely Count of Henneberg, Lord of Blankenhayn, Neustadt and Tautenburg.
The Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach branch has been the most genealogically senior extant branch of the House of Wettin since 1672.
Geography
The Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach consisted of three greater areas, each of which formed a 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 White 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 () near Ilmenau, the Ellenbogen () in the Rhön and the Ettersberg () near Weimar.
In 1895, the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was administratively divided into three districts :
Furthermore, the districts of Weimar and Eisenach were each subdivided into two . 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%).
History
The duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach had been ruled in personal union by the same branch of the House of Wettin since 1741, after the Eisenach line had died out upon the death of Duke Wilhelm Heinrich. The first Duke of the personal union was Ernest Augustus I, who built the Belvedere Palace in Weimar. His son Ernest Augustus II reigned for only three years, and died at the age of 20. At the age of 18, he married the Brunswick Princess Anna Amalia, one year his junior and a niece of King Frederick the Great of Prussia. A year later she gave birth to her son, Charles Augustus and after another year, when she was already a widow, to her son Constantine.