Saxe-Altenburg

Saxe-Altenburg had an area of 1,323 km² (510 sq. mi.) and a population of 207,000 in 1905. Its capital was Altenburg.

The duchy consisted of two separate areas: the Ostkreis, containing the cities of Altenburg, Schmölln, Gößnitz, Lucka und Meuselwitz (including the exclave of Mumsdorf), Roschütz, Hilbersdorf, Neukirchen by Waldenburg and Rußdorf by Chemnitz; and the Westkreis, which contained the cities of Eisenberg, Kahla, Orlamünde und Roda (including the exclave of Ammelstädt). The Ostkreis roughly corresponds to the modern Altenburger Land district of Thuringia, plus the area around Ronneburg in Greiz. The Westkreis is now mostly in Saale-Holzland district, with small portions in neighbouring districts. The duchy contained the Pleiße and Saale rivers.

  Saxe-Altenburg in the 19th century, shown in relation to the Kingdom of Saxony (  pale yellow)

Castle of Altenburg

The duchy had its origins in the medieval Burgraviate of Altenburg in the Imperial Pleissnerland (Terra Plisensis), a possession of the Wettin Margraves of Meissen since 1243. Following the partition of Leipzig in 1485, Altenburg fell to Ernst, Elector of Saxony, the progenitor of the Ernestine Wettins.[2] After the Capitulation of Wittenberg in 1547, the area around Altenburg went to the Albertine Electorate of Saxony, but it was transferred to the Ernestine Duchy of Saxony in the Treaty of Naumburg in 1554, and then to the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar following the Partition of Erfurt in 1572.

When Johann Wilhelm's son and successor Friedrich Wilhelm I died in 1602, the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar passed to his younger brother Johann II. In 1603 Frederick William's eldest son Johann Philipp received the newly created Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg as compensation. It was an Imperial State in its own right, with a vote in the Reichstag, for much of the 17th century until the extinction of its ruling line in 1672 when it was inherited by Ernest I the Pious, the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, who had married the heiress.

Saxe-Altenburg thereafter remained part of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg until the extinction of that house in 1825, when Gotha and Altenburg were divided up, with Gotha going to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Altenburg to the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, who in exchange gave up Hildburghausen to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. This family ruled the duchy until the end of the monarchies in the course of the German Revolution of 1918–19. The succeeding Free State of Saxe-Altenburg was incorporated into the new state of Thuringia in 1920.

The Saxe-Altenburg line became extinct following the death of Prince George Moritz in 1991. The leadership of the house passed to Michael, head of the genealogically more senior house of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

• Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1918–1955)
• Georg Moritz, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Altenburg (1955–1991)

In 1991 the Saxe-Altenburg line became extinct in the male line. Its representation was merged with the one of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

Two branches descend from Duke Ernest the Pious, the father of the progenitor of the Saxe-Altenburg branch: Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; according to old Wettin family law, they would have divided the actual territories between them (as happened to Gotha and Altenburg in 1826), the Western part for Saxe-Meiningen, of which it was a territorial continuum, and the Eastern part, with the capital city of Altenburg, for Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

• 
  Christiansburg Castle at Eisenberg
• 
  Wolfersdorf Castle
• 
  The Old Hunting Lodge at Hummelshain
• 
  The New Hunting Lodge at Hummelshain

• Ernestine duchies

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Saxe-Altenburg" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saxe-Altenburg.

• Herzogtum Sachsen-Altenburg