Altenburger Land

Altenburger Land is a district in Thuringia, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the district of Greiz, the Burgenlandkreis (Saxony-Anhalt), and the districts Leipzig, Mittelsachsen and Zwickau in Saxony. The district is a member of the Central German Metropolitan Region.

Altenburger Land
District
Flag Coat of arms
Country	Germany
State	Thuringia
Capital	Altenburg
Government
• District admin.	Uwe Melzer (CDU)
Area
• Total	569.41 km2 (219.85 sq mi)
Population  (31 December 2024)[1]
• Total	87,508
• Density	150/km2 (400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Vehicle registration	ABG, SLN
Website	altenburgerland.de

Geography

Altenburger Land is the easternmost district of Thuringia. It is largely agricultural with three quarters of the total area being used for agriculture.^[2] In contrast, forests make up only around 10% of the area, especially in the south of the district there are only few forests. This can be explained by a high soil fertility with a Loess-layer of up to 3.5 meters.

The main river is the Pleiße, a tributary of the White Elster, crossing the district from south to north. The hilly Osterland constituting the northernmost foothills of the Ore Mountains slopes gently away to the plains of eastern Saxony-Anhalt.

History

The region on the Pleiße River was part of a huge forest, where the Thuringii formed the Thuringian Kingdom. After this, the Kingdom was in 531 taken over by the Franks, Slavic people were also moving in. Thuringians reestablished independent rule. The castle of Altenburg already existed in the 10th century, it became an imperial seat. In the following centuries German settlers from other parts moved in. It was part of the Margravate of Meissen in the 14th century. At this time most of the forests were cleared.

The town of Altenburg and the surrounding lands were the tiny Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg from 1826 to 1918; afterwards it was a state within the Weimar Republic for a short time, before it was dissolved in 1922 in order to join the Free State of Thuringia.

The district in its present borders was established in 1922 under the name "Altenburg". In 1952 there was an administrative reform splitting the districts into two smaller units, called "Altenburg" and "Schmölln". They were merged again in 1994 under the name Altenburger Land.

Historical Population

Year Population 1994 121,559 1995 120,655 1996 119,359 1997 118,487 1998 117,143 1999 115,689 2000 114,200 2001 112,421

Year Population 2002 110,887 2003 109,304 2004 107,893 2005 106,365 2006 104,721 2007 103,313 2008 101,705 2009 100,215

Year Population 2010 98,810 2011 97,443 2012 94,749 2013 93,605 2014 92,705 2015 92,344 2016 91,607 2017 90,650

Year Population 2018 90,118 2019 89,393 2020 88,356 2021 87,807 2022 88,787 2023 88,692

Source: from 1994 Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik – values from 31 December^[3]

Politics

District Council

The 46 seats in the district council are distributed between the parties as follows since the Regional Elections in Thüringia 26 May 2024:

Parties	Seats	5 1 5 3 1 13 4 14 Total 46 seats Left: 5 Greens: 1 SPD: 5 Freie Wähler: 3 FDP: 1 CDU: 13 Heimat: 4 AfD: 14
AfD	14 (+4)
CDU	13 (±0)
SPD	5 (−2)
Die Linke	5 (−2)
Starke Heimat	4 (+4)
Bundesverband Freie Wähler	3 (−2)
FDP	1 (−1)
Grüne	1 (−1)

Landratsamt Altenburger Land in der Lindenaustraße in Altenburg

Coat of arms

District banner of Altenburger Land

The coat of arms displays:

• The red rose stands for the Burgraviate of Altenburg and is also part of the coat of arms of the city of Altenburg
• The lion, which was the symbol of the reeves of Plauen; they had great power in the region during the 14th and 15th centuries
• The black and gold stripes with the green ring was the coat of arms of the Saxon Wettin dynasty
• The red acorn symbolises the skat game, which was invented in Altenburg in 1813

Partnerschaften

• Enzkreis (since 1991)
• Hickory, North Carolina, (USA, since 1997)

Towns and municipalities

Clickable map of towns and municipalities in the district

Verwaltungsgemeinschaft-free towns	and municipalities
Altenburg Gößnitz Lucka Meuselwitz Schmölln	Dobitschen Göpfersdorf Heyersdorf Langenleuba-Niederhain Nobitz Ponitz

Verwaltungsgemeinschaften
1. Oberes Sprottental (seat in Nöbdenitz) Heukewalde Jonaswalde Löbichau Posterstein Thonhausen Vollmershain	2. Pleißenaue Fockendorf Gerstenberg Haselbach Treben1 Windischleuba	3. Rositz Göhren Göllnitz Kriebitzsch Lödla Mehna Monstab Rositz1 Starkenberg
1seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft