On 13 June 1946 the Soviet Military Administration summoned a state assembly (Landesversammlung) chaired by Ricarda Huch; the first post-war Landtag elections] were held on 20 October 1946 and the constituent meeting took place on November 21 at the Elephant hotel in Weimar.

By the time of the Constitution of East Germany in 1949, the Landtage were largely deprived of power and the second state elections on 15 October 1950 were already held under the terms of the National Front unity list.

In 1952, the East German government dissolved the federal states and Thuringia was divided into districts (Bezirke) centered in Erfurt, Gera and Suhl.

The process received a lot of attention both nationally and internationally because for the first time In the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, a prime minister came into office thanks to decisive votes from the right-wing extremist AfD.

After the controversial election of Kemmerich, there was an announcement of the resignation of the CDU federal chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer,[10][11] the withdrawal of the Thuringian CDU state and parliamentary group leader Mike Mohring,[12] the dismissal of the federal government's Eastern Commissioner Christian Hirte by chancelor Angela Merkel[13] and the failure of the FDP to meet the five percent hurdle the Hamburg state election 2020.