Thuringian states

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had its own delegate, Saxe-Meiningen was represented by Bavaria and Reuss Elder Line by Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

In the federal states, as in the whole of the German Empire, the republic was declared and the reigning dukes and princes abdicated.

The governments of Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and the Republic of Reuss took part in negotiations about a merger of all Thuringian states, if possible including the Prussian elements.

But because Prussia was not prepared for any kind of land exchange, the founding of the state as a so-called "Little Thuringian Solution" was taken forward.

For this reason on 30 November 1919 in Saxe-Coburg a plebiscite was held in which the majority of the people voted against being merged into the state of Thuringia.

The misgivings of Saxe-Meiningen were resolved inter alia by a "guarantee of existence" (Bestandsgarantie) for the IHK Sonneberg and for the counties.

Only the exclave of Ostheim, which used to belong to Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, went to the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Bavaria in 1972, in line with the political situation of the time.