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Map of the Roman empire and contemporary indigenous Europe in AD 125, showing the location of the Thuringians in modern day Germany.
Not to be confused with Thervingi. ‹See Tfd›

The Thuringii or Toringi were a Germanic tribe which appeared late during the Völkerwanderung in the Harz Mountains of central Germania around 280, in a region which still bears their name to this day — Thuringia. They evidently filled a void left when the previous inhabitants — the Alamanni — migrated south to the region named after them, Alemannia. They may have been remnants of the Alemannic confederation, or simply another lesser tribe. Some have suggested that they were the remnants of the Hermanduri, that last part of whose name (-duri) was corrupted (-thuri) and afterwards suffixed with -ing, meaning "descendants of (the [Herman]duri)".[1] Claudius Ptolemy mentions neither tribe in his geography but instead the Teuriochaemae, who may also be connected to later Thuringians.

Political history[edit]

Western Europe in the late 5th century.

The Thuringii established an empire in the late 5th century. It reached its territorial peak in the first half of the 6th before it was conquered by the Franks in 531–532. Examination of Thuringian gravesites reveal cranial features which suggest the strong presence of Hunnic women or slaves, perhaps indicating that many Thuringians took Hunnic wives or Hunnic slaves following the collapse of the Hunnic Empire.[2] There is also evidence from jewellery found in graves that the Thuringians sought marriages with Ostrogothic and Lombard women. The Lombard king Agilulf (590–616) was of Thuringian descent.

After their conquest, the Thuringii were placed under Frankish duces (dukes), but they rebelled and established themselves independently again by the late 7th century under Radulf. Towards the end of this century, parts of Thuringia came under Saxon rule.



Ecclesiastic history[edit]


In the 1020s, Aribo, Archbishop of Mainz, began the minting of money at Erfurt, the oldest market town in Thuringia with a history going back to the Merovingian period. The economy, especially trade (such as with the Slavs), greatly increased after that.

Social history[edit]



The history of the Thuringii is best known from the writings of their conquerors, the Franks. Gregory of Tours, a Gallo-Roman, includes the nearest account in time of the fall of the Thuringian Empire. Widukind of Corvey, writing in 10th-century Saxony, inundates his similar account with various legends.

The Thuringii make brief appearances in contemporary Italian sources when their activities affect the land south of the Alps. Procopius, the Byzantine author, mentions them and speaks of their fall. The 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum mentions a king of the Thuringii, Fisud, as a contemporary of Theudebert I.



See also[edit]


  1. ^ Schutz, 402.
  2. ^ Schutz, 411.