Saxe-Altenburg

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Saxe-Altenburg (săks-ăl´tənbərg), Ger. Sachsen-Altenburg, former duchy, Thuringia, central Germany. Altenburg was the capital. Created a separate duchy in 1603, it was ruled by an Ernestine line of the house of Wettin. It passed (1672) to the dukes of Saxe-Gotha, but from 1826 to 1918 it was again a separate duchy under the collateral line of Saxe-Hildburghausen. In 1920 it was incorporated into Thuringia.