The Ernestine duchies (German: Ernestinische Herzogtümer), also known as the Saxon duchies (Sächsische Herzogtümer, although the Albertine appanage duchies of Weissenfels, Merseburg and Zeitz were also "Saxon duchies" and adjacent to several Ernestine ones), were a changing number of small states that were largely located in the present-day German state of Thuringia …

Mecklenburg (German pronunciation: [ˈmeːklənbʊʁk]; Low German: Mękel(n)borg [ˈmɛːkəl(n)bɔrx]) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar and Güstrow.. The name Mecklenburg derives from a …