States of Germany

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German State
Also known as:
Bundesland (German)
Category Federated state
Location Federal Republic of Germany
Number 16 States
Populations 660,999 (Bremen) – 17,571,856 (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Government State government
Subdivisions Borough, State, District, Amt, Governmental District

Germany is made up of sixteen states, known as Bundesländer (singular Bundesland) or Länder (singular Land).[a] Since Germany has a federal constitution, the constituent states retain a measure of sovereignty. With an emphasis on geographical conditions, Berlin and Hamburg are frequently called Stadtstaaten (city-states), as is the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, which in fact includes the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The remaining 13 states are called Flächenländer (literally: area states).

The creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 was through the unification of the western states (which were previously under American, British, and French administration) created in the aftermath of World War II. Initially, in 1949, the states of the Federal Republic were Baden, Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. West Berlin, while officially not part of the Federal Republic, was largely integrated as a de facto-Land.

In 1952, following a referendum, Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern merged into Baden-Württemberg. In 1957, the Saarland, also by public vote, rejoined western Germany. Reunification (with the DDR, East Germany, declaring accession into the Federal Republic) in 1990 then resulted in the addition of the eastern states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia (through the re-division of eastern Germany into various states prior to accession) as well as the reunification of Berlin and its establishment as a full and equal Land. A plebiscite to unite Berlin with surrounding Brandenburg failed in 1996.

Federalism is one of the entrenched constitutional principles of the Federal Republic of Germany. According to the German constitution, some topics, such as foreign affairs and defence, are the exclusive responsibility of the federation (i.e. the federal level), while others fall under the shared authority of the states and the federation; the states retain residual legislative authority for all other areas, including "culture", which in Germany includes not only topics such as subsidies for the arts but also most forms of education. Though international relations including international treaties are primarily the responsibility of the federal level, the constituent states have limited powers in this area: in matters that affect them, the states have the right to representation at the federal level (i.e. through the Bundesrat) and in areas where they have legislative authority they have limited powers to conclude international treaties with the consent of the federal government.[3]


Map of German states and cities.


The use of the term Länder dates back to the Weimar constitution of 1919. Before this time, the constituent states of the German Empire were called Staaten. Today, it is very common to use the term Bundesland. However, this term is not used officially, neither by the constitution of 1919 nor by the Basic Law of 1949. Three Länder are called Freistaat (free state, republic), i.e. Bavaria (since 1919), Saxony (originally since 1919 and again since 1990), and Thuringia (since 1994). There is little continuity between the current states and their predecessors of the Weimar Republic with the exception of the three free states, and the two city-states of Hamburg and Bremen.



Area (km²) Population Pop.
per km²
Capital German
GDP per Capita
in Euro
Coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg (lesser).svg Baden-Württemberg 1952[7] Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) Im Gespräch Sylvia Löhrmann und Winfried Kretschmann (2).jpg Greens, SPD 6 35,752 10,755,000 301 Stuttgart BW 34,885
Landessymbol Freistaat Bayern.svg Bavaria
(Freistaat Bayern)
BY 35,443
Insigne Berolini.svg Berlin 1990[8] Michael Müller (SPD) Michael Müller (2014).jpg SPD, CDU 4 892 3,469,000 3,890 BE 28,806
Bremen Wappen.svg Bremen
(Freie Hansestadt Bremen)
1949 Jens Böhrnsen (SPD) Portrait Buergermeister Boehrnsen.jpg SPD, Greens 3 419 661,000 1,577 HB 42,405
Coat of arms of Hamburg.svg Hamburg
(Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg)
1949 Olaf Scholz (SPD) Olaf Scholz, August 2009 - by SPD-Schleswig-Holstein.jpg SPD 3 755 1,788,000 2,368 HH 52,401
Coat of arms of Hesse.svg Hesse
1949 Volker Bouffier (CDU) Volker Bouffier.jpg CDU, Greens 5 21,115 6,066,000 287 Wiesbaden HE 37,509
Coat of arms of Lower Saxony.svg Lower Saxony
NI 28,350
Coat of arms of North Rhine-Westfalia.svg North Rhine-

Coat of arms of Rhineland-Palatinate.svg Rhineland-Palatinate
1949 Malu Dreyer (SPD) WLP RLP 9648 Malu Dreyer.jpg SPD, Greens 4 19,853 3,999,000 202 Mainz RP 28,311
Coat of arms of Saxony.svg Saxony
(Freistaat Sachsen)
Wappen Sachsen-Anhalt.svg Saxony-Anhalt
1990 Reiner Haseloff (CDU) Reiner Haseloff (Martin Rulsch) 02.jpg CDU, SPD 4 20,446 2,331,000 116 Magdeburg ST 22,427
Coat of arms of Schleswig-Holstein.svg Schleswig-Holstein 1949 Torsten Albig (SPD) 13-08-23-torsten-albig-07.jpg SPD, Greens, SSW 4 15,799 2,833,000 179 Kiel SH 25,947
Coat of arms of Thuringia.svg Thuringia
(Freistaat Thüringen)


Further information: History of Germany

Federalism has a long tradition in German history. The Holy Roman Empire comprised many petty states numbering more than 300 around 1800 AD. The number of territories was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars. After the Congress of Vienna, 39 states formed the German Confederation. The Confederation was dissolved after the Austro-Prussian War and replaced by a North German Federation under Prussian hegemony; this war left Prussia dominant in Germany, and German nationalism would compel the remaining independent states to ally with Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, and then to accede to the crowning of King Wilhelm of Prussia as German Emperor. The new German Empire included 25 states (three of them, Hanseatic cities) and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The empire was dominated by Prussia, which controlled 65% of the territory and 62% of the population. After the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles, the remaining states continued as republics. These states were gradually de facto abolished under the Nazi regime via the Gleichschaltung process, as the states administratively were largely superseded by the Nazi Gau system.


During the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, internal borders were redrawn by the Allied military governments. No single state comprised more than 30% of either population or territory; this was intended to prevent any one state from being as dominant within Germany as Prussia had been in the past. Initially, only seven of the pre-War states remained: Baden (in part), Bavaria (reduced in size), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (enlarged), Saxony, and Thuringia. The “hyphenated” Länder, such as Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt, owed their existence to the occupation powers and were created out of Prussian provinces and smaller states. Former German territory that lie east of the Oder-Neisse Line fell under either Polish or Soviet administration but attempts were made at least symbolically not to abandon sovereignty well into the 1960s. However, no attempts were made to establish new Länder in these territories as they lay outside the jurisdiction of the FRG at that time.

Upon its founding in 1949, West Germany had eleven states. These were reduced to nine in 1952 when three south-western states (South Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern, and Württemberg-Baden) merged to form Baden-Württemberg. From 1957, when the French-occupied Saarland was returned, the Federal Republic consisted of ten states, which are called the Old States today. West Berlin was under the sovereignty of the Western Allies and neither a Western German state nor part of one. However, it was in many ways de facto integrated with West Germany under a special status.

East Germany (GDR) originally consisted of five states (i.e., Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia). In 1952, the Länder were abolished and the GDR was divided into 14 administrative districts called bezirke instead. Soviet-controlled East Berlin, despite officially having the same status as West Berlin, was declared the GDR's capital and its 15th district.

Just prior to the German reunification on 3 October 1990, East German Länder were simply reconstituted in roughly their earlier configuration as five new states. The former district of East Berlin joined West Berlin to form the new state of Berlin. Henceforth, the 10 "old states" plus 5 "new states" plus the new state Berlin add up to 16 states of Germany.


Later, the constitution was amended to state that the citizens of the 16 states had successfully achieved the unity of Germany in free self-determination and that the Basic Law thus applied to the entire German people. Article 23, which had allowed “any other parts of Germany” to join, was rephrased. It had been used in 1957 to reintegrate the Saar as Saarland into the Federal Republic, and this was used as a model for German reunification in 1990. The amended article now defines the participation of the Federal Council and the 16 German states in matters concerning the European Union.


The description free state (Freistaat) is merely a historic synonym for republic—a description used by most German states after the abolishment of monarchy. Today, Freistaat is associated emotionally with a more independent status, especially in Bavaria. However, it has no legal significance. All sixteen states are represented at the federal level in the Bundesrat (Federal Council), where their voting power depends on the size of their population.

West Germany 1945–1990[edit]

Article 29 of the Basic Law states that the "division of the federal territory into Länder may be revised to ensure that each Land be of a size and capacity to perform its functions effectively". The somewhat complicated provisions regulate that "[r]evisions of the existing division into Länder shall be effected by a federal law, which must be confirmed by referendum".

A new delimitation of the federal territory has been discussed since the Federal Republic was founded in 1949 and even before. Committees and expert commissions advocated a reduction of the number of Länder; academics (Rutz, Miegel, Ottnad etc.) and politicians (Döring, Apel, and others) made proposals – some of them far-reaching – for redrawing boundaries but hardly anything came of these public discussions. Territorial reform is sometimes propagated by the richer Länder as a means to avoid or reduce fiscal transfers.





The debate on a new delimitation of the German territory started in 1919 as part of discussions about the new constitution. Hugo Preuss, the father of the Weimar constitution, drafted a plan to divide the German Reich into 14 roughly equal-sized Länder. His proposal was turned down due to opposition of the states and concerns of the government. Article 18 of the constitution enabled a new delimitation of the German territory but set high hurdles: Three fifth of the votes handed in, and at least the majority of the population are necessary to decide on the alteration of territory. In fact, until 1933 there were only four changes of the German map: The 7 Thuringian states united in 1920, whereby Coburg opted for Bavaria, Pyrmont joined Prussia in 1922, and Waldeck did so in 1929. Any later plans to break up the dominating Prussia into smaller states failed because political circumstances were not favorable to state reforms.

After the National Socialists seized power in January 1933, the Länder increasingly lost importance. They became administrative regions of a centralised country. Three changes are of particular note: on January 1, 1934, Mecklenburg-Schwerin was united with the neighbouring Mecklenburg-Strelitz; and, by the Greater Hamburg Act (Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz), from April 1, 1937, the area of the city-state was extended, while Lübeck lost its independence and became part of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein.



In 1948, the military governors of the three Western Allies handed over the so-called Frankfurt Documents to the minister-presidents in the Western occupation zones. Among other things, they recommended revising the boundaries of the West German Länder in a way that none of them should be too large or too small in comparison with the others.



Foundation of Baden-Württemberg[edit]


Petitions asking to reconstitute former states[edit]

With the Paris Agreements West Germany regained (limited) sovereignty. This triggered the start of the one year period as set in paragraph 2 of Article 29. As a consequence, eight petitions for referendums were launched, six of which were successful:



Saar: Little reunification with Germany[edit]

Further information: Saar (protectorate)


On October 27, 1956, the Saar Treaty established that Saarland should be allowed to join Germany, as provided by the Grundgesetz constitution art. 23 for the Federal republic of Germany. Saarland became part of Germany effective January 1, 1957. The Franco-Saarlander currency union ended on 6 July 1959, when the West Deutsche Mark was introduced as legal tender in the Saarland.

Constitutional amendments[edit]





At the same time the commission developed criteria for classifying the terms of Article 29 paragraph 1. The capacity to perform functions effectively was considered most important, whereas regional, historical, and cultural ties were considered as hardly verifiable. To fulfil administrative duties adequately, a population of at least five million per Land was considered as necessary.

After a relatively brief discussion and mostly negative responses from the affected Länder, the proposals were shelved. Public interest was limited or nonexistent.

The referendum in Baden was held on 7 June 1970: With 81.9% the vast majority of voters decided for Baden to remain part of Baden-Württemberg, only 18.1% opted for a reconstitution of the old Land of Baden. The referendums in Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate, were held on 19 January 1975:

  • Reconstitution of the Free State of Oldenburg 31%
  • Reconstitution of the Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe 39.5%
  • Reintegration of Rheinhessen into Hesse 7.1%
  • Reintegration of Montabaur region into Hesse 14.3%



Reunited Germany 1990–present[edit]

The debate on territorial revision restarted shortly before German reunification. While academics (Rutz and others) and politicians (Gobrecht) suggested introducing only two, three, or four Länder in the GDR, legislation reintroduced the five Länder that had existed until 1952, however, with slightly changed boundaries.

Article 118a was introduced into the Basic Law and provided the possibility for Berlin and Brandenburg to merge without regard to the provisions of Article 29, by agreement between the two Länder with the participation of their inhabitants who are entitled to vote.

Article 29 was again modified and provided an option for the Länder to revise the division of their existing territory or parts of their territory by agreement without regard to the provisions of paragraphs (2) through (7).



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Administrative divisions of Germany


Area associations (Landschaftsverbände)[edit]


The constitution of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at §75 states the right of Mecklenburg and Vorpommern to form Landschaftsverbände, although these two constituent parts of the Land are not represented in the current administrative division.

Governmental districts (Regierungsbezirke)[edit]



Administrative districts (Kreise)[edit]

Main article: Districts of Germany




In 2010 only three Kommunalverbände besonderer Art exist.

Offices (Ämter)[edit]


Municipalities (Gemeinden)[edit]


The municipalities are ruled by elected councils and by an executive, the mayor, who is chosen either by the council or directly by the people, depending on the Bundesland. The "constitution" for the municipalities is created by the states and is uniform throughout a Bundesland (except for Bremen, which allows Bremerhaven to have its own constitution).




Unincorporated areas in German states
State 01. January 2005 01. January 2000
Number Area in km² Number Area in km²
Bavaria 216 2,725.06 262 2,992.78
Lower Saxony 23 949.16 25 1,394.10
Hesse 4 327.05 4 327.05
Schleswig-Holstein 2 99.41 2 99.41
Baden-Württemberg 1 66.98 2 76.99
Total 246 4,167.66 295 4,890.33


See also[edit]




  4. ^ Gunlicks, Arthur B.: German Federalism and Recent Reform Efforts, in: German Law Journal Vol. 06 No. 10, p. 1287

External links[edit]