The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign "states" (, sing. ). Of the 16 states, 13 are so-called "area-states" (); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a division into local authorities (counties and county-level cities) that have their own administration. Two states, Berlin and Hamburg, are city-states, in which there is no separation between state government and local administration. The state of Bremen is a special case: the state consists of the cities of Bremen, for which the state government also serves as the municipal administration, and Bremerhaven, which has its own local administration separate from the state government. It is therefore a mixture of a city-state and an area-state. Three states, Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia, use the appellation ("free state"); this title is merely stylistic and carries no legal or political significance (similar to the US states that call themselves a commonwealth).
The Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") was created in 1949 through the unification of the three western zones previously under American, British, and French administration in the aftermath of World War II. Initially, the states of the Federal Republic were Baden (until 1952), Bavaria (), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (), Lower Saxony (), North Rhine-Westphalia (), Rhineland-Palatinate (), Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden (until 1952), and Württemberg-Hohenzollern (until 1952). West Berlin, while still under occupation by the Western Allies, viewed itself as part of the Federal Republic and was largely integrated and considered a de facto state. In 1952, following a referendum, Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern merged into Baden-Württemberg. In 1957, the Saar Protectorate joined the Federal Republic as the state of Saarland.
The next major change occurred with German reunification in 1990, in which the territory of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) became part of the Federal Republic, by accession of the re-established eastern states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (), Saxony (), Saxony-Anhalt (), and Thuringia (), and the reunification of West and East Berlin into a city state. A referendum in 1996 to merge Berlin with surrounding Brandenburg failed to reach the necessary majority vote in Brandenburg, while a majority of Berliners voted in favour.
States It was the individual states that formed the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. This contrasted with post-war developments in Austria, where the national federation () was established first, and the individual states were subsequently defined as units within that federal framework.
The German use of the term ("lands") dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919. Previously, the states of the German Empire had been called ("states"). Today, it is common to use the term (federated Land). Officially, the term "" appears in neither the 1919 constitution nor the current one. Three call themselves ("free states", an older German term for "republic"): Bavaria (since 1919), Saxony (originally from 1919 and again since 1990), and Thuringia (since 1994). Of the 17 states at the end of the Weimar Republic, six still exist (though partly with different borders): Bavaria (The geographically distinct Palatinate, which was part of Bavaria, 1816–1946, is now part of Rheinland Pfalz). Bremen Hamburg Hesse Saxony Thuringia
The other 11 states of the Weimar Republic either merged into one another or were separated into smaller entities: Anhalt is now part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Baden is now part of Baden-Württemberg. Braunschweig is now part of Lower Saxony. Lippe is now part of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lübeck is now part of Schleswig-Holstein. Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz are now parts of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Oldenburg is now part of Lower Saxony, with its former exclaves now belonging to their neighbouring states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein. Prussia was divided among the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein. The erstwhile Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Hanover formed the core of the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, respectively. The Prussian provinces of Westphalia and Rhineland contributed most territory to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Rhineland province contributed about half of the territory of the state of Rhineland Palatinate. Most of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau was merged with the existing state of Hesse. Some territories bordering other states were annexed to the bordering state. Also, Prussia had exclaves that were surrounded by other states. These became part of their surrounding states. All states, except Bavaria, now have territory of the former Free State of Prussia. Other former Prussian territories lying east of the rivers Neisse and Oder were lost in 1945 and are now part of Poland or Russia. They are Silesia (Upper and Lower), Pomerania, West Prussia-Posen, and East Prussia respectively. Schaumburg-Lippe is now part of Lower Saxony. Württemberg is now part of Baden-Württemberg.
Possible boundary changes between states continue to be debated in Germany, in contrast to how there are "significant differences among the American states and regional governments in other federations without serious calls for territorial changes" in those other countries. Arthur B. Gunlicks summarizes the main arguments for boundary reform in Germany: "the German system of dual federalism requires strong Länder that have the administrative and fiscal capacity to implement legislation and pay for it from own source revenues. Too many Länder also make coordination among them and with the federation more complicated." But several proposals have failed so far; territorial reform remains a controversial topic in German politics and public perception.
A state capital is called a .
List
State State code Since Capital Legislature Head of state and government(Minister-President or Mayor) Bundesratvotes Area(km2) Pop.(2023-12-31) Pop. per km2 HDI(2022) GDP per capita(€; 2023) BW 1952The states of Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern were constituent states of the federation when it was formed in 1949. They united to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952. Stuttgart Landtag Cem Özdemir (Greens) 6 35,748 11,230,740 314.2 0.963 54,339 (Bayern) BY 1949 Munich(München) Landtag Markus Söder (CSU) 6 70,541 13,176,426 186.8 0.958 57,343 BE 1990Berlin has only officially been a since reunification, even though West Berlin was largely treated as a state of West Germany. – Abgeordnetenhaus Kai Wegner (CDU) 4 891.1 3,662,381 4,110 0.967 51,209 BB 1990 Potsdam Landtag Dietmar Woidke (SPD) 4 29,654 2,554,464 86.14 0.926 37,814 HB 1949 Bremen Bürgerschaft Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) 3 419.4 702,655 1,676 0.954 56,981 HH 1949 – Bürgerschaft Peter Tschentscher (SPD) 3 755.1 1,851,596 2,452 0.975 79,167 (Hessen) HE 1949 Wiesbaden Landtag Boris Rhein (CDU) 5 21,116 6,267,546 296.8 0.954 54,806 (Niedersachsen) NI 1949 Hanover(Hannover) Landtag Olaf Lies (SPD) 6 47,710 8,008,135 167.9 0.936 44,531 (Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania) MV 1990 Schwerin Landtag Manuela Schwesig (SPD) 3 23,295 1,578,041 67.74 0.922 36,335 (Nordrhein-Westfalen) NW 1949 Düsseldorf Landtag Hendrik Wüst (CDU) 6 34,112 18,017,520 528.2 0.946 46,194 (Rheinland-Pfalz) RP 1949 Mainz Landtag Gordon Schnieder (CDU) 4 19,858 4,125,163 207.7 0.938 41,797 SL 1957Though it was originally founded in 1920 after World War I. Saarbrücken Landtag Anke Rehlinger (SPD) 3 2,572 1,014,047 394.3 0.934 41,617 (Sachsen) SN 1990 Dresden Landtag Michael Kretschmer (CDU) 4 18,450 4,054,689 219.8 0.944 38,143 (Sachsen-Anhalt) ST 1990 Magdeburg Landtag Sven Schulze (CDU) 4 20,464 2,144,570 104.8 0.921 35,911 SH 1949 Kiel Landtag Daniel Günther (CDU) 4 15,804 2,953,202 186.9 0.929 40,090 (Thüringen) TH 1990 Erfurt Landtag Mario Voigt (CDU) 4 16,202 2,114,870 130.5 0.928 35,715
History
Federalism has a long tradition in German history. Until the early 19th century, the majority of the territory that later became Germany was part of the Holy Roman Empire, which in 1796 was made up of more than 300 individual political entities subject to the Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna. The number of states was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1814), and the Empire itself was abolished in 1806. The Congress of Vienna, which restructured Europe after the wars, created the highly federalized 39-state German Confederation in 1815. The Confederation was dissolved after the Austro-Prussian War (1866) in which Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire and effectively excluded it from taking part in the eventual unification of Germany.
Following the war, the states of northern and central Germany united under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia to form the federal North German Confederation. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the four southern German states of Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt joined the North German Confederation, which was rechristened the German Empire with Prussia's victory. The Reichstag and Federal Council (Bundesrat) gave the Prussian king the title of German Emperor (as of 1 January 1871). With only relatively minor changes that did not affect its federalized nature, the North German Constitution became the imperial constitution. The new German Empire included 25 states (three of them free cities) plus the imperial territory of Alsace–Lorraine, which had been won from France in the war. Within the empire, 65% of the territory and 62% of the population belonged to Prussia.
The Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I stripped the former German Empire of 12 to 13 percent of its land area and population, the majority of it from Prussia. Only Alsace–Lorraine, which had never attained full statehood, was wholly lost to Germany. The new Weimar Republic remained federal in nature, with a total of 17 states. Seven small states in east-central Germany consolidated into Thuringia in 1920, Coburg chose to merge into Bavaria (also in 1920), and Prussia absorbed Pyrmont and Waldeck (1921 and 1929). During the Weimar period, there were a number of unsuccessful proposals to make radical changes to Germany's state structure, seven short-lived unrecognized states, four of them self-declared soviet republics during the German revolution of 1918–1919, plus two separatist republics in the Rhineland in 1923/24.
After the Nazi Party seized power in January 1933, the states were gradually abolished and reduced to provinces under the Nazi regime via the process, as the states administratively were largely superseded by the Nazi Gau system. Three changes are of particular note: on 1 January 1934, Mecklenburg-Schwerin was united with neighbouring Mecklenburg-Strelitz; and, by the Greater Hamburg Act () of 1937, the territory of the city-state was extended, while Lübeck lost its independence and became part of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein.
West Germany, 1945–1990