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States of Germany

May 05, 2023

This article is about the states of modern Germany. For other uses, see States of Germany (disambiguation).
"Regions of Germany" redirects here. For other uses, see Regions of Germany (disambiguation).

The Federal Republic of Germany, as a federal state, consists of sixteen states (German: Länder, sing. Land; colloquially also (sing.) Bundesland/(pl.) Bundesländer, "Federate State/s").[1][2] Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen (with its seaport exclave, Bremerhaven) are called Stadtstaaten ("city-states"), while the other thirteen states are called Flächenländer ("area states") and include Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia which describe themselves as Freistaaten ("free states").

German states
CategoryFederated state
LocationGermany
Number16
Areas419.4 km2 (161.92 sq mi) (Bremen) –
70,549.4 km2 (27,239.29 sq mi) (Bavaria)
Government
Subdivisions

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 (in German: Bayern), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (Hessen), Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz), 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 as 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 change occurred in the aftermath of German reunification in 1990, in which the area of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) became part of the Federal Republic, by accession of the re-established eastern states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Saxony (Sachsen), Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt), and Thuringia (Thüringen) to the Federal Republic and by the de facto reunification of West and East Berlin into Berlin and its establishment as a full and equal state. A regional referendum in 1996, to merge Berlin with surrounding Brandenburg as "Berlin-Brandenburg", failed to reach the necessary majority vote in Brandenburg, while a majority of Berliners had voted in favour.

Federalism is one of the entrenched constitutional principles 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 or exclusive legislative authority for all other areas, including "culture", which in Germany includes not only topics such as the financial promotion of arts and sciences, but also most forms of education and job training (see Education in Germany). Though international relations including international treaties are primarily the responsibility of the federal level, the constituent states have certain limited powers in this area: in matters that affect them directly, the states defend their interests at the federal level through the Bundesrat ("Federal Council"), and in areas where they have the legislative authority they have limited powers to conclude international treaties "with the consent of the federal government".[3]

States

It was the states that formed the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. This was in contrast to the post-war development in Austria, where the national Bund ("federation") was constituted first, and then the individual states were carved out as units of that federal nation.

The German use of the term Länder ("lands") dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919. Previously, the states of the German Empire had been called Staaten ("states"). Today, it is very common to use the term Bundesland (federated Land). However, this term is not used officially in the constitution of 1919 nor in the current one. Three Länder call themselves Freistaaten ("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):

The other 11 states of the Weimar Republic either merged into one another or were separated into smaller entities:

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.[4] 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."[5] But several proposals have failed so far; territorial reform remains a controversial topic in German politics and public perception.[6]

List

See also: List of current heads of government of the German federal states
State State code Since Capital Legis­lature Head of state and government
(Minister-President or Mayor) 		Bun­des­rat
votes 		Area
(km2) 		Pop.
(2020)[7]		 Pop. per km2 HDI
(2018)[8]		 GDP per capita
(€; 2020)[9]
  Baden-Württemberg BW 1952[10] Stuttgart Landtag Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) 6 35,752 11,103,043 310 0.953 45,108
  Bavaria
(Bayern) 		BY 1949 Munich
(München) 		Landtag Markus Söder (CSU) 6 70,552 13,140,183 185 0.947 46,498
  Berlin BE 1990[11] – Abgeord­netenhaus Kai Wegner (CDU) 4 892 3,664,088 4,086 0.950 42,221
  Brandenburg BB 1990 Potsdam Landtag Dietmar Woidke (SPD) 4 29,480 2,531,071 85 0.914 29,282
  Bremen HB 1949 Bremen Bürger­schaft Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) 3 419 680,130 1,630 0.951 46,468
  Hamburg HH 1949 – Bürger­schaft Peter Tschentscher (SPD) 3 755 1,852,478 2,439 0.975 64,022
  Hesse
(Hessen) 		HE 1949 Wiesbaden Landtag Boris Rhein (CDU) 5 21,115 6,293,154 297 0.949 44,750
  Lower Saxony
(Niedersachsen) 		NI 1949 Hanover
(Hannover) 		Landtag Stephan Weil (SPD) 6 47,609 8,003,421 168 0.922 37,005
  Mecklenburg-Vorpommern MV 1990 Schwerin Landtag Manuela Schwesig (SPD) 3 23,180 1,610,774 69 0.910 28,590
  North Rhine-Westphalia
(Nordrhein-Westfalen) 		NW 1949 Düsseldorf Landtag Hendrik Wüst (CDU) 6 34,085 17,925,570 526 0.936 38,876
  Rhineland-Palatinate
(Rheinland-Pfalz) 		RP 1949 Mainz Landtag Malu Dreyer (SPD) 4 19,853 4,098,391 206 0.928 34,673
  Saarland SL 1957[12] Saarbrücken Landtag Anke Rehlinger (SPD) 3 2,569 983,991 386 0.931 34,125
  Saxony
(Sachsen) 		SN 1990 Dresden Landtag Michael Kretschmer (CDU) 4 18,416 4,056,941 221 0.930 30,903
  Saxony-Anhalt
(Sachsen-Anhalt) 		ST 1990 Magdeburg Landtag Reiner Haseloff (CDU) 4 20,446 2,180,684 108 0.908 28,652
  Schleswig-Holstein SH 1949 Kiel Landtag Daniel Günther (CDU) 4 15,799 2,910,875 183 0.920 33,452
  Thuringia
(Thüringen) 		TH 1990 Erfurt Landtag Bodo Ramelow (The Left) 4 16,172 2,120,237 133 0.921 28,953

History

 
The Kingdom of Prussia (light gray) within the German Empire (1871–1918)
 
The states of the Weimar Republic in 1925, with the Free State of Prussia as the largest
Further information: List of historic states of Germany and History of Germany

Federalism has a long tradition in German history. The Holy Roman Empire comprised many petty states, numbering more than 300 in around 1796. The number of territories was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1814). After the Congress of Vienna (1815), 39 states formed the German Confederation. The Confederation was dissolved after the Austro-Prussian War in which Prussia defeated Austria and forced Austria to remove itself from the affairs of the German states.

Territorial boundaries were essentially redrawn as a result of military conflicts and interventions from the outside: from the Napoleonic Wars to the Congress of Vienna, the number of territories decreased from about 300 to 39; in 1866 Prussia annexed the sovereign states of Hanover, Nassau, Hesse-Kassel, and the Free City of Frankfurt. Prussia and the other states in Northern and Central Germany united as a federal state, the North German Federation, on 1 July 1867. Four of the five southern German states (Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt) entered military alliances with Prussia but Austria did not. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, those four states joined the North German Federation which was consequently renamed to German Empire. The parliament and Federal Council decided to give the Prussian king the title of German Emperor (since 1 January 1871). The new German Empire included 25 states (three of them, Hanseatic cities) and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. Within the empire, 65% of the territory and 62% of the population belonged to the state of Prussia.

After the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles, the remaining states continued as republics of a new German federation. 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 states. 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 in the configuration of the German states: the 7 Thuringian states were merged 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 favourable to state reforms.

After the Nazi Party seized power in January 1933, the Länder were gradually de facto abolished and reduced to provinces under the Nazi regime via the Gleichschaltung process, as the states administratively were largely superseded by the Nazi Gau system. Three changes are of particular note: on January 1, 1934, Mecklenburg-Schwerin was united with neighbouring Mecklenburg-Strelitz; and, by the Greater Hamburg Act (Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz) of 1937, the area 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

 
West Germany (blue) and East Germany (red) and West Berlin (yellow)

During the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, internal borders were redrawn by the Allied military governments. New states were established in all four zones of occupation: Bremen, Hesse, Württemberg-Baden, and Bavaria in the American zone; Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, and North Rhine-Westphalia in the British zone; Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern and the Saarland – which later received a special status – in the French zone; Mecklenburg(-Vorpommern), Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia in the Soviet zone. 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 states with hyphenated names, such as Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt, owed their existence to the occupation powers and were created out of mergers of former Prussian provinces and smaller states.

Former German territory that lay 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. The former provinces of Farther Pomerania, East Prussia, Silesia and Posen-West Prussia fell under Polish administration with the Soviet Union taking the area around Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), pending a final peace conference with Germany which eventually never took place.[13] More than 8 million Germans had been expelled from these territories that had formed part of the German-speaking lands for centuries and which mostly did not have sizable Polish minorities before 1945. However, no attempts were made to establish new states in these territories, as they lay outside the jurisdiction of West Germany at that time.

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 states in a way that none of them should be too large or too small in comparison with the others.

As the premiers did not come to an agreement on this question, the Parliamentary Council was supposed to address this issue. Its provisions are reflected in Article 29 of the Basic Law. There was a binding provision for a new delimitation of the federal territory: the Federal Territory must be revised (paragraph 1). Moreover, in territories or parts of territories whose affiliation with a Land had changed after 8 May 1945 without a referendum, people were allowed to petition for a revision of the current status within a year after the promulgation of the Basic Law (paragraph 2). If at least one tenth of those entitled to vote in Bundestag elections were in favour of a revision, the federal government had to include the proposal into its legislation. Then a referendum was required in each territory or part of a territory whose affiliation was to be changed (paragraph 3). The proposal should not take effect if within any of the affected territories a majority rejected the change. In this case, the bill had to be introduced again and after passing had to be confirmed by referendum in the Federal Republic as a whole (paragraph 4). The reorganization should be completed within three years after the Basic Law had come into force (paragraph 6). Article 29 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".

In their letter to Konrad Adenauer, the three western military governors approved the Basic Law but suspended Article 29 until such time as a peace treaty should be concluded. Only the special arrangement for the southwest under Article 118 could enter into force.

Upon its founding in 1949, West Germany thus 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 Saar Protectorate was returned and formed into the Saarland, the Federal Republic consisted of ten states, which are referred to as 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.

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 states; academics (Werner Rutz, Meinhard Miegel, Adrian Ottnad, etc.) and politicians (Walter Döring, Hans 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 states as a means to avoid or reduce fiscal transfers.

Establishment of Baden-Württemberg

 
The three states that merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952

In southwestern Germany, territorial revision seemed to be a top priority since the border between the French and American occupation zones was set along the Autobahn Karlsruhe-Stuttgart-Ulm (today the A8). Article 118 stated "The division of the territory comprising Baden, Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern into Länder may be revised, without regard to the provisions of Article 29, by agreement between the Länder concerned. If no agreement is reached, the revision shall be effected by a federal law, which shall provide for an advisory referendum." Since no agreement was reached, a referendum was held on 9 December 1951 in four different voting districts, three of which approved the merger (South Baden refused but was overruled, as the result of total votes was decisive). On 25 April 1952, the three former states merged to form Baden-Württemberg.

Petitions to reconstitute former states

With the Paris Agreements in 1954, 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:

The last petition was originally rejected by the Federal Minister of the Interior by reference to the referendum of 1951. However, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that the rejection was unlawful: the population of Baden had the right to a new referendum because the one of 1951 had taken place under different rules from the ones provided for by article 29. In particular, the outcome of the 1951 referendum did not reflect the wishes of the majority of Baden's population.

The two Palatine petitions (for a reintegration into Bavaria and integration into Baden-Württemberg) failed with 7.6% and 9.3%. Further requests for petitions (Lübeck, Geesthacht, Lindau, Achberg, and 62 Hessian communities) had already been rejected as inadmissible by the Federal Minister of the Interior or were withdrawn as in the case of Lindau. The rejection was confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court in the case of Lübeck.

Saar: the little reunification

Further information: Saar Protectorate

In the Paris Agreements of 23 October 1954, France offered to establish an independent "Saarland", under the auspices of the Western European Union (WEU), but on 23 October 1955 in the Saar Statute referendum the Saar electorate rejected this plan by 67.7% to 32.3% (out of a 96.5% turnout: 423,434 against, 201,975 for) despite the public support of Federal German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer for the plan. The rejection of the plan by the Saarlanders was interpreted as support for the Saar to join the Federal Republic of Germany.[14]

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

Constitutional amendments

Paragraph 6 of Article 29 stated that, if a petition was successful, a referendum should be held within three years. Since the deadline passed on 5 May 1958 without anything happening, the Hesse state government filed a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court in October 1958. The complaint was dismissed in July 1961 on the grounds that Article 29 had made the new delimitation of the federal territory an exclusively federal matter. At the same time, the Court reaffirmed the requirement for a territorial revision as a binding order to the relevant constitutional bodies.

The grand coalition decided to settle the 1956 petitions by setting binding deadlines for the required referendums. The referendums in Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate were to be held by 31 March 1975, and the referendum in Baden was to be held by 30 June 1970. The threshold for a successful vote was set at one-quarter of those entitled to vote in Bundestag elections. Paragraph 4 stated that the vote should be disregarded if it contradicted the objectives of paragraph 1.

In his investiture address, given on 28 October 1969 in Bonn, Chancellor Willy Brandt proposed that the government would consider Article 29 of the Basic Law as a binding order. An expert commission was established, named after its chairman, the former Secretary of State Professor Werner Ernst. After two years of work, the experts delivered their report in 1973. It provided an alternative proposal for the two regions: the north and center-southwest.

In the north, either a single new state consisting of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony should be created (solution A) or two new states, one in the northeast consisting of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and the northern part of Lower Saxony (from Cuxhaven to Lüchow-Dannenberg) and one in the northwest consisting of Bremen and the rest of Lower Saxony (solution B).

In the center and southwest, one alternative was that Rhineland-Palatinate (with the exception of the Germersheim district but including the Rhine-Neckar region) should be merged with Hesse and the Saarland (solution C), the district of Germersheim would then become part of Baden-Württemberg. The other alternative was that the Palatinate (including the region of Worms) could be merged with the Saarland and Baden-Württemberg, and the rest of Rhineland-Palatinate would then merge with Hesse (solution D).

Both alternatives could be combined (AC, BC, AD, BD).

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 fulfill administrative duties adequately, a population of at least five million per state was considered as necessary.

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

The referendum in Baden was held on 7 June 1970. 81.9% of voters decided for Baden to remain part of Baden-Württemberg, only 18.1% opted for the reconstitution of the old state of Baden.

The referendums in Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate were held on 19 January 1975 (the percentages given are the percentages of those eligible who voted in favour):

The votes in Lower Saxony were successful as both proposals were supported by more than 25% of eligible voters. The Bundestag, however, decided that both Oldenburg and Schaumburg-Lippe should remain part of Lower Saxony. The justification was that a reconstitution of the two former states would contradict the objectives of paragraph 1 of article 29 of the constitution. An appeal against the decision was rejected as inadmissible by the Federal Constitutional Court.

On 24 August 1976, the binding provision for a new delimitation of the federal territory was altered into a mere discretionary one. Paragraph 1 of Article 29 was rephrased, with the provision that any state had to be "of a size and capacity to perform its functions effectively" put first.[15] The option for a referendum in the Federal Republic as a whole (paragraph 4) was abolished, which meant territorial revision was no longer possible against the will of the population affected by it.

Reunited Germany, 1990–present

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

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 states in East Germany, legislation reconstituted the East German states in an arrangement similar to that which they had had before 1952, as the five "New States" on 3 October 1990. 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 current 16 states of Germany.

After reunification, 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 West German constitution 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 Protectorate as the 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. Article 29 was again modified and provided an option for the states 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)". 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". A state treaty between Berlin and Brandenburg was approved in both parliaments with the necessary two-thirds majority, but in a popular referendum of 5 May 1996, about 63% voted against the merger.

The German states can conclude treaties with foreign countries in matters within their own sphere of competence and with the consent of the federal government (Article 32 of the Basic Law). Typical treaties relate to cultural relationships and economic affairs.

Some states call themselves a "free state" (Freistaat). It is merely a historic synonym for "republic" and was a description used by most German states after the abolishment of monarchy after World War I. 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.

Politics

Further information: Federalism in Germany

Germany is a federal, parliamentary, representative democratic republic. The German political system operates under a framework laid out in the 1949 constitutional document known as the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). By calling the document the Grundgesetz, rather than Verfassung (constitution), the authors expressed the intention that it would be replaced by a true constitution once Germany was reunited as one state.

Amendments to the Grundgesetz generally require a two-thirds majority of both chambers of the parliament; the fundamental principles of the constitution, as expressed in the articles guaranteeing human dignity, the separation of powers, the federal structure, and the rule of law are valid in perpetuity. Despite the original intention, the Grundgesetz remained in effect after the German reunification in 1990, with only minor amendments.

Government

 
Composition of German states' governing coalitions

The federal constitution stipulates that the structure of each Federated State's government must "conform to the principles of republican, democratic, and social government, based on the rule of law" (Article 28). Most of the states are governed by a cabinet led by a Ministerpräsident (minister-president), together with a unicameral legislative body known as the Landtag (State Diet). The states are parliamentary republics and the relationship between their legislative and executive branches mirrors that of the federal system: the legislatures are popularly elected for four or five years (depending on the state), and the minister-president is then chosen by a majority vote among the Landtag's members. The minister-president is typically the head of the biggest party of a coalition. The minister-president appoints a cabinet to run the state's agencies and to carry out the executive duties of the state's government. Like in other parliamentary systems, the legislature can dismiss or replace the minister-president after a successful no-confidence vote.

The governments in Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg are referred to as "senates". In the free states of Bavaria and Saxony, the government is referred to as "state government" (Staatsregierung); and in the other states, the government is referred to as "Land government" (Landesregierung). Before January 1, 2000, Bavaria had a bicameral parliament, with a popularly elected Landtag, and a Senate made up of representatives of the state's major social and economic groups. The Senate was abolished following a referendum in 1998. The states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg are governed slightly differently from the other states. In each of those cities, the executive branch consists of a Senate of approximately eight, selected by the state's parliament; the senators carry out duties equivalent to those of the ministers in the larger states. The equivalent of the minister-president is the Senatspräsident (president of the senate), also commonly referred to as Bürgermeister (Mayor) in Bremen, the Erster Bürgermeister (first mayor) in Hamburg, and the Regierender Bürgermeister (governing mayor) in Berlin. The parliament for Berlin is called the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives), while Bremen and Hamburg both have a Bürgerschaft. The parliaments in the remaining 13 states are referred to as Landtag (State Parliament).

Subdivisions

 Federal LevelFederal StatesCity States(Governmental Districts)(Rural) Districts(Collective Municipalities)Municipalities(Municipalities)Urban Districts
Administrative divisions of Germany. (Clickable image).

The city-states of Berlin and Hamburg are subdivided into Districts. The City of Bremen consists of two urban districts: Bremen and Bremerhaven, which are not contiguous. In the other states there are the subdivisions below.

Area associations (Landschaftsverbände)

The most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia is uniquely divided into two area associations (Landschaftsverbände), one for the Rhineland, and one for Westphalia-Lippe. This arrangement was meant to ease the friction caused by uniting the two culturally different regions into a single state after World War II. The Landschaftsverbände now have very little power.

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

Governmental districts (Regierungsbezirke)

The large states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia are divided into governmental districts, or Regierungsbezirke.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, these districts were abolished on January 1, 2000, in Saxony-Anhalt on January 1, 2004, and in Lower Saxony on January 1, 2005. From 1990 until 2012, Saxony was divided into three districts (called Direktionsbezirke since 2008). In 2012, these districts' authorities were merged into one central authority, the Landesdirektion Sachsen [de].

Administrative districts (Kreise)

Main article: Districts of Germany
See also: List of districts of Germany
 
Map of German districts. Yellow districts are urban, white are sub-urban or rural.

The Districts of Germany (Kreise) are administrative districts, and every state except the city-states of Berlin and Hamburg and the state of Bremen consists of "rural districts" (Landkreise), District-free Towns/Cities (Kreisfreie Städte, in Baden-Württemberg also called "urban districts", or Stadtkreise), cities that are districts in their own right, or local associations of a special kind (Kommunalverbände besonderer Art), see below. The state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen consists of two urban districts, while Berlin and Hamburg are states and urban districts at the same time.

As of 2011, there are 295 Landkreise and 107 Kreisfreie Städte, making 402 districts altogether. Each consists of an elected council and an executive, which is chosen either by the council or by the people, depending on the state, the duties of which are comparable to those of a county executive in the United States, supervising local government administration. The Landkreise have primary administrative functions in specific areas, such as highways, hospitals, and public utilities.

Local associations of a special kind are an amalgamation of one or more Landkreise with one or more Kreisfreie Städte to form a replacement of the aforementioned administrative entities at the district level. They are intended to implement simplification of administration at that level. Typically, a district-free city or town and its urban hinterland are grouped into such an association, or Kommunalverband besonderer Art. Such an organization requires the issuing of special laws by the governing state, since they are not covered by the normal administrative structure of the respective states.

In 2010 only three Kommunalverbände besonderer Art exist.

  • District of Hanover: formed in 2001 from the rural district of Hanover and the district-free city of Hanover.
  • Regionalverband (district association) of Saarbrücken: formed in 2008 from the Stadtverband Saarbrücken (city association of Saarbrücken), which was formed in 1974.
  • City region of Aachen: formed in 2009 from the rural district of Aachen and the district-free city of Aachen.

Offices (Ämter)

Ämter ("offices" or "bureaus"): in some states, there is an administrative unit between the districts and the municipalities, called Ämter (singular Amt), Amtsgemeinden, Gemeindeverwaltungsverbände, Landgemeinden, Verbandsgemeinden, Verwaltungsgemeinschaften, or Kirchspiellandgemeinden.

Municipalities (Gemeinden)

Main article: Municipalities of Germany

Municipalities (Gemeinden): every rural district and every Amt is subdivided into municipalities, while every urban district is a municipality in its own right. There are (as of 6 March 2009) 12,141 municipalities, which are the smallest administrative units in Germany. Cities and towns are municipalities as well, also having city rights or town rights (Stadtrechte). Nowadays, this is mostly just the right to be called a city or town. However, in former times there were many other privileges, including the right to impose local taxes or to allow industry only within city limits.

The number of inhabitants of German municipalities differs greatly, the most populous municipality being Berlin with nearly 3.8 million inhabitants, while the least populous municipalities (for instance, Gröde in Nordfriesland) have less than 10 inhabitants.

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 state. The "constitution" for the municipalities is created by the states and is uniform throughout a state (except for Bremen, which allows Bremerhaven to have its own constitution).

The municipalities have two major policy responsibilities. First, they administer programs authorized by the federal or state government. Such programs typically relate to youth, schools, public health, and social assistance. Second, Article 28(2) of the Basic Law guarantees the municipalities "the right to regulate on their own responsibility all the affairs of the local community within the limits set by law". Under this broad statement of competence, local governments can justify a wide range of activities. For instance, many municipalities develop and expand the economic infrastructure of their communities through the development of industrial trading estates.

Local authorities foster cultural activities by supporting local artists, building arts centres, and by holding fairs. Local government also provides public utilities, such as gas and electricity, as well as public transportation. The majority of the funding for municipalities is provided by higher levels of government rather than from taxes raised and collected directly by themselves.

In five of the German states, there are unincorporated areas, in many cases unpopulated forest and mountain areas, but also four Bavarian lakes that are not part of any municipality. As of January 1, 2005, there were 246 such areas, with a total area of 4167.66 km2 or 1.2% of the total area of Germany. Only four unincorporated areas are populated, with a total population of around 2,000. The table below provides an overview.

Unincorporated areas in German states
State 1 Jan. 2022 1 January 2005 1 January 2000
Number Number Area (km2) Number Area (km2)
Bavaria 173 216 2,725.06 262 2,992.78
Lower Saxony 25 23 949.16 25 1,394.10
Hesse 4 4 327.05 4 327.05
Schleswig-Holstein 2 2 99.41 2 99.41
Baden-Württemberg 2 1 66.98 2 76.99
Total 206 246 4,167.66 295 4,890.33

In 2000, the number of unincorporated areas was 295, with a total area of 4,890.33 square kilometres (1,888.17 sq mi). However, the unincorporated areas are continually being incorporated into neighboring municipalities, wholly or partially, most frequently in Bavaria.

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ Christian Tomuschat, David P. Currie (April 2010). "Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany" (PDF). Deutscher Bundestag Public Relations Division. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  2. ^ House of Commons of the United Kingdom (28 February 1991). "House of Commons debates (Welsh affairs)". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  3. ^ Leonardy, Uwe (1998). "Länder Power-Sharing in International Relations and European Affairs". The institutional structures of German federalism. Working papers / Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, London Office (electronic ed.). Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
  4. ^ Gunlicks, Arthur B. "German Federalism and Recent Reform Efforts" 2011-06-21 at the Wayback Machine, German Law Journal, Vol. 06, No. 10, p. 1287.
  5. ^ Gunlicks, p. 1288
  6. ^ Gunlicks, pp. 1287–88
  7. ^ "Germany: States and Major Cities". City Population. 3 October 2020.
  8. ^ "Sub-national HDI - Subnational HDI - Global Data Lab". globaldatalab.org.
  9. ^ "Bruttoinlandsprodukt je Einwohner nach Bundesländern 2020". de.statista.com.
  10. ^ The 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.
  11. ^ Berlin has only officially been a Bundesland since reunification, even though West Berlin was largely treated as a state of West Germany.
  12. ^ Though it was originally founded in 1920 after World War I.
  13. ^ Geoffrey K. Roberts, Patricia Hogwood (2013). The Politics Today Companion to West European Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 50. ISBN 9781847790323.; Piotr Stefan Wandycz (1980). The United States and Poland. Harvard University Press. p. 303. ISBN 9780674926851.; Phillip A. Bühler (1990). The Oder-Neisse Line: a reappraisal under internaromtional law. East European Monographs. p. 33. ISBN 9780880331746.
  14. ^ "Results of the referendum on the Saar Statute (23 October 1955)". Saarländische Volkszeitung. Saarbrücken. 24 October 1955. p. 10. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  15. ^ https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/80201000.pdf, constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany

External links

  • CityMayors feature on Germany subdivisions

May 05, 2023
states, germany, this, article, about, states, modern, germany, other, uses, disambiguation, regions, germany, redirects, here, other, uses, regions, germany, disambiguation, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk,. This article is about the states of modern Germany For other uses see States of Germany disambiguation Regions of Germany redirects here For other uses see Regions of Germany disambiguation This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources States of Germany news newspapers books scholar JSTOR November 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia s layout guidelines Please help by editing the article to make improvements to the overall structure November 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message The Federal Republic of Germany as a federal state consists of sixteen states German Lander sing Land colloquially also sing Bundesland pl Bundeslander Federate State s 1 2 Berlin Hamburg and Bremen with its seaport exclave Bremerhaven are called Stadtstaaten city states while the other thirteen states are called Flachenlander area states and include Bavaria Saxony and Thuringia which describe themselves as Freistaaten free states German statesBaden Wurttemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse LowerSaxony Mecklenburg Vorpommern North Rhine Westphalia Rhineland Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony Anhalt Schleswig Holstein ThuringiaLuxembourg Poland France Denmark Netherlands Belgium Austria Czech Republic SwitzerlandNorthSea Baltic SeaCategoryFederated stateLocationGermanyNumber16Areas419 4 km2 161 92 sq mi Bremen 70 549 4 km2 27 239 29 sq mi Bavaria GovernmentState governmentSubdivisionsBorough District Amt Governmental districtThe 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 in German Bayern Bremen Hamburg Hesse Hessen Lower Saxony Niedersachsen North Rhine Westphalia Nordrhein Westfalen Rhineland Palatinate Rheinland Pfalz Schleswig Holstein Wurttemberg Baden until 1952 and Wurttemberg 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 as a de facto state In 1952 following a referendum Baden Wurttemberg Baden and Wurttemberg Hohenzollern merged into Baden Wurttemberg In 1957 the Saar Protectorate joined the Federal Republic as the state of Saarland The next change occurred in the aftermath of German reunification in 1990 in which the area of the German Democratic Republic East Germany became part of the Federal Republic by accession of the re established eastern states of Brandenburg Mecklenburg West Pomerania Mecklenburg Vorpommern Saxony Sachsen Saxony Anhalt Sachsen Anhalt and Thuringia Thuringen to the Federal Republic and by the de facto reunification of West and East Berlin into Berlin and its establishment as a full and equal state A regional referendum in 1996 to merge Berlin with surrounding Brandenburg as Berlin Brandenburg failed to reach the necessary majority vote in Brandenburg while a majority of Berliners had voted in favour Federalism is one of the entrenched constitutional principles 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 or exclusive legislative authority for all other areas including culture which in Germany includes not only topics such as the financial promotion of arts and sciences but also most forms of education and job training see Education in Germany Though international relations including international treaties are primarily the responsibility of the federal level the constituent states have certain limited powers in this area in matters that affect them directly the states defend their interests at the federal level through the Bundesrat Federal Council and in areas where they have the legislative authority they have limited powers to conclude international treaties with the consent of the federal government 3 Contents 1 States 1 1 List 2 History 2 1 West Germany 1945 1990 2 1 1 Establishment of Baden Wurttemberg 2 1 2 Petitions to reconstitute former states 2 1 3 Saar the little reunification 2 1 4 Constitutional amendments 2 2 Reunited Germany 1990 present 3 Politics 3 1 Government 4 Subdivisions 4 1 Area associations Landschaftsverbande 4 2 Governmental districts Regierungsbezirke 4 3 Administrative districts Kreise 4 4 Offices Amter 4 5 Municipalities Gemeinden 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksStates EditIt was the states that formed the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 This was in contrast to the post war development in Austria where the national Bund federation was constituted first and then the individual states were carved out as units of that federal nation The German use of the term Lander lands dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919 Previously the states of the German Empire had been called Staaten states Today it is very common to use the term Bundesland federated Land However this term is not used officially in the constitution of 1919 nor in the current one Three Lander call themselves Freistaaten 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 Bremen Hamburg Hesse Saxony ThuringiaThe 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 Wurttemberg Braunschweig is now part of Lower Saxony Lippe is now part of North Rhine Westphalia Lubeck 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 into the states of Berlin Brandenburg Lower Saxony North Rhine Westphalia Rhineland Palatinate Saxony Anhalt and Schleswig Holstein 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 are now part of Poland or Russia Schaumburg Lippe is now part of Lower Saxony Wurttemberg is now part of Baden Wurttemberg 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 4 Arthur B Gunlicks summarizes the main arguments for boundary reform in Germany the German system of dual federalism requires strong Lander that have the administrative and fiscal capacity to implement legislation and pay for it from own source revenues Too many Lander also make coordination among them and with the federation more complicated 5 But several proposals have failed so far territorial reform remains a controversial topic in German politics and public perception 6 List Edit See also List of current heads of government of the German federal states State State code Since Capital Legis lature Head of state and government Minister President or Mayor Bun des ratvotes Area km2 Pop 2020 7 Pop per km2 HDI 2018 8 GDP per capita 2020 9 Baden Wurttemberg BW 1952 10 Stuttgart Landtag Winfried Kretschmann Greens 6 35 752 11 103 043 310 0 953 45 108 Bavaria Bayern BY 1949 Munich Munchen Landtag Markus Soder CSU 6 70 552 13 140 183 185 0 947 46 498 Berlin BE 1990 11 Abgeord netenhaus Kai Wegner CDU 4 892 3 664 088 4 086 0 950 42 221 Brandenburg BB 1990 Potsdam Landtag Dietmar Woidke SPD 4 29 480 2 531 071 85 0 914 29 282 Bremen HB 1949 Bremen Burger schaft Andreas Bovenschulte SPD 3 419 680 130 1 630 0 951 46 468 Hamburg HH 1949 Burger schaft Peter Tschentscher SPD 3 755 1 852 478 2 439 0 975 64 022 Hesse Hessen HE 1949 Wiesbaden Landtag Boris Rhein CDU 5 21 115 6 293 154 297 0 949 44 750 Lower Saxony Niedersachsen NI 1949 Hanover Hannover Landtag Stephan Weil SPD 6 47 609 8 003 421 168 0 922 37 005 Mecklenburg Vorpommern MV 1990 Schwerin Landtag Manuela Schwesig SPD 3 23 180 1 610 774 69 0 910 28 590 North Rhine Westphalia Nordrhein Westfalen NW 1949 Dusseldorf Landtag Hendrik Wust CDU 6 34 085 17 925 570 526 0 936 38 876 Rhineland Palatinate Rheinland Pfalz RP 1949 Mainz Landtag Malu Dreyer SPD 4 19 853 4 098 391 206 0 928 34 673 Saarland SL 1957 12 Saarbrucken Landtag Anke Rehlinger SPD 3 2 569 983 991 386 0 931 34 125 Saxony Sachsen SN 1990 Dresden Landtag Michael Kretschmer CDU 4 18 416 4 056 941 221 0 930 30 903 Saxony Anhalt Sachsen Anhalt ST 1990 Magdeburg Landtag Reiner Haseloff CDU 4 20 446 2 180 684 108 0 908 28 652 Schleswig Holstein SH 1949 Kiel Landtag Daniel Gunther CDU 4 15 799 2 910 875 183 0 920 33 452 Thuringia Thuringen TH 1990 Erfurt Landtag Bodo Ramelow The Left 4 16 172 2 120 237 133 0 921 28 953History Edit The Kingdom of Prussia light gray within the German Empire 1871 1918 The states of the Weimar Republic in 1925 with the Free State of Prussia as the largest Further information List of historic states of Germany and History of Germany Federalism has a long tradition in German history The Holy Roman Empire comprised many petty states numbering more than 300 in around 1796 The number of territories was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars 1796 1814 After the Congress of Vienna 1815 39 states formed the German Confederation The Confederation was dissolved after the Austro Prussian War in which Prussia defeated Austria and forced Austria to remove itself from the affairs of the German states Territorial boundaries were essentially redrawn as a result of military conflicts and interventions from the outside from the Napoleonic Wars to the Congress of Vienna the number of territories decreased from about 300 to 39 in 1866 Prussia annexed the sovereign states of Hanover Nassau Hesse Kassel and the Free City of Frankfurt Prussia and the other states in Northern and Central Germany united as a federal state the North German Federation on 1 July 1867 Four of the five southern German states Bavaria Wurttemberg Baden and Hesse Darmstadt entered military alliances with Prussia but Austria did not In the Franco Prussian War of 1870 71 those four states joined the North German Federation which was consequently renamed to German Empire The parliament and Federal Council decided to give the Prussian king the title of German Emperor since 1 January 1871 The new German Empire included 25 states three of them Hanseatic cities and the imperial territory of Alsace Lorraine Within the empire 65 of the territory and 62 of the population belonged to the state of Prussia After the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles the remaining states continued as republics of a new German federation 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 states 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 in the configuration of the German states the 7 Thuringian states were merged 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 favourable to state reforms After the Nazi Party seized power in January 1933 the Lander were gradually de facto abolished and reduced to provinces under the Nazi regime via the Gleichschaltung process as the states administratively were largely superseded by the Nazi Gau system Three changes are of particular note on January 1 1934 Mecklenburg Schwerin was united with neighbouring Mecklenburg Strelitz and by the Greater Hamburg Act Gross Hamburg Gesetz of 1937 the area of the city state was extended while Lubeck lost its independence and became part of the Prussian province of Schleswig Holstein West Germany 1945 1990 Edit West Germany blue and East Germany red and West Berlin yellow During the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II internal borders were redrawn by the Allied military governments New states were established in all four zones of occupation Bremen Hesse Wurttemberg Baden and Bavaria in the American zone Hamburg Schleswig Holstein Lower Saxony and North Rhine Westphalia in the British zone Rhineland Palatinate Baden Wurttemberg Hohenzollern and the Saarland which later received a special status in the French zone Mecklenburg Vorpommern Brandenburg Saxony Saxony Anhalt and Thuringia in the Soviet zone 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 states with hyphenated names such as Rhineland Palatinate North Rhine Westphalia and Saxony Anhalt owed their existence to the occupation powers and were created out of mergers of former Prussian provinces and smaller states Former German territory that lay 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 The former provinces of Farther Pomerania East Prussia Silesia and Posen West Prussia fell under Polish administration with the Soviet Union taking the area around Konigsberg now Kaliningrad pending a final peace conference with Germany which eventually never took place 13 More than 8 million Germans had been expelled from these territories that had formed part of the German speaking lands for centuries and which mostly did not have sizable Polish minorities before 1945 However no attempts were made to establish new states in these territories as they lay outside the jurisdiction of West Germany at that time 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 states in a way that none of them should be too large or too small in comparison with the others As the premiers did not come to an agreement on this question the Parliamentary Council was supposed to address this issue Its provisions are reflected in Article 29 of the Basic Law There was a binding provision for a new delimitation of the federal territory the Federal Territory must be revised paragraph 1 Moreover in territories or parts of territories whose affiliation with a Land had changed after 8 May 1945 without a referendum people were allowed to petition for a revision of the current status within a year after the promulgation of the Basic Law paragraph 2 If at least one tenth of those entitled to vote in Bundestag elections were in favour of a revision the federal government had to include the proposal into its legislation Then a referendum was required in each territory or part of a territory whose affiliation was to be changed paragraph 3 The proposal should not take effect if within any of the affected territories a majority rejected the change In this case the bill had to be introduced again and after passing had to be confirmed by referendum in the Federal Republic as a whole paragraph 4 The reorganization should be completed within three years after the Basic Law had come into force paragraph 6 Article 29 states that the division of the federal territory into Lander may be revised to ensure that each Land be of a size and capacity to perform its functions effectively In their letter to Konrad Adenauer the three western military governors approved the Basic Law but suspended Article 29 until such time as a peace treaty should be concluded Only the special arrangement for the southwest under Article 118 could enter into force Upon its founding in 1949 West Germany thus had eleven states These were reduced to nine in 1952 when three south western states South Baden Wurttemberg Hohenzollern and Wurttemberg Baden merged to form Baden Wurttemberg From 1957 when the French occupied Saar Protectorate was returned and formed into the Saarland the Federal Republic consisted of ten states which are referred to as 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 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 states academics Werner Rutz Meinhard Miegel Adrian Ottnad etc and politicians Walter Doring Hans 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 states as a means to avoid or reduce fiscal transfers Establishment of Baden Wurttemberg Edit The three states that merged to form Baden Wurttemberg in 1952 In southwestern Germany territorial revision seemed to be a top priority since the border between the French and American occupation zones was set along the Autobahn Karlsruhe Stuttgart Ulm today the A8 Article 118 stated The division of the territory comprising Baden Wurttemberg Baden and Wurttemberg Hohenzollern into Lander may be revised without regard to the provisions of Article 29 by agreement between the Lander concerned If no agreement is reached the revision shall be effected by a federal law which shall provide for an advisory referendum Since no agreement was reached a referendum was held on 9 December 1951 in four different voting districts three of which approved the merger South Baden refused but was overruled as the result of total votes was decisive On 25 April 1952 the three former states merged to form Baden Wurttemberg Petitions to reconstitute former states Edit With the Paris Agreements in 1954 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 Reconstitution of the Free State of Oldenburg 12 9 Reconstitution of the Free State of Schaumburg Lippe 15 3 Integration of Koblenz and Trier into North Rhine Westphalia 14 2 Reintegration of Rheinhessen into Hesse 25 3 Reintegration of Montabaur into Hesse 20 2 Reconstitution of Baden 15 1 The last petition was originally rejected by the Federal Minister of the Interior by reference to the referendum of 1951 However the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that the rejection was unlawful the population of Baden had the right to a new referendum because the one of 1951 had taken place under different rules from the ones provided for by article 29 In particular the outcome of the 1951 referendum did not reflect the wishes of the majority of Baden s population The two Palatine petitions for a reintegration into Bavaria and integration into Baden Wurttemberg failed with 7 6 and 9 3 Further requests for petitions Lubeck Geesthacht Lindau Achberg and 62 Hessian communities had already been rejected as inadmissible by the Federal Minister of the Interior or were withdrawn as in the case of Lindau The rejection was confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court in the case of Lubeck Saar the little reunification Edit Further information Saar Protectorate In the Paris Agreements of 23 October 1954 France offered to establish an independent Saarland under the auspices of the Western European Union WEU but on 23 October 1955 in the Saar Statute referendum the Saar electorate rejected this plan by 67 7 to 32 3 out of a 96 5 turnout 423 434 against 201 975 for despite the public support of Federal German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer for the plan The rejection of the plan by the Saarlanders was interpreted as support for the Saar to join the Federal Republic of Germany 14 On 27 October 1956 the Saar Treaty established that Saarland should be allowed to join Germany as provided by the German constitution Saarland became part of Germany effective 1 January 1957 The Franco Saarlander currency union ended on 6 July 1959 when the Deutsche Mark was introduced as legal tender in the Saarland Constitutional amendments Edit Paragraph 6 of Article 29 stated that if a petition was successful a referendum should be held within three years Since the deadline passed on 5 May 1958 without anything happening the Hesse state government filed a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court in October 1958 The complaint was dismissed in July 1961 on the grounds that Article 29 had made the new delimitation of the federal territory an exclusively federal matter At the same time the Court reaffirmed the requirement for a territorial revision as a binding order to the relevant constitutional bodies The grand coalition decided to settle the 1956 petitions by setting binding deadlines for the required referendums The referendums in Lower Saxony and Rhineland Palatinate were to be held by 31 March 1975 and the referendum in Baden was to be held by 30 June 1970 The threshold for a successful vote was set at one quarter of those entitled to vote in Bundestag elections Paragraph 4 stated that the vote should be disregarded if it contradicted the objectives of paragraph 1 In his investiture address given on 28 October 1969 in Bonn Chancellor Willy Brandt proposed that the government would consider Article 29 of the Basic Law as a binding order An expert commission was established named after its chairman the former Secretary of State Professor Werner Ernst After two years of work the experts delivered their report in 1973 It provided an alternative proposal for the two regions the north and center southwest In the north either a single new state consisting of Schleswig Holstein Hamburg Bremen and Lower Saxony should be created solution A or two new states one in the northeast consisting of Schleswig Holstein Hamburg and the northern part of Lower Saxony from Cuxhaven to Luchow Dannenberg and one in the northwest consisting of Bremen and the rest of Lower Saxony solution B In the center and southwest one alternative was that Rhineland Palatinate with the exception of the Germersheim district but including the Rhine Neckar region should be merged with Hesse and the Saarland solution C the district of Germersheim would then become part of Baden Wurttemberg The other alternative was that the Palatinate including the region of Worms could be merged with the Saarland and Baden Wurttemberg and the rest of Rhineland Palatinate would then merge with Hesse solution D Both alternatives could be combined AC BC AD BD 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 fulfill administrative duties adequately a population of at least five million per state was considered as necessary After a relatively brief discussion and mostly negative responses from the affected states the proposals were shelved Public interest was limited or nonexistent The referendum in Baden was held on 7 June 1970 81 9 of voters decided for Baden to remain part of Baden Wurttemberg only 18 1 opted for the reconstitution of the old state of Baden The referendums in Lower Saxony and Rhineland Palatinate were held on 19 January 1975 the percentages given are the percentages of those eligible who voted in favour reconstitution of the Free State of Oldenburg 31 reconstitution of the Free State of Schaumburg Lippe 39 5 integration of Koblenz and Trier into North Rhine Westphalia 13 reintegration of Rheinhessen into Hesse 7 1 reintegration of Montabaur region into Hesse 14 3 The votes in Lower Saxony were successful as both proposals were supported by more than 25 of eligible voters The Bundestag however decided that both Oldenburg and Schaumburg Lippe should remain part of Lower Saxony The justification was that a reconstitution of the two former states would contradict the objectives of paragraph 1 of article 29 of the constitution An appeal against the decision was rejected as inadmissible by the Federal Constitutional Court On 24 August 1976 the binding provision for a new delimitation of the federal territory was altered into a mere discretionary one Paragraph 1 of Article 29 was rephrased with the provision that any state had to be of a size and capacity to perform its functions effectively put first 15 The option for a referendum in the Federal Republic as a whole paragraph 4 was abolished which meant territorial revision was no longer possible against the will of the population affected by it Reunited Germany 1990 present Edit East Germany had originally consisted of five states i e Brandenburg Mecklenburg Vorpommern Saxony Saxony Anhalt and Thuringia In 1952 these states were abolished and the East was divided into 14 administrative districts called Bezirke Soviet controlled East Berlin despite officially having the same status as West Berlin was declared East Germany s capital and its 15th district 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 states in East Germany legislation reconstituted the East German states in an arrangement similar to that which they had had before 1952 as the five New States on 3 October 1990 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 current 16 states of Germany After reunification 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 West German constitution 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 Protectorate as the 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 Article 29 was again modified and provided an option for the states 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 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 Lander with the participation of their inhabitants who are entitled to vote A state treaty between Berlin and Brandenburg was approved in both parliaments with the necessary two thirds majority but in a popular referendum of 5 May 1996 about 63 voted against the merger The German states can conclude treaties with foreign countries in matters within their own sphere of competence and with the consent of the federal government Article 32 of the Basic Law Typical treaties relate to cultural relationships and economic affairs Some states call themselves a free state Freistaat It is merely a historic synonym for republic and was a description used by most German states after the abolishment of monarchy after World War I 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 Politics EditFurther information Federalism in Germany Germany is a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic The German political system operates under a framework laid out in the 1949 constitutional document known as the Grundgesetz Basic Law By calling the document the Grundgesetz rather than Verfassung constitution the authors expressed the intention that it would be replaced by a true constitution once Germany was reunited as one state Amendments to the Grundgesetz generally require a two thirds majority of both chambers of the parliament the fundamental principles of the constitution as expressed in the articles guaranteeing human dignity the separation of powers the federal structure and the rule of law are valid in perpetuity Despite the original intention the Grundgesetz remained in effect after the German reunification in 1990 with only minor amendments Government Edit Composition of German states governing coalitions The federal constitution stipulates that the structure of each Federated State s government must conform to the principles of republican democratic and social government based on the rule of law Article 28 Most of the states are governed by a cabinet led by a Ministerprasident minister president together with a unicameral legislative body known as the Landtag State Diet The states are parliamentary republics and the relationship between their legislative and executive branches mirrors that of the federal system the legislatures are popularly elected for four or five years depending on the state and the minister president is then chosen by a majority vote among the Landtag s members The minister president is typically the head of the biggest party of a coalition The minister president appoints a cabinet to run the state s agencies and to carry out the executive duties of the state s government Like in other parliamentary systems the legislature can dismiss or replace the minister president after a successful no confidence vote The governments in Berlin Bremen and Hamburg are referred to as senates In the free states of Bavaria and Saxony the government is referred to as state government Staatsregierung and in the other states the government is referred to as Land government Landesregierung Before January 1 2000 Bavaria had a bicameral parliament with a popularly elected Landtag and a Senate made up of representatives of the state s major social and economic groups The Senate was abolished following a referendum in 1998 The states of Berlin Bremen and Hamburg are governed slightly differently from the other states In each of those cities the executive branch consists of a Senate of approximately eight selected by the state s parliament the senators carry out duties equivalent to those of the ministers in the larger states The equivalent of the minister president is the Senatsprasident president of the senate also commonly referred to as Burgermeister Mayor in Bremen the Erster Burgermeister first mayor in Hamburg and the Regierender Burgermeister governing mayor in Berlin The parliament for Berlin is called the Abgeordnetenhaus House of Representatives while Bremen and Hamburg both have a Burgerschaft The parliaments in the remaining 13 states are referred to as Landtag State Parliament Subdivisions Edit Administrative divisions of Germany Clickable image The city states of Berlin and Hamburg are subdivided into Districts The City of Bremen consists of two urban districts Bremen and Bremerhaven which are not contiguous In the other states there are the subdivisions below Area associations Landschaftsverbande Edit The most populous state of North Rhine Westphalia is uniquely divided into two area associations Landschaftsverbande one for the Rhineland and one for Westphalia Lippe This arrangement was meant to ease the friction caused by uniting the two culturally different regions into a single state after World War II The Landschaftsverbande now have very little power The constitution of Mecklenburg Vorpommern at 75 states the right of Mecklenburg and Vorpommern to form Landschaftsverbande although these two constituent parts of the state are not represented in the current administrative division Governmental districts Regierungsbezirke Edit The large states of Baden Wurttemberg Bavaria Hesse and North Rhine Westphalia are divided into governmental districts or Regierungsbezirke In Rhineland Palatinate these districts were abolished on January 1 2000 in Saxony Anhalt on January 1 2004 and in Lower Saxony on January 1 2005 From 1990 until 2012 Saxony was divided into three districts called Direktionsbezirke since 2008 In 2012 these districts authorities were merged into one central authority the Landesdirektion Sachsen de Administrative districts Kreise Edit Main article Districts of Germany See also List of districts of Germany Map of German districts Yellow districts are urban white are sub urban or rural The Districts of Germany Kreise are administrative districts and every state except the city states of Berlin and Hamburg and the state of Bremen consists of rural districts Landkreise District free Towns Cities Kreisfreie Stadte in Baden Wurttemberg also called urban districts or Stadtkreise cities that are districts in their own right or local associations of a special kind Kommunalverbande besonderer Art see below The state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen consists of two urban districts while Berlin and Hamburg are states and urban districts at the same time As of 2011 there are 295 Landkreise and 107 Kreisfreie Stadte making 402 districts altogether Each consists of an elected council and an executive which is chosen either by the council or by the people depending on the state the duties of which are comparable to those of a county executive in the United States supervising local government administration The Landkreise have primary administrative functions in specific areas such as highways hospitals and public utilities Local associations of a special kind are an amalgamation of one or more Landkreise with one or more Kreisfreie Stadte to form a replacement of the aforementioned administrative entities at the district level They are intended to implement simplification of administration at that level Typically a district free city or town and its urban hinterland are grouped into such an association or Kommunalverband besonderer Art Such an organization requires the issuing of special laws by the governing state since they are not covered by the normal administrative structure of the respective states In 2010 only three Kommunalverbande besonderer Art exist District of Hanover formed in 2001 from the rural district of Hanover and the district free city of Hanover Regionalverband district association of Saarbrucken formed in 2008 from the Stadtverband Saarbrucken city association of Saarbrucken which was formed in 1974 City region of Aachen formed in 2009 from the rural district of Aachen and the district free city of Aachen Offices Amter Edit Amter offices or bureaus in some states there is an administrative unit between the districts and the municipalities called Amter singular Amt Amtsgemeinden Gemeindeverwaltungsverbande Landgemeinden Verbandsgemeinden Verwaltungsgemeinschaften or Kirchspiellandgemeinden Municipalities Gemeinden Edit Main article Municipalities of Germany Municipalities Gemeinden every rural district and every Amt is subdivided into municipalities while every urban district is a municipality in its own right There are as of 6 March 2009 update 12 141 municipalities which are the smallest administrative units in Germany Cities and towns are municipalities as well also having city rights or town rights Stadtrechte Nowadays this is mostly just the right to be called a city or town However in former times there were many other privileges including the right to impose local taxes or to allow industry only within city limits The number of inhabitants of German municipalities differs greatly the most populous municipality being Berlin with nearly 3 8 million inhabitants while the least populous municipalities for instance Grode in Nordfriesland have less than 10 inhabitants 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 state The constitution for the municipalities is created by the states and is uniform throughout a state except for Bremen which allows Bremerhaven to have its own constitution The municipalities have two major policy responsibilities First they administer programs authorized by the federal or state government Such programs typically relate to youth schools public health and social assistance Second Article 28 2 of the Basic Law guarantees the municipalities the right to regulate on their own responsibility all the affairs of the local community within the limits set by law Under this broad statement of competence local governments can justify a wide range of activities For instance many municipalities develop and expand the economic infrastructure of their communities through the development of industrial trading estates Local authorities foster cultural activities by supporting local artists building arts centres and by holding fairs Local government also provides public utilities such as gas and electricity as well as public transportation The majority of the funding for municipalities is provided by higher levels of government rather than from taxes raised and collected directly by themselves In five of the German states there are unincorporated areas in many cases unpopulated forest and mountain areas but also four Bavarian lakes that are not part of any municipality As of January 1 2005 there were 246 such areas with a total area of 4167 66 km2 or 1 2 of the total area of Germany Only four unincorporated areas are populated with a total population of around 2 000 The table below provides an overview Unincorporated areas in German states State 1 Jan 2022 1 January 2005 1 January 2000Number Number Area km2 Number Area km2 Bavaria 173 216 2 725 06 262 2 992 78Lower Saxony 25 23 949 16 25 1 394 10Hesse 4 4 327 05 4 327 05Schleswig Holstein 2 2 99 41 2 99 41Baden Wurttemberg 2 1 66 98 2 76 99Total 206 246 4 167 66 295 4 890 33In 2000 the number of unincorporated areas was 295 with a total area of 4 890 33 square kilometres 1 888 17 sq mi However the unincorporated areas are continually being incorporated into neighboring municipalities wholly or partially most frequently in Bavaria See also Edit Germany portal Europe portal European Union portal Geography portalCantons of Switzerland Composition of the German state parliaments Elections in Germany German Bundeslander 2 coins Landespolizei German state police List of administrative divisions by country List of cities and towns in Germany List of German states by area List of German states by exports List of German states by fertility rate List of German states by GRP List of German states by household income List of German states by Human Development Index List of German states by life expectancy List of German states by population List of German states by population density List of German states by unemployment rate List of states in the Holy Roman Empire the German states prior to 1815 States of AustriaNotes EditReferences Edit Christian Tomuschat David P Currie April 2010 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany PDF Deutscher Bundestag Public Relations Division Retrieved 15 October 2010 House of Commons of the United Kingdom 28 February 1991 House of Commons debates Welsh affairs Parliament of the United Kingdom Retrieved 19 April 2011 Leonardy Uwe 1998 Lander Power Sharing in International Relations and European Affairs The institutional structures of German federalism Working papers Friedrich Ebert Stiftung London Office electronic ed Friedrich Ebert Foundation Gunlicks Arthur B German Federalism and Recent Reform Efforts Archived 2011 06 21 at the Wayback Machine German Law Journal Vol 06 No 10 p 1287 Gunlicks p 1288 Gunlicks pp 1287 88 Germany States and Major Cities City Population 3 October 2020 Sub national HDI Subnational HDI Global Data Lab globaldatalab org Bruttoinlandsprodukt je Einwohner nach Bundeslandern 2020 de statista com The states of Baden Wurttemberg Baden and Wurttemberg Hohenzollern were constituent states of the federation when it was formed in 1949 They united to form Baden Wurttemberg in 1952 Berlin has only officially been a Bundesland since reunification even though West Berlin was largely treated as a state of West Germany Though it was originally founded in 1920 after World War I Geoffrey K Roberts Patricia Hogwood 2013 The Politics Today Companion to West European Politics Oxford University Press p 50 ISBN 9781847790323 Piotr Stefan Wandycz 1980 The United States and Poland Harvard University Press p 303 ISBN 9780674926851 Phillip A Buhler 1990 The Oder Neisse Line a reappraisal under internaromtional law East European Monographs p 33 ISBN 9780880331746 Results of the referendum on the Saar Statute 23 October 1955 Saarlandische Volkszeitung Saarbrucken 24 October 1955 p 10 Retrieved 8 November 2011 https www btg bestellservice de pdf 80201000 pdf constitution of the Federal Republic of GermanyExternal links EditCityMayors feature on Germany subdivisions Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title States of Germany amp oldid 1152312114, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, 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