States of Germany - History

History

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de facto abolished under the Nazi regime via the Gleichschaltung process, as the states administratively were largely superseded by the Nazi Gau system.

During the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, borders were redrawn by the Allied military governments. No single state comprised more than 30% of either population or territory; this was done to prevent any one state from being as dominant within Germany as Prussia had been in the past. Initially, only seven of the pre-War states remained: Baden (in part), Bavaria (reduced in size), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (enlarged), Saxony, and Thuringia. The “hyphenated” Länder, such as Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt, owed their existence to the occupation powers and were created out of Prussian provinces and smaller states.

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

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

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

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

The Länder 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).

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