German lands

German constitutional law emphasizes that lands are not administrative units of the Federal Republic of Germany - derived from the federation - but, on the contrary, the Federal Republic of Germany is a union of lands. Lands are considered to be subjects of constitutional law, and also have limited international legal personality . The lands bear "state responsibility".

In the official name of the land the word Land is not always present. So, only eleven of the 16 lands officially have this designation in their name. Three lands are officially called " free states " ( Bavaria , Saxony and Thuringia ) and two more ( Hamburg and Bremen ) are called " free cities ", but this does not provide them with special rights compared to other lands and such designations are historical in nature. The cities of Berlin and Hamburg combine the functions of cities and independent lands. The “Free City of Bremen” land includes, in addition to the city of Bremen itself , also the city of Bremerhaven , 60 km away from it.

Ten of the western lands that made up Germany before unification with the GDR are today unofficially referred to as " old lands ." The five eastern lands that once constituted the territory of the GDR are today unofficially called " new ." Berlin, due to its former special status, does not belong to either the "old" or the "new" lands, occupying an intermediate position.

Forerunners of Modern Lands

Historically, in Germany until the middle of the XIX century there were many separate sovereign states, and over the centuries the political map of Germany changed significantly. After the creation of a single empire in 1871, Germany included 25 states (four kingdoms, six great duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, one “imperial land” and three republic cities). In this case, the largest land of the empire was the Kingdom of Prussia , which occupied more than half of its area.

After the fall of the monarchies during the Weimar Republic , “ free states ” were formed on the territories of the former kingdoms, duchies and principalities. In the next few years, the number of lands in the Weimar Republic decreased - some of them were abolished and became part of larger entities; others came together to form new lands. By May 1, 1920, seven Thuringian states united in a single land Thuringia . The Waldeck Free State in 1929 became part of the Free State of Prussia .

During the Third Reich, Germany actually turned into a unitary state , but the land formally continued to exist. In 1934, under pressure from the Nazis, the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz merged into the , and the Free and Hanseatic city of Lübeck in 1937 was integrated into the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein and lost its former independence.

Post-war land formation

After World War II in 1945, Germany was occupied by four powers (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , the United Kingdom , the United States of America and the French Republic ) and was under the control of the military administrations of these allied states. Part of its territories was torn away and transferred to the USSR and Poland, and the remaining territories were divided into four zones of occupation .

Already on September 19, 1945, three states were proclaimed in the American zone of occupation :

• Greater Hesse (since 1946 - the land of Hesse): the bulk of the former and the bulk of the former Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau ;
• Württemberg-Baden : the northern part of the former and the northern part of the former Republic of Baden ;
• Bavaria : most of the Free State of Bavaria ^[3] .

Bremen also retained its land status, which was confirmed by a decree of 1947, which included in the land of Bremen also a small territory of Lower Saxony ^[4] .

By decree of August 23, 1946, the Free State of Prussia was abolished in the British zone of occupation , and three lands were proclaimed in its former provinces:

• Schleswig-Holstein (former Schleswig-Holstein province );
• Hanover (former Hanover );
• North Rhine-Westphalia (the former province of Westphalia , as well as the counties of Aachen, Düsseldorf and Cologne of the former Rhine province ) ^[5] .

Later, the state of Hanover, together with the territories of the former Free State of Oldenburg, the Free State of Braunschweig and the Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe, were merged into the state of Lower Saxony . Hamburg maintained its status of a free city and independent land. Lippe land (the territory of the former Free State of Lippe ) initially remained independent, but in 1947 was transferred to the North Rhine-Westphalia ^[4] .

In the French zone of occupation in 1945, three lands were created:

• South Baden (since 1947 - the land of Baden): the southern part of the former Republic of Baden ;
• Württemberg-Hohenzollern : the southern part of the former People's State of Württemberg and the former Prussian province of Hohenzollern ;
• Rhineland-Palatinate : the southern districts of Koblenz and Trier of the Prussian Rhine province, the western part of the province of Hesse-Nassau, the southwestern part of the state of Hesse - Rheinhessen and the Bavarian Palatinate .

Five lands were formed in the Soviet zone of occupation :

• Brandenburg : part of the Prussian province of Brandenburg remaining after the rejection of part of the territory in favor of Poland;
• Mecklenburg : the former land of Mecklenburg with the remaining parts of the Prussian province of Pomerania ;
• Saxony-Anhalt : Anhalt Free State, most of the Prussian province of Saxony and small Braunschweig and Thuringian exclaves ;
• Saxony : Free State of Saxony along with the remnants of Prussian Lower Silesia ;
• Thuringia : the former state of Thuringia together with the Erfurt district of Prussian Saxony.

Berlin had a special four-sided status and was ruled by all four powers. Saar , which was part of the French zone, was removed from the control of the Control Council in 1947 and received its own constitution as a French protectorate .

Thus, in the post-war formation of lands, the traditional community of fraternities and historically formed borders were not always taken into account, and the borders of lands were often determined by the borders of the zones of occupation. In 1949, lands formed in the American, British and French zones of occupation formed the Federal Republic of Germany . The German Democratic Republic was proclaimed on the lands in the Soviet occupation zone in 1949, but already in 1952 the lands in the German Democratic Republic were abolished in favor of the districts within the unitary state .

Subsequent Development

In 1952, the lands of Württemberg-Baden , Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern were united into a single land Baden-Württemberg . In 1956 , as a result of a referendum and the signing of the Luxembourg Treaty with France, the Saar Oblast under the French protectorate in the form of the tenth Saarland was included in the FRG. Officially, Saar became part of the Federal Republic of Germany on January 1, 1957 ^[6] .

In August 1990, between Germany and the GDR, an agreement was signed on the reunification of Germany , providing for the liquidation of the GDR and its territory becoming part of the FRG in the form of five recreated lands (within a few changed borders), as well as the reunification of East Berlin and West within the framework of one federal state of Berlin and transfer to it the capital of Germany.

January 11, 1991 West and East Berlin were merged.

Land Boundary Change Gallery

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  Land in the four zones of occupation of Germany as of April 1949

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  Lands of the Soviet zone of occupation at the time of the proclamation of the GDR in October 1949

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  The lands of the western zones of occupation at the time of the declaration of the Federal Republic of Germany in October 1949

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  Land of Germany in April 1952 after the creation of the land of Baden-Württemberg

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  Germany lands in January 1957 after the entry of Saarland

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  Germany lands in October 1990 after reunification with the GDR

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  Current status after numerous redistributions of small territories after 1990

• Werner Künzel / Werner Rellecke: Geschichte der deutschen Länder ; Münster 2005, ISBN 3-402-03416-6
• Hans Geog Wehling: Die deutschen Länder. Geschichte, Politik, Wirtschaft; 2004, ISBN 3-531-43229-X
• Sven Leunig: Die Regierungssysteme der deutschen Länder, 2007, 3825228444

• CityMayors feature on Germany subdivisions