50 Fun Facts About States of Germany

Which animal appears on both the flag and the coat of arms of the German city-state of Berlin?

Bear images marked Berlin's seals and coins for centuries before the animal joined the coat of arms in 1709, probably as a pun on the city's name.

Which state, the largest in Germany by area, is home to the fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein?

Bavaria's Neuschwanstein inspired Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, though King Ludwig II built it as a private retreat and it opened to visitors only after his death.

Which state completely surrounds Berlin, though its voters rejected a merger with the capital in a referendum?

Brandenburg voters feared taking on Berlin's large public debt and losing their identity to the capital, while Berliners narrowly backed the merger.

Which state, the smallest in Germany, shares its name with the city in the Grimm tale of four animal musicians?

Bremen is really two cities: the state also takes in the seaport of Bremerhaven, an exclave further down the River Weser that is cut off by another state's land.

Which German state capital, the headquarters of BMW, hosts the Oktoberfest beer festival every autumn?

Munich held the first Oktoberfest in 1810 to celebrate a royal wedding, and the festival now draws around seven million visitors a year.

Which carmaker, based in the factory town of Wolfsburg, gives its home state a fifth of shareholder votes?

Volkswagen's home state holds 20 per cent of the voting rights by law, enough to veto major decisions and block a takeover of the company.

Which wooded mountain range in Germany's southwest is the home of the cuckoo clock and a famous cherry gateau?

Black Forest farmers carved wooden cuckoo clocks in winter to add to their income, and the range's highest peak, the Feldberg, rises to 1,493 metres.

Which city, the birthplace of Beethoven, served as the capital of West Germany until reunification?

Bonn beat Frankfurt to become the provisional capital in 1949, and it still houses the main seats of six federal ministries.

Which port on the Elbe, a state in its own right, is Germany's second-largest city after Berlin?

Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges, more than in any other city in Europe.

Which Alpine peak, crossed at its summit by the border with Austria, is the highest mountain in Germany?

The Zugspitze stands 2,962 metres high, yet three cable cars run to the top and a rack railway climbs inside the mountain's northern flank.

Which state, created by British occupation authorities in 1946, has more residents than any other in Germany?

North Rhine-Westphalia was born from a British plan code-named Operation Marriage, which joined Westphalia to the northern part of the Rhine Province.

Which state, the most northerly in Germany, has one coastline on the North Sea and another on the Baltic?

Schleswig-Holstein sits on the base of the Jutland Peninsula, and its Baltic shore is lined with bays, fjords and cliffs.

Which state on the French border joined West Germany only in 1957, after voters rejected a separate European status?

Saarland voters turned the plan down by more than two to one, after a post-war decade as a protectorate tied to the French economy.

Which state contains Frankfurt, Germany's financial centre, yet has the smaller spa city of Wiesbaden as its capital?

Hesse took its modern shape only in 1945, when American occupation forces drew its borders under the name Greater Hesse.

Which state capital, known as the cradle of the automobile, takes its name from a tenth-century stud farm?

Stuttgart began around 950 as the place where Duke Liudolf of Swabia bred warhorses for his cavalry during the Hungarian invasions.

Which German state capital rebuilt its bombed Frauenkirche after leaving the ruins as a war memorial for 50 years?

Dresden finished the rebuilt Frauenkirche in 2005 with the help of privately raised funds, a year before the city's 800th anniversary.

Which German city on the Rhine is known for fashion, a top-fermented beer called Altbier and a large Japanese community?

Düsseldorf's Old Town packs in more than 250 pubs and bars, many of them pouring Altbier in small quarter-litre glasses.

Which city, whose twin-spired cathedral took 632 years to complete, is the largest in its state but not the capital?

Cologne began its cathedral in 1248 and finished it in 1880, when the 157-metre spires made it the tallest building in the world.

Which country is Germany's only neighbour to the north, sharing a land border just 68 kilometres long?

Denmark's frontier with Germany dates from 1920, when a referendum moved the line about 50 kilometres south to where it runs today.

Schwerin is the capital of which state on the Baltic coast, the most thinly populated in Germany?

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is nicknamed the land of a thousand lakes, and its biggest city is the port of Rostock rather than its capital.

Which state, the second-largest by area, shares borders with nine other German states, more than any other?

Lower Saxony also touches the Netherlands and the North Sea, and on land it surrounds both halves of the country's smallest state.

Which southwestern state was formed in 1952 when voters agreed to merge three smaller post-war states?

Baden-Württemberg's merger was contested for years: the people of Baden won a second referendum in 1970, and 81.9 per cent of them voted to stay.

Erfurt is the capital of which densely wooded state, known as the green heart of Germany?

Thuringia is crossed by the Rennsteig, Germany's best-known hiking trail, and counts the bratwurst among its popular symbols.

Which state on the borders with France, Luxembourg and Belgium is Germany's leading producer of wine?

Rhineland-Palatinate was pieced together by French occupation authorities in 1946 from parts of three older German states.

Magdeburg is the capital of which state, home to Martin Luther's Wittenberg and the Bauhaus buildings of Dessau?

Saxony-Anhalt was dissolved by East Germany in 1952, when its land was split into two districts, and it was re-established only at reunification in 1990.

Which eastern German state is home to Meissen, where Europe's first hard-paste porcelain was produced?

Saxony's Meissen factory marks its wares with crossed swords taken from the Saxon elector's coat of arms, reportedly one of the oldest trademarks still in existence.

Which state capital was the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, who introduced printing with movable type to Europe?

Mainz was founded as a Roman fortress in the first century BC and went on to become the capital of a Roman province.

Which state capital on Berlin's doorstep is home to Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great?

Potsdam's Cecilienhof Palace hosted the 1945 conference at which the Soviet, American and British leaders settled how defeated Germany would be governed.

Which state capital gave Britain a royal dynasty when its ruler took the British throne as George I?

Hanover shared its king with Britain until 1837, when a law favouring male heirs barred Queen Victoria from ruling there.

Which German port on the Baltic hosts the world's biggest sailing event and twice staged Olympic sailing races?

Kiel also stands at one end of the world's busiest artificial waterway, the canal that links the Baltic to the North Sea.

On which Alpine body of water, shared by Germany and two neighbours, did the first Zeppelin airship fly in 1900?

Most of Lake Constance has no agreed borders, because the three countries around it each take a different view of where their waters end.

Which Baltic island, whose chalk cliffs inspired the painter Caspar David Friedrich, is the largest in Germany?

Rügen's Jasmund National Park, with its beech woods and the 118-metre King's Chair cliff, became a World Heritage Site in 2011.

Which mountain, the highest in northern Germany, is where Goethe's Faust sets its wild night of witches' revelry?

The Brocken is shrouded in mist and fog for up to 300 days a year, and a narrow-gauge steam railway carries visitors almost to its summit.

Which North Sea island group did Britain hand to Germany in 1890, in a treaty that also dealt with Zanzibar?

Heligoland still sits outside the EU's customs union and VAT area, which has turned the tiny holiday island into a tax-exempt shopping stop.

How many states make up the Federal Republic of Germany, a total reached when the east joined in 1990?

16 states make up Germany today: the ten of the old West, five re-created in the east in 1990, and a reunited Berlin.

Which former state, once covering about three-fifths of Germany, was abolished by the Allies in 1947?

Prussia was blamed by the Allies for German militarism, and its land was shared out so widely that all but one of today's states hold a piece of it.

The title Free State, used by three German states, was adopted after 1918 to show that a state no longer had what?

A monarch is what the title rules out: Free State is an older German term for a republic, and today it carries no special legal weight.

Which Baltic port, long the leading city of the Hanseatic League, lost its status as a self-governing state in 1937?

Lübeck was made a free imperial city in 1226, and today the city is best known for its marzipan.

Which coal and steel region around Dortmund and Essen, named after a river, is the largest urban area in Germany?

The Ruhr holds more than five million people in a chain of cities that runs from Duisburg in the west to Hamm in the east.

Which lake in Germany's northeast, second in size overall, is the largest one lying entirely inside the country?

Müritz covers 117 square kilometres and ranks behind only the far bigger Alpine lake that Germany shares with its neighbours.

Which German federal chamber is filled by delegates of the state governments rather than by elected members?

Bundesrat delegations are appointed by each state government, and together they can block any federal law that needs the chamber's consent.

What title is held by the head of government in most German states, though Berlin and other city-states use mayors?

Minister-President is the standard title, but the German capital, both a city and a state, is led by a Governing Mayor.

Which city, a former grand-ducal capital near the French border, is home to Germany's Federal Constitutional Court?

Karlsruhe was planned with 32 streets radiating from its palace tower like the ribs of a folding fan, which earned it the nickname of the fan city.

Which Slavic minority of the Lusatia region in eastern Germany has two officially recognised languages of its own?

Sorbs still keep customs such as Easter rides on horseback, a festival called the Bird Wedding and the traditional painting of Easter eggs.

Which city, where the Monday demonstrations of 1989 shook East Germany, hosts the world's oldest surviving trade fair?

Leipzig's trade fair grew out of medieval markets, and the city has grown to be bigger than its own state capital.

Which Franconian city, famous for its Christmas market and gingerbread, hosted the post-war trials of leading Nazis?

Nuremberg is only the second-largest city in its state, yet its Christmas market draws well over a million shoppers each year.

Which two colours make up the diamond-patterned flag of the German state that hosts the Oktoberfest beer festival?

White and blue were the colours of the Wittelsbach family, who ruled the state from 1180 to 1918, and the state anthem calls them the colours of heaven.

Which country's name was given to a sandstone region on the Elbe by two homesick painters working in eastern Germany?

Switzerland lent its name in the 1700s, after the Swiss artists Adrian Zingg and Anton Graff said the rocky landscape reminded them of the Jura hills back home.

Which national holiday does Germany celebrate each year on 3 October?

German Unity Day marks 3 October 1990, when five eastern states joined the Federal Republic; 9 November, when the Berlin Wall fell, was passed over as the anniversary of the Nazi pogroms of 1938.

What is the elected parliament of most German states called, a name also used for the state assemblies of Austria?

Landtag chambers now sit alone, because voters in the last German state to keep a second chamber, a Senate, scrapped it in a 1998 referendum.