States of Germany
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50 free States of Germany trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Germany is not one block but a federation of states, the Bundesländer, and each has its own capital, parliament, flag and reputation. Some are older than the country itself, some were drawn by occupying armies after 1945, and a few are single cities that count as states in their own right. This quiz covers the whole map in English: telling the states apart by their size, coastlines, neighbours and famous sights, matching capitals to their states, and the rivers, peaks and islands that shape the country. A handful of questions look at how the federal system works and how reunification in 1990 redrew it. It suits geography students and German learners revising the Bundesländer and their capitals, teachers who want a printable round, and travellers who would like to know where they are before the train pulls in. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which animal appears on both the flag and the coat of arms of the German city-state of Berlin?
Bear
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.
Q 02Which state, the largest in Germany by area, is home to the fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein?
Bavaria
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.
Q 03Which state completely surrounds Berlin, though its voters rejected a merger with the capital in a referendum?
Brandenburg
Brandenburg voters feared taking on Berlin's large public debt and losing their identity to the capital, while Berliners narrowly backed the merger.
Q 04Which state, the smallest in Germany, shares its name with the city in the Grimm tale of four animal musicians?
Bremen
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.
Q 05Which German state capital, the headquarters of BMW, hosts the Oktoberfest beer festival every autumn?
Munich
Munich held the first Oktoberfest in 1810 to celebrate a royal wedding, and the festival now draws around seven million visitors a year.
Q 06Which carmaker, based in the factory town of Wolfsburg, gives its home state a fifth of shareholder votes?
Volkswagen
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.
Q 07Which wooded mountain range in Germany's southwest is the home of the cuckoo clock and a famous cherry gateau?
Black Forest
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.
Q 08Which city, the birthplace of Beethoven, served as the capital of West Germany until reunification?
Bonn
Bonn beat Frankfurt to become the provisional capital in 1949, and it still houses the main seats of six federal ministries.
Q 09Which port on the Elbe, a state in its own right, is Germany's second-largest city after Berlin?
Hamburg
Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges, more than in any other city in Europe.
Q 10Which Alpine peak, crossed at its summit by the border with Austria, is the highest mountain in Germany?
Zugspitze
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.
Q 11Which state, created by British occupation authorities in 1946, has more residents than any other in Germany?
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia was born from a British plan code-named Operation Marriage, which joined Westphalia to the northern part of the Rhine Province.
Q 12Which state, the most northerly in Germany, has one coastline on the North Sea and another on the Baltic?
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein sits on the base of the Jutland Peninsula, and its Baltic shore is lined with bays, fjords and cliffs.
Q 13Which state on the French border joined West Germany only in 1957, after voters rejected a separate European status?
Saarland
Q 21Which state, the second-largest by area, shares borders with nine other German states, more than any other?
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony also touches the Netherlands and the North Sea, and on land it surrounds both halves of the country's smallest state.
Q 22Which southwestern state was formed in 1952 when voters agreed to merge three smaller post-war states?
Baden-Württemberg
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.
Q 23Erfurt is the capital of which densely wooded state, known as the green heart of Germany?
Thuringia
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.
Q 14Which state contains Frankfurt, Germany's financial centre, yet has the smaller spa city of Wiesbaden as its capital?
Hesse
Hesse took its modern shape only in 1945, when American occupation forces drew its borders under the name Greater Hesse.
Q 15Which state capital, known as the cradle of the automobile, takes its name from a tenth-century stud farm?
Stuttgart
Stuttgart began around 950 as the place where Duke Liudolf of Swabia bred warhorses for his cavalry during the Hungarian invasions.
Q 16Which German state capital rebuilt its bombed Frauenkirche after leaving the ruins as a war memorial for 50 years?
Dresden
Dresden finished the rebuilt Frauenkirche in 2005 with the help of privately raised funds, a year before the city's 800th anniversary.
Q 17Which German city on the Rhine is known for fashion, a top-fermented beer called Altbier and a large Japanese community?
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf's Old Town packs in more than 250 pubs and bars, many of them pouring Altbier in small quarter-litre glasses.
Q 18Which city, whose twin-spired cathedral took 632 years to complete, is the largest in its state but not the capital?
Cologne
Cologne began its cathedral in 1248 and finished it in 1880, when the 157-metre spires made it the tallest building in the world.
Q 19Which country is Germany's only neighbour to the north, sharing a land border just 68 kilometres long?
Denmark
Denmark's frontier with Germany dates from 1920, when a referendum moved the line about 50 kilometres south to where it runs today.
Q 20Schwerin is the capital of which state on the Baltic coast, the most thinly populated in Germany?
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is nicknamed the land of a thousand lakes, and its biggest city is the port of Rostock rather than its capital.
Thuringia is crossed by the Rennsteig, Germany's best-known hiking trail, and counts the bratwurst among its popular symbols.
Q 24Which state on the borders with France, Luxembourg and Belgium is Germany's leading producer of wine?
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate was pieced together by French occupation authorities in 1946 from parts of three older German states.
Q 25Magdeburg is the capital of which state, home to Martin Luther's Wittenberg and the Bauhaus buildings of Dessau?
Saxony-Anhalt
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.
Q 26Which eastern German state is home to Meissen, where Europe's first hard-paste porcelain was produced?
Saxony
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.
Q 27Which state capital was the birthplace of Johannes Gutenberg, who introduced printing with movable type to Europe?
Mainz
Mainz was founded as a Roman fortress in the first century BC and went on to become the capital of a Roman province.
Q 28Which state capital on Berlin's doorstep is home to Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great?
Potsdam
Potsdam's Cecilienhof Palace hosted the 1945 conference at which the Soviet, American and British leaders settled how defeated Germany would be governed.
Q 29Which state capital gave Britain a royal dynasty when its ruler took the British throne as George I?
Hanover
Hanover shared its king with Britain until 1837, when a law favouring male heirs barred Queen Victoria from ruling there.
Q 30Which German port on the Baltic hosts the world's biggest sailing event and twice staged Olympic sailing races?
Kiel
Kiel also stands at one end of the world's busiest artificial waterway, the canal that links the Baltic to the North Sea.