German states: map

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg lies in Germany's south-west, bordering France and Switzerland. Between the Rhine and the Danube lie the Black Forest, the Swabian Jura and Lake Constance.

💡 Did you know? The Danube rises here and near Immendingen it periodically vanishes underground entirely, resurfacing 12 kilometres away in a spring that drains into the Rhine.

Bavaria

Bavaria is Germany's largest state by area and borders Austria and the Czech Republic. The Alps rise in the south, including the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak at 2,962 m.

💡 Did you know? Bavaria officially calls itself a »Freistaat«: historically just another word for republic, dating from the upheaval of 1918.

Berlin

Berlin is a city-state entirely surrounded by Brandenburg: an island within its larger neighbour, on the rivers Spree and Havel.

💡 Did you know? A third of the city's area is forest, parks, lakes and rivers: Berlin is greener than its reputation suggests.

Brandenburg

Brandenburg completely surrounds Berlin and is full of water: the Spreewald with its network of channels and the Mecklenburg Lake District shape the landscape.

💡 Did you know? Brandenburg has more inland water than any other German state: over 3,000 lakes, plus a dense web of canals and river arms.

Bremen

The state of Bremen is Germany's smallest and consists of two separate cities: Bremen on the Weser and Bremerhaven some 60 kilometres downstream on the North Sea.

💡 Did you know? Lower Saxon territory lies between the two parts: making Bremen the only German state split into two separate pieces.

Hamburg

Hamburg is both a city and a federal state, on the Elbe about 100 kilometres upstream from the North Sea: close enough for tides to reach the port.

💡 Did you know? The North Sea island of Neuwerk, 100 kilometres away off Cuxhaven, belongs to Hamburg: at low tide you can walk there across the mudflats.

Hesse

Hesse lies at the centre of Germany and borders five other states. The Rhine-Main region in its south carries one of Europe's busiest transport corridors.

💡 Did you know? Frankfurt Airport is Germany's largest and with some 80,000 staff, the country's biggest single workplace.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern lies on the Baltic in Germany's north-east and is the country's most sparsely populated state: home to the Mecklenburg Lake District and the islands of Rügen and Usedom.

💡 Did you know? Rügen is Germany's largest island; its chalk cliffs at the Königsstuhl inspired one of Caspar David Friedrich's most famous paintings.

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is Germany's second-largest state by area, stretching from the North Sea and the East Frisian Islands to the Harz mountains, and it encloses the state of Bremen.

💡 Did you know? The Brocken itself belongs to Saxony-Anhalt, but Lower Saxony holds the larger share of the Harz and its Lüneburg Heath turns purple every August.

North Rhine-Westphalia

With around 18 million people, North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's most populous state; in the Ruhr area the cities run into one another almost seamlessly.

💡 Did you know? When Cologne Cathedral was completed in 1880 it was the tallest building in the world for four years: construction had taken over 600 years.

Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate lies in the west, bordering France, Luxembourg and Belgium, and is crossed by the Rhine and Moselle, with the Eifel, Hunsrück and Palatinate Forest.

💡 Did you know? About two-thirds of German wine grows here; the Upper Middle Rhine Valley between Bingen and Koblenz is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Saarland

Saarland is Germany's smallest state by area apart from the city-states, on the border with France and Luxembourg; the river Saar makes a famous loop at Mettlach.

💡 Did you know? After the Second World War Saarland was for a time not part of West Germany: it only joined in 1957, after voters rejected a European statute in 1955.

Saxony

Saxony lies in the east, bordering Poland and the Czech Republic; the Elbe runs through it, with the Ore Mountains and Saxon Switzerland to the south.

💡 Did you know? Europe's first porcelain manufactory opened in Meissen in 1710: until then, making »white gold« had been a Chinese secret.

Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt sits in the middle of eastern Germany on the Elbe and Saale; the Harz range with the Brocken (1,141 m) rises in the west.

💡 Did you know? No German state has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites for its size: Quedlinburg, Dessau-Wörlitz, the Bauhaus, the Luther sites and Naumburg Cathedral are all here.

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is Germany's northernmost state, the only one bordering Denmark, and lies between two seas: the North Sea to the west, the Baltic to the east.

💡 Did you know? The Kiel Canal links both seas and is the world's busiest artificial waterway.

Thuringia

Thuringia lies at the centre of Germany and is nicknamed the country's »green heart« for its forests; the Rennsteig ridge trail runs across the Thuringian Forest.

💡 Did you know? At Wartburg Castle near Eisenach, Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in just eleven weeks in 1521/22.