The Länder and the geography of Germany

Germany has 16 federal states. Three of them are city-states: Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen.

• The Länder and their capitals: Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart), Bayern (München), Berlin, Brandenburg (Potsdam), Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen (Wiesbaden), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Schwerin), Niedersachsen (Hannover), Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf), Rheinland-Pfalz (Mainz), Saarland (Saarbrücken), Sachsen (Dresden), Sachsen-Anhalt (Magdeburg), Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel) and Thüringen (Erfurt).
• Bayern is the largest Land by area, Nordrhein-Westfalen has the most inhabitants, and Bremen is the smallest. Berlin is both a Land and the capital of Germany.
• Each Land has its own constitution, its own parliament (Landtag) and its own government; the head of the government is the Ministerpräsident (in the city-states: the Regierender Bürgermeister of Berlin, the Erster Bürgermeister of Hamburg and the Bürgermeister of Bremen).
• The Länder are responsible for education, the police, culture and a part of the administration. The Landtag is elected by the people of the Land, usually every five years.
• Germany has about 84 million inhabitants, and it is the most populous country of the European Union.

Exam tip: City-states: Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen. Learn all 16 capitals; the Land questions often ask for one.

In the Einbürgerungstest, 3 of the 33 questions are about the Land in which you take the test. The 10 official questions of each Land are in our learning mode.

• Pick your Bundesland in the learning mode, and you see the 300 general questions and the 10 questions of your Land with the answers.
• The Land questions ask for the basics: the Landtag and who elects it, the Land government and the Ministerpräsident, the Land capital, the Land coat of arms (Wappen), the neighbours of the Land and its history and its famous places.
• You take the Land questions for the Land where you live, that is the Land of your office that is responsible for the naturalisation (the Einbürgerungsbehörde).
• Read about your Land in the German culture guide and on the website of the Land, then learn its ten questions twice: they are the easiest points of the test.

Germany is in the centre of Europe, and it has the most neighbours of all the countries of the European Union.

• Its nine neighbours are Denmark in the north, Poland and Czechia in the east, Austria and Switzerland in the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands in the west.
• In the north there are the North Sea (Nordsee) and the Baltic Sea (Ostsee); in the south there are the Alps, and the highest mountain is the Zugspitze (2,962 m) in Bayern.
• The main rivers are the Rhine (Rhein), the Elbe, the Danube (Donau), the Weser and the Main. The biggest lake is Lake Constance (Bodensee), on the border with Austria and Switzerland.
• The biggest cities are Berlin, Hamburg, München and Köln. The Ruhr area in Nordrhein-Westfalen is a big industrial region, and Frankfurt is the financial centre.

The symbols of the Federal Republic are set in the Basic Law and in other laws.

• The federal flag is black, red and gold (Schwarz-Rot-Gold), in three horizontal stripes (Article 22 of the Basic Law). These colours are tied to the democratic movement of the 19th century.
• The federal coat of arms shows a black eagle (Bundesadler) on a golden background. The same eagle is in the Bundestag.
• The national anthem is the third verse of the “Lied der Deutschen”: “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” (unity and justice and freedom).
• The capital is Berlin; the national holiday is the Day of German Unity on 3 October; the currency is the euro; the national football team and the Bundesliga are well known.