Germany's 16 federal states and their capitals

Germany is made up of 16 federal states (Bundesländer, often just called Länder). Each one has its own capital, its own parliament and its own government. Three of them – Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen – are city states, where the city and the state are one and the same. The table below lists all 16 with their capital, parliament and head of government, followed by the classic traps in the citizenship test and some memory aids for the capitals.

All 16 German states and their capitals

Federal state	State capital	State parliament	Head of government
Baden-Württemberg	Stuttgart	Landtag of Baden-Württemberg	Minister-President
Bavaria	Munich	Bavarian Landtag	Minister-President
Berlin	Berlin	Berlin House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus)	Governing Mayor (Regierender Bürgermeister)
Brandenburg	Potsdam	Landtag of Brandenburg	Minister-President
Bremen	Bremen	Bremen Parliament (Bürgerschaft)	President of the Senate and Mayor
Hamburg	Hamburg	Hamburg Parliament (Bürgerschaft)	First Mayor (Erster Bürgermeister)
Hesse	Wiesbaden	Hessian Landtag	Minister-President
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	Schwerin	Landtag of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	Minister-President
Lower Saxony	Hanover	Lower Saxony Landtag	Minister-President
North Rhine-Westphalia	Düsseldorf	Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia	Minister-President
Rhineland-Palatinate	Mainz	Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate	Minister-President
Saarland	Saarbrücken	Landtag of Saarland	Minister-President
Saxony	Dresden	Saxon Landtag	Minister-President
Saxony-Anhalt	Magdeburg	Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt	Minister-President
Schleswig-Holstein	Kiel	Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein	Minister-President
Thuringia	Erfurt	Thuringian Landtag	Minister-President

Click on a state to see its 10 state questions with the correct answers.

Federalism: why Germany is built from states

Germany is a federation (Bundesstaat): power is shared between the federal level (Bund), the 16 states and the municipalities. Every state has its own constitution, parliament and government (question 39). The states are in charge of schools, most of the police and cultural affairs, while foreign policy and defence belong to the federal level – which is why no state has a foreign minister. Through the Bundesrat (federal council), the state governments take part in federal lawmaking. The division into states is so fundamental that the Basic Law protects it even against constitutional amendments (Article 79(3)). For how the Bundestag, the Bundesrat and the federal government work together, see Germany's political system explained.

The three city states: Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen

In a city state, a city is also a federal state in its own right. Instead of a Landtag and a state government, it has a city parliament and a Senate (Senat), and its ministers are called senators (Senatorinnen and Senatoren).

• Berlin is both the federal capital and a state. Its parliament is the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives), and the Senate is led by the Governing Mayor (Regierende Bürgermeisterin or Regierender Bürgermeister). The city is divided into twelve districts (Bezirke).
• Hamburg is officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Its parliament is the Bürgerschaft and its head of government is the First Mayor (Erste Bürgermeisterin or Erster Bürgermeister).
• Bremen is officially the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and consists of two cities: Bremen and Bremerhaven, about 60 kilometres apart and both surrounded by Lower Saxony. Its head of government is the President of the Senate.

In these three states, the test does not ask for the capital. Instead, it asks what a city state is (Bremen, question 7). In Bremen's question the wrong options are Munich, Frankfurt and Erfurt – big cities, but not states of their own. In Berlin and Hamburg the wrong options are territorial states such as Hesse, Bavaria or Saxony. You will find all the questions on the state pages for Berlin and Bremen.

The Free States: Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia

Freistaat is an old German word for a republic – a state without a king. When the monarchy ended in 1918, many German states took the name; today only Bavaria (Bayern), Saxony (Sachsen) and Thuringia (Thüringen) still use it. It brings no special powers: a Free State is a federal state like any other. In Bavaria and Saxony the government is called the State Government (Staatsregierung), but it is still led by a Minister-President, as in every state except the city states. You will meet the word in test questions such as “Which coat of arms belongs to the Free State of Bayern?” from the Bavaria state questions.

The five “new” states since 1990

The “new federal states” are the five states on the territory of the former GDR (East Germany): Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia (question 201). The GDR had abolished its states in 1952 and replaced them with districts (Bezirke). In 1990 the states were re-established and joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990. Germany has had 16 states ever since.

Watch out for Berlin: East Berlin was the capital of the GDR, but reunified Berlin does not count as one of the five new states. So when the test asks how many states joined in 1990, the answer is 5. For more on this period, see the citizenship test questions on the GDR, the Wall and reunification.

Classic traps: the capital is not always the biggest city

In Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony, the state capital is not the largest city. The test uses exactly these well-known cities as wrong answers (Hesse, question 7). The main traps from the state questions (German names as they appear in the test):

Brandenburg is the sneakiest: the town of Brandenburg an der Havel is one of the options, but the capital is Potsdam. And Frankfurt (Oder) in Brandenburg is not Frankfurt am Main in Hesse. Bonn is another trap: it was West Germany's capital until 1990, but the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia is Düsseldorf. You can see every answer option on the Hesse state questions page.

Memory aids for the 16 capitals

For the test you don't need all 16 capitals: the state questions only come from the state you live in. If you want to learn them anyway – for everyday life or travel – these tricks help:

• City states are their own capitals: Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen.
• Learn them by region: north – Kiel, Schwerin, Hanover, Hamburg, Bremen. East – Berlin, Potsdam, Magdeburg, Dresden, Erfurt. West – Düsseldorf, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Saarbrücken. South – Stuttgart, Munich.
• Mainz and Wiesbaden face each other across the Rhine: Mainz on the left bank (Rhineland-Palatinate), Wiesbaden on the right (Hesse).
• Potsdam sits right on Berlin's border – just as the state of Brandenburg surrounds Berlin completely.
• The name helps: Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, carries the river Saar in its name.
• Don't pick the famous city: Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig and Rostock are major cities, but none of them is a state capital.

The 10 state questions: what comes up in your test

The citizenship test has 33 questions: 30 general ones and 3 about your federal state, drawn from a pool of 10 per state. What counts is where your main residence is – not where you sit the test. In all 16 states, the 10 questions follow the same pattern:

1. Recognise the state coat of arms (picture question)
2. A district (Landkreis or Bezirk) of the state (in Bremen: a neighbourhood, Stadtteil)
3. How many years the state parliament is elected for
4. The minimum voting age in local elections (in Bremen: in the state election)
5. The colours of the state flag
6. Where to get information on politics: the State Agency for Civic Education (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung; in Schleswig-Holstein, the State Commissioner)
7. The state capital (in the city states: what is a city state?)
8. Find the state on a map (picture question)
9. What the head of government is called
10. Which ministry the state does not have – always foreign affairs (in the city states it is asked as a senator for external relations)

Two numbers are worth knowing by heart. State parliaments are elected for 5 years, except in Bremen, where it is 4 years (Bremen, question 3); the Bundestag, by contrast, is elected for 4 years. In local elections you can vote from 16 in most states, but only from 18 in Bavaria, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Saxony. The coat-of-arms and map questions are collected in all picture questions with answers. In the app, choose your state and you will automatically practise the right 10 questions. The official catalogue for each state is also available in the BAMF Online-Testcenter (in German).