Certified German translators
Rush Jobs Accepted
Office in New York
Member of the American
Translators Association
German StatesToday’s Germany is a Federal Republic comprising sixteen German states of varying sizes. German citizens have the right of abode within the states, and are therefore able to live, work, travel between the states, and even leave and re-enter the country if they so choose. The state governments form part of the larger government of the nation. Berlin and Hamburg are considered to be states themselves. The State of Bremen comprises just two cities, Bremen and Bremerhaven. These three states are known as Stadtstaaten, or city states. The remaining thirteen are called Flächenländer, or “area states.” The German states are also known colloquially as Länder, or “countries,” but this is not an official term used in conjunction with the law. The German states emerged as a result of the Second World War, out of the ashes of the Third Reich. Many of the states cover the same area and have the same title as the old Germanic nation-states that dotted the map of Europe before the Unification of Germany in 1871. These states were organized by the Allied powers out of the Zones of Occupation in the aftermath of World War II so that no one state could ever dominate Germany as entirely as Prussia had during imperial times. Some German states were left as they were before this reorganization, while others are amalgams of previously extant states. When the new nation of West Germany was founded in 1949, it had eleven member states. However, this number was later cut back to nine in 1952, when three southwestern states merged into one large state. In 1957, the French returned a German province that they had been granted by the war reparations, which served as a mini-reunification. When East Germany was founded, there were originally five states, but the Soviets decided to divide the new country into fourteen districts instead. East Berlin, which functioned similarly to West Berlin in terms of city-state status, and became the fifteenth district of East Germany. Before the reunification of East and West Germany in October, 1990, the fourteen Eastern districts reformed themselves into five German states again, and East and West Berlins merged with one another to form the city-state of modern Berlin. The states are governed by a federal constitution that states that each state government must obey the principles of republican democracy. Many of the states are governed by a cabinet, which is typically led by a Minister-President. Each state also has a legislative body consisting of only one house, which is known as the Landtag. The state legislators are chosen by means of popular election every four or five years, depending on the laws of the state. These members then elect the Minister-President by a majority vote. In Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia, the government is referred to as the Staatsregierung, or State Government, while in the other ten states, the government is known as the Landesregierung, or Land Government. Recently, the balance of power has shifted away from the state governments, due to an increase in federal legislation. |