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Updates: 

Update 16 to the U.S. standard GEC is dated 2014-06-30. It provides "conventional names" (English names) for some of the states to go alongside the German names.

Kai Hamm sent me the results of the 2011 census, the first full census since 1987 in West Germany, 1981 in the East. The total population of Germany was 1.5 million less than expected. The statistics had been predicted on the basis of municipal registers. It turns out that many temporary immigrants had left the country without notifying the authorities. Note that the country population exceeds the sum of the state populations by 9,698, which represents Germans living abroad.

In the book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries", the HASC code for Brandenburg was given as DE.BR, matching the ISO 3166-2 code. In 1998, ISO changed the code, as mentioned immediately below. I also changed the HASC code to DE.BB, and used that code in databases sold beginning in 2002. In November 2004, I expanded this page to incorporate information from the book. In doing so, I failed to note the discrepancy, and used the code DE.BR again. Now (2008), I'm fixing the code on this page to match the databases that have gone out. I apologize for any inconvenience.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Germany, the draft standard showed sixteen states. The final standard shows the same sixteen states and the same codes, with one exception. The code for Brandenburg has been altered from DE-BR to DE-BB.

The "microcensus" of 2003 calculated population projections by extrapolating from a sample consisting of 1% of the population.

Country overview: 

Short name	GERMANY
ISO code	DE
FIPS code	GM
Language	German (de)
Time zone	+1 ~
Capital	Berlin

 

In the last part of the 19th century, hundreds of small Germanic kingdoms, princedoms, duchies, margravates, etc., were finally united into the German Empire (Deutsches Reich). The more important units became Länder (states); others became Provinzen (provinces) within the states. In 1900, the Empire comprised all of modern Germany, Alsace-Lorraine, some communes now in Belgium, some counties now in Denmark, about half of modern Poland, the Kaliningrad oblast of Russia, and a strip of Lithuania, plus overseas colonies in Africa and the South Pacific. As a result of World War I (1914-1918), Germany became a republic in 1919, somewhat diminished in extent. The Allies stripped it of its overseas possessions and made a number of territorial alterations (see Change history). In 1933, Hitler and his supporters proclaimed the Third Reich (so called in reference to the earlier Holy Roman Empire and the Deutsches Reich of 1871-1918). Germany made a number of territorial gains at the expense of its neighbors before and during World War II. These gains were all annulled in its defeat. After the war, an even smaller Germany was partitioned among the Big Four Allies. This was intended to be a temporary arrangement, in order to handle the transition to a reconstructed postwar Germany. However, mistrust and tension between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union delayed the fulfillment of the plan for over 40 years. The Russian (Soviet) zone became East Germany (officially Deutsche Demokratische Republik, German Democratic Republic, or DDR; capital East Berlin), in effect a separate country, while the other three zones became West Germany (officially Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Federal Republic of Germany, or BRD; capital Bonn). Berlin was sometimes treated as a separate sovereignty, because there had been no peace treaty to formalize its status. The two Germanies and Berlin were finally united, under the name and administration of the BRD, as the Cold War ended.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Tyskland
2. Dutch: Duitsland, Bondsrepubliek Duitsland (formal)
3. English: Federal Republic of Germany (formal)
4. Finnish: Saksa
5. French: Allemagne, République f Fédérale d'Allemagne f (formal)
6. German: Deutschland, Bundesrepublik f Deutschland n (formal), Deutsches Reich n (obsolete)
7. Icelandic: Þýskaland
8. Italian: Germania f, Repubblica f Federale Tedesca (formal)
9. Norwegian: Forbundsrepublikken Tyskland (formal) (Bokmål), Sambandsrepublikken Tyskland (formal) (Nynorsk), Tyskland
10. Portuguese: Alemanha, República f Federal da Alemanha f (formal)
11. Russian: Федеративная Республика Германия (formal)
12. Spanish: Alemania, República f Federal de Alemania f (formal)
13. Swedish: Tyskland
14. Turkish: Almanya Federal Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Latin germanus: original, native. Alemania, etc.: ancient tribe of Alamans, from Germanic: all men. Deutschland, etc.: ancient tribe of Teutons, from Germanic theud: people

Primary subdivisions: 

Germany is divided into sixteen Länder (sing. Land: state) of several types.

State	HASC	FIPS	NUTS	T	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	German name
Baden-Wurttemberg	DE.BW	GM01	DE1	s	10,486,660	35,752	13,804	Stuttgart	Baden-Württemberg
Bavaria	DE.BY	GM02	DE2	r	12,397,614	70,549	27,239	Munich	Bayern
Berlin	DE.BE	GM16	DE3	s	3,292,365	892	344	Berlin	Berlin
Brandenburg	DE.BB	GM11	DE4	s	2,455,780	29,477	11,381	Potsdam	Brandenburg
Bremen	DE.HB	GM03	DE5	h	650,863	404	156	Bremen	Bremen
Hamburg	DE.HH	GM04	DE6	f	1,706,696	755	292	Hamburg	Hamburg
Hesse	DE.HE	GM05	DE7	s	5,971,816	21,115	8,153	Wiesbaden	Hessen
Lower Saxony	DE.NI	GM06	DE9	s	7,777,992	47,618	18,385	Hanover	Niedersachsen
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania	DE.MV	GM12	DE8	s	1,609,982	23,173	8,947	Schwerin	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
North Rhine-Westphalia	DE.NW	GM07	DEA	s	17,538,251	34,083	13,159	Dusseldorf	Nordrhein-Westfalen
Rhineland-Palatinate	DE.RP	GM08	DEB	s	3,989,808	19,847	7,663	Mainz	Rheinland-Pfalz
Saarland	DE.SL	GM09	DEC		999,623	2,569	992	Saarbrucken	Saarland
Saxony	DE.SN	GM13	DED	r	4,056,799	18,413	7,109	Dresden	Sachsen
Saxony-Anhalt	DE.ST	GM14	DEE	s	2,287,040	20,445	7,894	Magdeburg	Sachsen-Anhalt
Schleswig-Holstein	DE.SH	GM10	DEF	s	2,800,119	15,763	6,086	Kiel	Schleswig-Holstein
Thuringia	DE.TH	GM15	DEG	r	2,188,589	16,172	6,244	Erfurt	Thüringen
16 states					80,219,695	357,027	137,849
HASC:Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced by hyphens, these are the same as the state codes from ISO standard 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. NUTS: Codes from Nomenclature for Statistical Territorial Units (European standard). T: Type: s=state, r=republic, h=free Hanseatic city, f=free and Hanseatic city. Population: 2011-05-09 census. Capitals: listed in English, but the only name differences in German are München (= Munich), Düsseldorf, and Saarbrücken.

Postal codes: 

Germany uses five-digit postal codes. They don't correlate well with the states. Postal codes for German addresses can be identified by prefixing them with "D-".

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Germany page.

The states can be categorized as Flächenländer (from Fläche + Land = surface + state) and Stadtstaaten (city-states). The city-states, Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, have no further subdivisions to be mentioned here. For convenience, I treat them as if they were subdivisions at every level. The "surface-states" are subdivided into Regierungsbezirke (sing. Regierungsbezirk: administrative district). Only five of the states, however, have more than one district; there used to be more, but districts have been merging. The "surface-states" are further subdivided into Landkreise (sing. Landkreis, sometimes Kreis for short: rural county), and kreisfreie Städte (urban counties; literally county-free cities). The rural counties are further subdivided into Gemeinden (sing. Gemeinde: commune). Some, but not all, communes form groups called Gemeinde-verbände. On 1992-01-01, there were 29 administrative districts, 543 counties, and 16,095 communes.

Territorial extent: 

In the 19th century, Germany was a crazy quilt of tiny fiefs, with exclaves everywhere. Each successive change of administrative divisions has tended to reduce the number of exclaves,until now there are hardly any left.

1. Baden-Württemberg state (Freiburg district) includes the small exclave of Büsingen, surrounded by Schaffhausen canton in Switzerland.
2. Bremen state has two separate parts, containing the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. Both parts are completely surrounded by Lower Saxony, if territorial waters are taken into account.
3. Hamburg includes the North Sea islands of Neuwerk and Scharhörn. The part of Hamburg containing the city itself lies on the border between Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.
4. Lower Saxony includes the East Frisian Islands, from Borkum in the west to Hoher Knechtsand in the east.
5. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern includes the Baltic island of Rügen, and Usedom except for a small area around Swinoujscie, Poland.
6. Five pieces  of North Rhine-Westphalia are cut off by the Vennbahn, a now-disused railroad line whose right-of-way is a filament of Belgian territory snaking through Germany.
7. Schleswig-Holstein includes the North Sea island of Helgoland and the North Frisian Islands, from Trischen in the south to Sylt in the north. On the Baltic coast, it contains the island of Fehmarn.

The UN LOCODE page  for Germany lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Baden-Württemberg: Germanic badun: at the baths; possibly wirten: innkeepers, berg: mountain
2. Bavaria (Bayern): Germanic Bai: Boii (ethnic name), warioz: defender
3. Berlin: origin unknown, but the coat of arms displays a bear because of a folk etymology from Bärlein: bear cub
4. Brandenburg: Slavic brenna: swamp, influenced by Germanic brand: heath; burg: fort
5. Bremen: Old High German brem: swampy coast
6. Hamburg: possibly Germanic hamma: spit of land (between the Alster and Elbe Rivers), burg: fort
7. Hesse: Latin Hassi: ethnic name
8. Mecklenburg-West Pomerania: Old German mikilal: big, burg: city; Slavic po more: [dwellers] by the sea
9. North Rhine-Westphalia: Rhine is from Celtic renos: river; Westphalia is a plain west of the Weser River, from Old German falen: plain.
10. Rhineland-Palatinate: Land by the Rhine, and German Pfalz: royal palace, from Latin palatium: palace.
11. Saarland: Land by the Saar River
12. Saxony: Germanic sahsa: short sword
13. Saxony-Anhalt: Saxony + fief of Counts von Anhalt; German anhalten: hold on to
14. Schleswig-Holstein: Old Norse slie: rushes, reeds, vik: bay; Germanic holt: woods, sittan: to be situated (i.e. dwellers in the woods)

Change history: 

From 1871 to 1918, the German Empire was divided into 26 units. They were heterogeneous in population, size, and status (duchies, principalities, kingdoms, etc.). The word Land, however, could be applied to any of them. Here is a list of them.

Division	Pop-1910	Pop-1900	Pop-1890	Area(km.²)	Capital	Full German name
Alsace-Lorraine	1,874,014	1,719,470	1,603,987	14,504	Straßburg	Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen
Anhalt	331,128	316,085	271,759	2,347	Dessau	Herzogtum Anhalt
Baden	2,142,833	1,867,944	1,656,817	15,076	Karlsruhe	Großherzogtum Baden
Bavaria	6,887,291	6,176,057	5,589,382	75,840	München	Königreich Bayern
Bremen	295,715	224,882	180,309	256	Bremen	Freie Stadt Bremen
Brunswick	494,339	464,333	403,029	3,688	Brunswick	Herzogtum Braunschweig
Hamburg	1,014,664	768,349	624,199	409	Hamburg	Freie Stadt Hamburg
Hesse	1,282,219	1,119,893	994,614	7,679	Darmstadt	Großherzogtum Hessen
Lippe	150,937	138,952	128,414	1,215	Detmold	Fürstentum Lippe-Detmold
Lubeck	116,599	96,775	76,459	298	Lübeck	Freie Stadt Lübeck
Mecklenburg-Schwerin	639,958	607,770	578,565	13,300	Schwerin	Großherzogtum Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Strelitz	106,442	102,602	97,978	2,929	Neu-Strelitz	Großherzogtum Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Oldenburg	483,042	399,180	355,000	6,421	Oldenburg	Großherzogtum Oldenburg
Prussia	40,165,219	34,472,509	29,959,388	348,258	Berlin	Königreich Preußen
Reuss, elder branch	72,769	68,396	62,759	316	Greiz	Fürstentum Reuß-Greiz (ältere Linie)
Reuss, junior branch	152,752	139,210	119,555	826	Gera	Fürstentum Reuß-Gera (jüngere Linie)
Saxe-Altenburg	216,128	194,914	170,867	1,323	Altenburg	Herzogtum Sachsen-Altenburg
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha	257,177	229,550	206,329	1,955	Coburg, Gotha	Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha
Saxe-Meiningen	278,762	250,731	223,920	2,468	Meiningen	Herzogtum Sachsen-Meiningen
Saxony, Kingdom of	4,806,661	4,202,216	3,500,513	14,988	Dresden	Königreich Sachsen
Saxony, Grand Duchy of	417,149	362,873	325,824	3,595	Weimar	Großherzogtum Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach
Schaumburg-Lippe	46,652	43,132	39,183	339	Buckeburg	Fürstentum Schaumburg-Lippe
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt	100,702	93,059	85,838	940	Rudolstadt	Fürstentum Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen	89,917	80,898	75,514	862	Sondershausen	Fürstentum Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
Waldeck	61,707	57,918	57,283	1,121	Arolsen	Fürstentum Waldeck
Württemberg	2,437,574	2,169,480	2,035,443	19,497	Stuttgart	Königreich Württemberg
Totals	64,922,350	56,367,178	49,422,928	540,450
Pop-1910: 1910-12-01 census Pop-1900: 1900 census Pop-1890: 1890-12-01 census Capitals: listed in German (Straßburg = Strassbourg, München = Munich) Full German names: includes status (see next paragraph).

 

The generic term for all these divisions was Länder. The status of a specific division, mentioned in its German name, can be Freie Stadt = free city, Fürstentum = principality, Großherzogtum = grand duchy, Herzogtum = duchy, Königreich = kingdom, or Reichsland = imperial state.

Some of the Länder were further subdivided. Alsace-Lorraine and Bavaria were divided into Bezirke (districts); Hesse and Prussia were divided into Provinzen (provinces); the Kingdom of Saxony into districts, and Württemberg into Kreise (circles, or counties). The following table shows these subdivisions. The slash (/) indicates an alternate form of the name. The Saxony which was a province of Prussia is not the same as the Kingdom of Saxony or the Grand Duchy of Saxony. The provinces of Alsace-Lorraine have since become French departments.

Land	Subdivision	Population	German name	Capital
Alsace-Lorraine	Lorraine	524,885	Lothringen	Metz
	Lower Alsace	638,624	Unterelsaß	Straßburg
	Upper Alsace	477,477	Oberelsaß	Colmar
Bavaria	Lower Bavaria	673,523	Niederbayern	Landshut
	Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg	632,588	Unterfranken und Aschaffenburg	Würzburg
	Middle Franconia	737,181	Mittelfranken	Ansbach
	Palatinate/Rhenish Bavaria	765,991	Pfalz/Rheinbayern	Speyer
	Swabia and Neuburg	689,416	Schwaben und Neuburg	Augsburg
	Upper Bavaria	1,186,950	Oberbayern	München
	Upper Franconia	586,061	Oberfranken	Bayreuth
	Upper Palatinate and Ratisbon	546,834	Oberpfalz und Regensburg	Regensburg
Hesse	Rhine-Hesse	322,934	Rhein-Hessen	Mainz
	Starkenburg	444,562	Starkenburg	Darmstadt
	Upper Hesse	271,524	Oberhessen	Giessen
Prussia	Berlin	1,888,326	Berlin	Berlin
	Brandenburg	2,821,573	Brandenburg	Potsdam
	East Prussia	2,005,078	Ostpreußen	Königsberg
	Hanover	2,590,939	Hannover	Hannover
	Hesse-Nassau	1,897,981	Hessen-Nassau	Kassel
	Hohenzollern	65,121	Hohenzollern	Sigmaringen
	Pomerania	1,574,020	Pommern	Stettin
	Posen	1,828,195	Posen	Posen
	Rhine Province/Rhenish Prussia	5,106,079	Rheinprovinz/Rheinpreußen	Koblenz
	Saxony	2,832,616	Sachsen	Magdeburg
	Schleswig-Holstein	1,286,330	Schleswig-Holstein	Kiel
	Silesia	4,414,460	Schlesien	Breslau
	West Prussia	1,494,114	Westpreußen	Danzig
	Westphalia	2,700,250	Westfalen	Münster
Saxony, Kingdom of	Bauzen	384,904	Bauzen	Bauzen
	Dresden	1,067,575	Dresden	Dresden
	Leipzig	945,120	Leipzig	Leipzig
	Zwickau	1,389,337	Zwickau	Zwickau
Württemberg	Black Forest	488,431	Schwarzwald	Reutlingen
	Danube	496,460	Donau	Ulm
	Jagst	398,887	Jagst	Ellwangen
	Neckar	697,373	Neckar	Stuttgart
Population: 1895, except for Berlin, Hanover, Hesse-Nassau, and Saxony province, which are 1900

1. 1918-11-14: Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha abdicated, thus terminating the union between Coburg and Gotha.
2. 1919-04-04: Reuss elder branch and Reuss junior branch merged to form Reuss people's state (Volksstaat Reuss).
3. 1919-06-28: Treaty of Versailles signed. Poland's independence, which it had proclaimed on 1918-11-09, was recognized. Germany lost most of Posen and West Prussia provinces of Prussia to Poland, leaving East Prussia and a small section of West Prussia isolated from the rest of Germany by the "Polish Corridor". The Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen (imperial state of Alsace-Lorraine) was restored to France. Memelgebiet (or Memelland, a section of East Prussia province of Prussia, north of the Memel River, containing the port of Memel (modern Klaipeda)) detached from Germany and placed under French administration. Saar Territory (Saarland) split from the southern part of Rhine province of Prussia as a French protectorate. The entities remaining to Germany changed their status to that of states.
4. 1919-10-14: Silesia province of Prussia divided into the provinces of Lower Silesia (Niederschlesien, capital Breslau) and Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien/Oppeln, capital Oppeln).
5. 1920-01-10: Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, Danzig split from West Prussia province of Prussia and became a free city.
6. 1920-01-20: Following a plebiscite ordained by the Versailles Treaty, the cantons of Eupen, Malmédy, and Saint Vith transferred from Rhine province of Prussia to Belgium.
7. 1920-02-10: Another Versailles plebiscite transferred the northern part of Schleswig province of Prussia from Germany to Denmark.
8. 1920-05-01: The states of Reuss, Saxe-Altenburg, Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen merged to form the state of Thuringia.
9. 1920-07-01: Coburg merged with Bavaria, following a plebiscite.
10. 1920-10-01: Berlin city-county (Stadtkreis Berlin) split from Brandenburg province of Prussia and given status equivalent to a province.
11. 1921-05-21: Plebiscite held in most of Upper Silesia province of Prussia. A few eastern cantons voted for union with Poland, which took place in 1922.
12. 1921-11-30: Pyrmont county transferred from Waldeck to Hanover province of Prussia.
13. 1922-07-21: The portions of Posen and West Prussia provinces remaining in Germany merged to form Posen-West Prussia Frontier province (Provinz Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen).
14. 1923-02-16: Memelgebiet placed under Lithuanian administration.
15. 1928-03-30: Thuringia and Saxony exchanged territory to remove exclaves.
16. 1929-05-01: Waldeck state merged with Hesse-Nassau province of Prussia.
17. 1932: Bautzen and Dresden districts merged to form the district of Dresden-Bautzen, capital Dresden.
18. ~1932: Niederbayern and Oberpfalz districts merged to form the district of Niederbayern und Oberpfalz, capital Regensburg.
19. 1932-10-01: Schaumburg county transferred from Hesse-Nassau province of Prussia to Hanover province. Ilfeld county transferred from Hanover province to Saxony province.
20. 1934: Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz states merged to form Mecklenburg state.
21. 1935-03-01: Saarland annexed to Germany after a plebiscite. It became part of Rhine province of Prussia again. At this time, the Länder stood as follows:

Division	Population	Area(km.²)	Capital	From earlier division
Anhalt	364,415	2,314	Dessau	Anhalt
Baden	2,412,951	15,070	Karlsruhe	Baden
Bavaria	7,681,584	75,996	Munich	Bavaria, SCG (part)
Bremen	371,558	258	Bremen	Bremen
Brunswick	512,989	3,672	Brunswick	Brunswick
Hamburg	1,218,447	415	Hamburg	Hamburg
Hesse	1,429,048	7,692	Darmstadt	Hesse
Lippe	175,538	1,215	Detmold	Lippe
Lubeck	136,413	298	Lubeck	Lubeck
Mecklenburg	805,213	16,056	Schwerin	M-Sch, M-Str
Oldenburg	573,853	6,427	Oldenburg	Oldenburg
Prussia	40,760,011	294,688	Berlin	Prussia (part), Waldeck
Saxony	5,196,652	14,986	Dresden	Kingdom of Saxony
Schaumburg-Lippe	49,955	340	Bückeburg	Schaumburg-Lippe
Thuringia	1,659,510	11,763	Weimar	Reuss (e/j), SA, SCG (part), SM, SWE, SL, SR, SS
Württemberg	2,696,324	19,508	Stuttgart	Württemberg
Totals	66,044,461	470,698
Population: 1933-06-16 From earlier division: shows which pre-war states were included in each of the 1935 states (using abbreviations which should be self-explanatory)

1. 1937: Birkenfeld (near Trier) and Eutin (near Lübeck), remote exclaves of Oldenburg state, merged with Prussia. Lübeck free city merged into Schleswig-Holstein province of Prussia.
2. 1937-04-01: Hamburg annexed a number of districts from adjacent provinces of Prussia.
3. 1938-03-13: Austria annexed by Germany in the Anschluss. The German government called the Austrian territory Ostmark.
4. 1938-09-30: The Sudetenland, a fringe of Czechoslovakia, transferred to Germany by the Munich Pact.
5. 1938-10-01: Posen-West Prussia Frontier province split into parts, which merged with Brandenburg, Pomerania, and Silesia.
6. 1939: Bremerhaven transferred from Bremen to Hanover province of Prussia.
7. 1939-03-23: Memelgebiet transferred from Lithuania to Germany in response to a German ultimatum.
8. 1945-05-09: Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies took effect. The German Empire ceased to exist. The Allies, following preconceived plans, restored Germany to its borders of 1937-12-31, and divided it into four administrative zones: American, British, French, and Russian. Berlin, completely surrounded by the Russian zone, was partitioned in the same way. During the next few years, the administrative division of Germany was gradually redefined by the occupying forces.
9. 1945-07-16: Potsdam Conference began. It transferred large parts of Pomerania, Brandenburg, Silesia, East and West Prussia provinces to Poland, except that the northern part of East Prussia became Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. The new eastern border of Germany was called the Oder-Neisse Line, as it generally followed the course of the Oder and Neisse Rivers.
10. 1945-1946: Germany (excluding Berlin) divided into 17 states. The delineation of these states, and the establishment of their governmental institutions, was a gradual process. The following table shows the states and Berlin circa 1950. In the last column, in order to show sufficient detail, I list provinces of Prussia (indicated by PR:) and Bavaria (BA:).

State	Population	Capital	Zone	From earlier division
Bavaria	8,789,650	Munich	Amer	Bavaria (except BA:Palatinate)
Berlin	3,191,226	Berlin	joint	PR:Brandenburg (part)
Brandenburg	2,527,492	Potsdam	Russ	PR:Brandenburg (part)
Bremen	485,514	Bremen	Amer	Bremen
Hamburg	1,418,013	Hamburg	Brit	Hamburg
Hesse	3,995,678	Wiesbaden	Amer	Hesse (part), PR:Hesse-Nassau
Lower Saxony	6,277,561	Hannover	Brit	Brunswick, Oldenburg, Lippe, Schaumburg-Lippe, PR:Hanover
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	2,139,640	Schwerin	Russ	Mecklenburg, PR:Pomerania (part)
North Rhine-Westphalia	11,735,421	Düsseldorf	Brit	PR:Rhine (part), PR:Westphalia
Rhineland-Palatinate	2,753,569	Mainz	Frch	PR:Rhine (part), BA:Palat, Hesse (part), PR:Hess-Nass (part)
Saarland	851,615	Saarbrücken	Frch	PR:Rhine (part)
Saxony	5,558,566	Dresden	Russ	Saxony, PR:Silesia (part)
Saxony-Anhalt	4,160,539	Halle	Russ	Anhalt, PR:Saxony, PR:Bdbg (part), Brswk (part), Thrg (part)
Schleswig-Holstein	2,590,210	Kiel	Brit	Schleswig-Holstein
Südbaden	1,190,841	Freiburg	Frch	Baden (part)
Thuringia	2,927,497	Weimar	Russ	Thuringia, PR:Saxony (part), PR:Hesse-Nassau (part)
Württemberg-Baden	3,607,304	Stuttgart	Amer	Baden (part), Württemberg (part)
Württemberg-Hohenzollern	1,108,768	Tübingen	Frch	Württemberg (part), PR:Hohenzollern
18 divisions	66,002,547
Population: 1946-10-29 census; total includes 693,443 displaced persons. Source: "Volks- und Berufszählung vom 29. Oktober 1946 in den vier Besatzungszonen und Groß-Berlin", Duncker & Humblot, Berlin.

1. 1946-11-01: Lower Saxony state established by British military government by merging Hanover province of Prussia, and the states of Brunswick, Oldenburg, and Schaumburg-Lippe.
2. 1946-12-02: British and American zones merged, forming the Bizone (also called Bizonia).
3. 1947: Schleswig-Holstein state organized.
4. 1947: Bremerhaven transferred from Lower Saxony to Bremen state.
5. 1947-12-15: Saarland (slightly enlarged on the north side) became a protectorate of France, after a plebiscite favored economic union with France.
6. 1948-07-01: Separate municipal government formed for East Berlin under aegis of the Soviet Union.
7. 1952: Baden-Württemberg state formed by merging Württemberg-Baden, Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern, and Südbaden, following a plebiscite held 1951-12-09.
8. 1952-07-23: East Germany reorganized from five states into 14 Bezirke (sing. Bezirk: district), plus East Berlin. This table shows the districts at that time, and how they were formed.

District	Formed from state(s)
Chemnitz	Saxony
Cottbus	Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony
Dresden	Saxony
East Berlin	Berlin
Erfurt	Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt
Frankfurt an der Oder	Brandenburg
Gera	Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony
Halle	Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia
Leipzig	Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia
Magdeburg	Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg
Neubrandenburg	Mecklenburg, Brandenburg
Potsdam	Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt
Rostock	Mecklenburg
Schwerin	Mecklenburg, Brandenburg
Suhl	Thuringia

1. 1953: Chemnitz district of East Germany, and its capital, renamed to Karl-Marx-Stadt.
2. 1957-01-01: Saar transferred to West Germany as the result of a new plebiscite.
3. 1959-06-07: Saar became a state of West Germany.
4. 1990-07-01: Name of Karl-Marx-Stadt restored to Chemnitz.
5. 1990-10-03: East Germany (ISO=DD/FIPS=GC) and West Germany (ISO=DE/FIPS=GE) merged to form Germany. Also on this date, the 14 districts of East Germany reverted to the five postwar states. The capital of the unified country was to be Berlin, but Bonn remained the seat of government in the interim until the governing institutions could be moved.
6. 1991-09-01: Berlin became seat of government.
7. 1993-11-01: Under the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union replaced the European Communities, of which Germany was a member.

Other names of subdivisions: 

Note on spelling: the German-speaking lands have agreed on a spelling reform (Rechtschreibreform). The new orthography is supposed to be binding as of 2005-07-31. There has been significant resistance to the change, and some major periodicals are refusing to adopt the new spellings. Among other things, the character 'ß', called "scharfes s" or "eszet", will in many cases be replaced by 'ss'. There are no current state names containing eszet. The substitution need be made only in modern texts that refer to obsolete states.

1. Baden-Wurttemberg: Bade-Wurtemberg (French); Baden-Württemberg (German); Bade-Vurtemberga (Portuguese); Baden-Wurtemberg (Spanish); Баден-Вюртемберг (Russian)
2. Bavaria: Baviera (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish); Bavière (French); Bavyera (Turkish); Bayern (Danish, German, Swedish); Beieren (Dutch); Бавария (Russian)
3. Berlin: Berliini (Finnish); Berlijn (Dutch); Berlim (Portuguese); Berlino (Italian); Берлин (Russian)
4. Brandenburg: Brandebourg (French); Brandeburgo (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish); Brandemburgo (Portuguese); Бранденбург (Russian)
5. Bremen: Brema (Italian, Portuguese); Brême (French); Бремен (Russian)
6. Hamburg: Amburgo (Italian); Hamborg (Danish, Icelandic); Hambourg (French); Hamburgo (Portuguese, Spanish); Hampuri (Finnish); Гамбург (Russian)
7. Hesse: Assia (Italian); Hessen (Danish, Dutch, German, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish); Гессен (Russian)
8. Lower Saxony: Aşağı Saksonya (Turkish); Baixa Saxónia (Portuguese-European); Baixa Saxônia (Portuguese-Brazilian); Baja Sajonia (Spanish); Bassa Sassonia (Italian); Basse-Saxe (French); Neder-Saksen (Dutch); Nedersachsen (variant-Danish); Niedersachsen (Danish, German, Swedish); Нижняя Саксония (Russian)
9. Mecklenburg-West Pomerania: Mecklembourg-Poméranie (French-variant); Mecklembourg-Poméranie occidentale (French); Mecklemburgo-Baixa Pomerânia (Portuguese-variant); Mecklemburgo-Pomerania Occidental (Spanish); Mecklenburg (variant); Mecklenburg-Voorpommeren (Dutch); Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Danish, German, Swedish, Turkish); Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (variant); Meclemburgo (Italian-variant); Meclemburgo-Pomerania occidentale (Italian); Meclemburgo-Pomerânia Ocidental (Portuguese); Мекленбург-Передняя Померания (Russian)
10. North Rhine-Westphalia: Kuzey Ren-Vestfalya (Turkish); Noordrijn-Westfalen (Dutch); Nordreno-Vestfalia (Italian); Nordrhein-Westfalen (Danish, German, Swedish); Nordrhin-Vestfalen (variant-Danish); Renania del Norte-Westfalia (Spanish); Renania Settentrionale-Vestfalia (Italian); Renânia do Norte-Vestefália (Portuguese); Renânia do Norte-Vestfália (Portuguese-variant); Rhénanie du Nord-Westphalie (French); Северный Рейн-Вестфалия (Russian)
11. Rhineland-Palatinate: Renania-Palatinado (Spanish); Renania-Palatinato (Italian); Renânia-Palatinado (Portuguese); Rheinland Pfalz (Swedish); Rheinland-Pfalz (Danish, German, Turkish); Rhénanie-Palatinat (French); Rhinland-Pfalz (variant-Danish); Rijnland-Palts (Dutch); Рейнланд-Пфальц (Russian)
12. Saarland: Saar (Italian); Saargebiet (German-obsolete); Sarre (French, Portuguese, Spanish); Саар (Russian)
13. Saxony: Sachsen (Danish, German, Swedish); Sajonia (Spanish); Saksen (Dutch); Saksonya (Turkish); Sassonia (Italian); Saxe (French); Saxónia (Portuguese-European); Saxônia (Portuguese-Brazilian); Саксония (Russian)
14. Saxony-Anhalt: Sachsen-Anhalt (Danish, German, Swedish); Sajonia-Anhalt (Spanish); Saksen-Anhalt (Dutch); Saksonya-Anhalt (Turkish); Sassonia e Anhalt (Italian-variant); Sassonia-Anhalt (Italian); Saxe-Anhalt (French); Saxónia-Anhalt (Portuguese-European); Saxônia-Anhalt (Portuguese-Brazilian); Саксония-Ангальт (Russian)
15. Schleswig-Holstein: Eslésvico-Holsácia (Portuguese); Sleeswijk-Holstein (Dutch); Slesvig-Holsten (Danish); Sleswig-Holstein (obsolete); Щлезвиг-Гольштейн (Russian)
16. Thuringia: Thuringe (French); Thüringen (Danish, Dutch, German, Swedish, Turkish); Turingia (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish); Тюрингия (Russian)

Source [6] gives the formal names of states in 23 languages. They each consist of a generic and a specific. Here are the generics for each type of primary subdivision.

1. free and Hanseatic city: Bağımsız ve Hansa Kenti (Turkish); Cidade Livre e Hanseática de (Portuguese); Città Libera e Anseatica di (Italian); Ciudad Libre y Hanseática de (Spanish); Den frie og hansestad (Danish); Free and Hanseatic City of (formal); Freie und Hansestadt (German); Fria och hansestaden (Swedish); Ville libre et hanséatique de (French); Vrije en Hanzestad (Dutch); Вольный и гансейский город (Russian);
2. free Hanseatic city: Bağımsız Hansa Kenti (Turkish); Cidade Livre Hanseática de (Portuguese); Città Libera Anseatica di (Italian); Ciudad Libre Hanseática de (Spanish); Den frie hansestad (Danish); Free Hanseatic City of (formal); Freie Hansestadt (German); Fria hansestaden (Swedish); Ville libre hanséatique de (French); Vrije Hanzestad (Dutch); Вольный гансейский город (Russian);
3. republic: Bağımsız Devlet (Turkish); Estado Libre de (Spanish); Estado Livre da (Portuguese); Etat libre de (French); Free State of (formal); Freistaat (German); Fristaten (Danish, Swedish); Stato Libero di (Italian); Vrijstaat (Dutch); Республика (Russian);
4. state: Eyalet (Turkish); Land (formal, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Swedish); Land da/de (Portuguese); Land de (French, Spanish); земля (Russian);

Population history (Cold War period):

Division	FIPS	Area(km.²)	1957	1971	1986
Cottbus	GC01	8,262	799,160	872,000	883,300
Dresden	GC02	6,738	1,902,702	1,845,000	1,771,600
East Berlin	BZ	403	1,110,016	1,094,000	1,223,300
Erfurt	GC03	7,349	1,264,400	1,247,000	1,235,000
Frankfurt	GC04	7,186	661,106	689,000	707,600
Gera	GC05	4,004	727,576	739,000	740,500
Halle	GC06	8,771	1,995,879	1,890,000	1,785,800
Karl-Marx-Stadt	GC07	6,009	2,144,191	1,994,000	1,870,000
Leipzig	GC08	4,966	1,544,316	1,458,000	1,373,800
Magdeburg	GC09	11,526	1,400,616	1,298,000	1,250,000
Neubrandenburg	GC10	10,894	667,521	629,000	619,200
Potsdam	GC12	12,568	1,187,637	1,125,000	1,120,300
Rostock	GC13	7,074	828,440	868,000	903,000
Schwerin	GC14	8,672	634,057	592,000	592,100
Suhl	GC15	3,856	543,053	550,000	549,200
total East		108,278	17,410,670	16,890,000	16,624,700
Baden-Württemberg	GE01	35,751	7,301,900	7,759,000	9,295,100
Bavaria	GE02	70,547	9,192,800	9,515,000	10,993,400
Bremen	GE03	404	664,100	706,000	675,500
Hamburg	GE04	748	1,786,800	1,832,000	1,575,700
Hesse	GE05	21,113	4,599,700	4,814,000	5,531,300
Lower Saxony	GE06	47,415	6,496,100	6,641,000	7,149,300
North Rhine-Westphalia	GE07	34,069	15,193,300	15,912,000	16,665,300
Rhineland-Palatinate	GE08	19,839	3,313,800	3,417,000	3,610,400
Saarland	GE09	2,568	1,019,100	1,073,000	1,043,400
Schleswig-Holstein	GE10	15,696	2,264,300	2,317,000	2,612,700
West Berlin	BZ	480	2,228,500	2,197,000	1,867,700
total West		248,630	54,060,400	56,183,000	61,019,800
total Germany		356,908	71,471,070	78,471,766	77,644,500
FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4 (1984 edition). 1957: Population estimate 1957-12-31 1971: East - 1970 census; West - 1971 census 1986: Population estimate 1986-06-30

 

(post-reunification)

State	1991-12-31	2003-05	2011-05-09
Baden-Wurttemberg	10,001,840	10,670,000	10,486,660
Bavaria	11,595,970	12,392,000	12,397,614
Berlin	3,434,000	3,392,000	3,292,365
Brandenburg	2,542,723	2,577,000	2,455,780
Bremen	683,684	663,000	650,863
Hamburg	1,668,700	1,732,000	1,706,696
Hesse	5,837,330	6,088,000	5,971,816
Lower Saxony	7,475,790	7,983,000	7,777,992
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania	1,923,959	1,739,000	1,609,982
North Rhine-Westphalia	17,509,866	18,071,000	17,538,251
Rhineland-Palatinate	3,821,235	4,054,000	3,989,808
Saarland	1,072,963	1,063,000	999,623
Saxony	4,678,877	4,337,000	4,056,799
Saxony-Anhalt	2,823,324	2,540,000	2,287,040
Schleswig-Holstein	2,648,532	2,817,000	2,800,119
Thuringia	2,637,261	2,385,000	2,188,589
Total	80,356,054	82,503,000	80,219,695

 

1991 data are official estimates; 2003 data from Mikrozensus.

Sources: 

1. [1] Library of Congress country study  (retrieved 1999).
2. [2] Statistisches Jahrbuch 1992 für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Statistisches Bundesamt, Wiesbaden, 1992.
3. [3] Longman's Gazetteer (1920).
4. [4] Zensus 2011  Dynamic and Individual Results (retrieved 2014-07-20).
5. [5] NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics)  for Germany. Eurostat (retrieved 2014-07-20).
6. [6] Amtliche Bezeichnungen der Bundesländer  (Official Designations of Federal States) (retrieved 2016-02-08).