Baden-Württemberg is a federal state in south-western Germany to the east of the Upper Rhine. It is third largest in both area and population among the country's sixteen states, with an area of 35,742 km² and 10.7 million inhabitants. The capital is Stuttgart.

Geography

The state borders on Switzerland to the south, on France to the west, and on the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Bavaria.

Its principal cities include Stuttgart, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Ludwigsburg, Ulm, Tübingen, Pforzheim and Reutlingen.

The Rhine forms the western border as well as large portions of the southern border. The Black Forest (Schwarzwald) the main mountain range of the state, rises east of the Rhine valley. Baden-Württemberg shares both Lake Constance (Bodensee) and the foothills of the Alps with Switzerland.

The Danube river has its source in Baden-Württemberg near the town of Donaueschingen, in a place called Furtwangen in the Black Forest.

Administration

Baden-Württemberg is divided into 35 counties, grouped into the four Administrative Districts (Regierungsbezirke) of Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, and Tübingen:

Alb-Donau ;Biberach ;Bodensee ;Böblingen ;Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald ;Calw ;Konstanz (Constance) ;Emmendingen ;Enz ;Esslingen ;Freudenstadt ;Göppingen ; Heidenheim ;

Heilbronn ;Hohenlohe ;Karlsruhe ;Lörrach ;Ludwigsburg ;Main-Tauber ;Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis ;Ortenaukreis ;Ostalbkreis ;Rastatt ;Ravensburg ; Rems-Murr-Kreis ;Reutlingen ;

Rhein-Neckar-Kreis ;Rottweil ;Schwäbisch Hall ;Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis ;Sigmaringen ;

Tübingen ;Tuttlingen ;Waldshut ;Zollernalbkreis .

Furthermore there are nine independent cities, which do not belong to any district:

Baden-Baden ;Freiburg ;Heidelberg ;Heilbronn ;Karlsruhe ;Mannheim ;Pforzheim

Stuttgart ;Ulm .

History

The state combines the historical states of Baden, Hohenzollern and Württemberg. After World War II the Allied forces established three states: Württemberg-Baden (occupied by the USA), Württemberg-Hohenzollern (France) and Baden (France). In 1952 these states were merged in order to form the State of Baden-Württemberg; the 1949 constitution of West Germany contained a special clause (Article 118) that made this merger possible.