Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is a
state of
Germany in the southwestern part of the country 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 state capital is
Stuttgart.
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.
See also
List of places in Baden-Württemberg.
Baden-Württemberg is divided into 35 districts and 9 independent cities, both grouped into the four Administrative Districts (
Regierungsbezirke) of
Freiburg,
Karlsruhe,
Stuttgart, and
Tübingen.
 |
Baden_wuerttemberg_map.png |
Map
|
A campaign bumper sticker. The text says: "We can do everything - except [speak] standard German"; This is an allusion to the fact that many inhabitants of Baden-Württemberg speak very distinctive regional dialects |
Furthermore there are nine independent cities, which do not belong to any district:#
Baden-Baden#
Freiburg#
Heidelberg#
Heilbronn#
Karlsruhe#
Mannheim#
Pforzheim#
Stuttgart#
UlmThis 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 merged in order to form the State of Baden-Württemberg; the
1949 constitution of West Germany contains special clauses (
Article 118 and 118a) that makes mergers possible. In the case of Berlin and Brandenburg, the citizens of Brandenburg did not agree.
#
1952 -
1953:
Reinhold Maier (
FDP/DVP)#
1953 -
1958:
Gebhard Müller (
CDU)#
1958 -
1966:
Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU)#
1966 -
1978:
Hans Karl Filbinger (CDU)#
1978 -
1991:
Lothar Späth (CDU)#
1991 -
2005:
Erwin Teufel (CDU)# since
2005:
Günther Oettinger (CDU)
2006 state election results
See also: Baden-Württemberg state election, 2006| Party | Party List votes | Vote percentage (change) | Total Seats (change) | Seat percentage |
|---|
| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 1,748,781 | 44.2% | -0.6% | 69 | +6 | 49.7% |
| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 996,095 | 25.2% | -8.1% | 38 | -7 | 27.3% |
| Alliance '90/The Greens | 462,889 | 11.7% | +4.0% | 17 | +7 | 12.2% |
| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 421,885 | 10.7% | +2.6% | 15 | +5 | 10.8% |
| Labour and Social Justice Party (WASG) | 121,875 | 3.1% | +3.1% | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| The Republicans | 100,079 | 2.5% | -1.9% | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| All Others | 108,741 | 2.6% | 0.0% | 0 | +0 | 0.0% |
| - bgcolor=lightgrey | Totals | 3,960,345 | 100.0% | | 139 | +11 | 100.0% |
|---|
*
The state's official website*
For more info on Baden-Württembergnds-nl:Baden-Württemberg
