German History 3
German History 3

   STATES OF THE
       Federal Republic of Germany
    After Re-unification - 1990

     Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
            From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Mecklenburg-Vorpommern [ˈmeːklənbʊɐ̯k ˈfɔʁpɔmɐn] is a state in northern Germany. The
capital city is Schwerin. The state was formed through the merger of the historic regions of
Mecklenburg and Vorpommern after World War II, dissolved in 1952 and recreated prior to
the German reunification in 1990.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the sixth largest German state by territory, and the least
densely populated one. The coastline of the Baltic Sea, including islands such as Rügen and
Usedom, as well as the Mecklenburg Lake District are characterised by many holiday resorts
and pristine nature, making Mecklenburg-Vorpommern one of Germany's leading tourist
destinations. Three of Germany's fourteen national parks are in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
in addition to several hundred nature conservation areas. The University of Rostock (est. 1419)
and the University of Greifswald (est. 1456) are amongst the oldest in Europe.

Major cities include Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Stralsund, Greifswald and Wismar.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was the site of the 33rd G8 summit in 2007.

Name;
The full name in German is pronounced [ˈmeːklənbʊɐ̯k ˈfɔʁpɔmɐn]. Sometimes, Mecklenburg
is pronounced [ˈmɛklənbʊɐ̯k]: The "c" at the third position is actually a Low German diacritic
(Dehnungs-c) forcing the preceding vowel to be prolonged, while in Standard German it would
serve as a diacritic for the preceding vowel to be shortened. The "-burg" portion of
"Mecklenburg" might also be pronounced "-burch" or "-borch". Due to its lengthy name, it is
often abbreviated as MV or (colloquially) shortened to Meck-Pomm. In English it is sometimes
translated as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania.

History:
In the aftermath of World War II and the German re-unification in 1990, the state was
constituted from Mecklenburg and Vorpommern, both of which had long and rich independent
histories.

Prehistory:
Slavonic ring fortress at Cape Arkona (Rügen Island)About two thousand years ago, Germanic
peoples settled the area. Most of them left during the Migration Period, heading towards Spain,
Italy and France, leaving the area relatively deserted. In the 6th century Polabian Slavs
populated the area. While Mecklenburg was settled by the Obotrites, Vorpommern was settled
by the Veleti (later Liuticians) and the Rani.

Along the coast, Vikings established trade posts like Reric, Ralswiek and Menzlin. In the 12th
century, Mecklenburg and Vorpommern were conquered by Henry the Lion and incorporated
into the Duchy of Saxony, joining the Holy Roman Empire in the 1180s. All of Mecklenburg-
Vorpommern was settled with Germans in the Ostsiedlung process, starting in the 12th
century.


Mecklenburg
Neubrandenburg, one of the 4 Brick Gothic city gatesIn the late 12th century, Henry the Lion,
Duke of the Saxons, conquered the Obotrites, subjugated its Nikloting dynasty, and
Christianised its people. In the course of time, German monks, nobility, peasants and traders
arrived to settle here. After the 12th century, the territory remained stable and relatively
independent of its neighbours; one of the few German territories for which this is true.
Mecklenburg first became a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire in 1348. Though later
partitioned and re-partitioned within the same dynasty, Mecklenburg always shared a common
history and identity. The states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz became
Grand Duchies in 1815. After World War I and the abdication of the German Kaiser, the
monarchy was abolished and a republican government of Mecklenburg was established.


History of Vorpommern and History of Pomerania:
Vorpommern is the smaller, western part of the formerly all-German region of Pomerania; the
eastern part became part of Poland after the end of World War II.

In the Middle Ages, the area was ruled by the Pomeranian dukes as part of the Duchy of
Pomerania. Pomerania was under Swedish rule after the Peace of Westphalia from 1648 until
1815 as Swedish Pomerania. Pomerania then became a province of Prussia in 1815. It remained
a Prussian province until 1947.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern:
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern within East Germany, black: 1947 border, red: 1990 border
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern dissolved (northern districts Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg,
1947-1990In May 1945, the armies of the Soviet Union and the western allies met east of
Schwerin. Following the Potsdam Agreement, the western allies handed over Mecklenburg to
the Soviets. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was established in July 9, 1945, per order Nr. 5 of Red
Army marshall Georgy Zhukov, head of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
(SMAD), as the Province of Mecklenburg and West Pomerania (zapadnoi Pomeranii).[2]

During the war, the make-up of Mecklenburg and Vorpommern's population changed due to
wartime losses and the influx of evacuees (mainly from the Berlin and Hamburg metropolitan
areas that were subject to air raids). After the war, people who fled and were expelled from the
former eastern territories of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line settled in Mecklenburg-
Vorpommern (and elsewhere in Germany), increasing the population by 40%. Before the war,
Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania had a population of 1,278,700, of whom many perished
during the war and another share moved west in the course of the Red Army's advance. In
1947, some 1,426,000 refugees from the former eastern parts of Germany were counted. Most
of them were settled in rural communities, but also the towns' population increased, most
notably in Schwerin from 65,000 (1939) to 99,518 (January 1947), in Wismar from 29,463 to
44,173, and in Greifswald from 29,488 to 43,897.[3]


Rostock was East Germany's major seaportOn June 5, 1946, a law enacted by the Soviets led to
the constitution of a provisional German administration (Beratende Versammlung) under
Soviet supervision in June 29, 1946. After the "unfree" elections of October 20, 1946, a
Landtag replaced the Beratende Versammlung and worked out the constitution of January 16,
1947, for the Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In April 18, 1947, the state's name was
shortened to Land Mecklenburg. The GDR regime attempted to downplay the fact that
Germany had made significant concessions to Poland as a result of WWII including the
discontinuing the use of any terms referring to these former territories. Mecklenburg was a
constituent state of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) upon its formation in 1949. In
1952, the East Berlin government abandoned "states" in favour of districts (German: Bezirke).
As a result of this, Mecklenburg and Vorpommern were replaced by three districts covering
roughly the same area (Bezirk Rostock, Bezirk Schwerin and Bezirk Neubrandenburg,
commonly known as the Nordbezirke (northern districts)) under the highly-centralised GDR
government. The administrative changes also made the historical border between Mecklenburg
and Pomerania vanish from the maps. The East German government developed the shipyards
in the old Hanseatic ports (the largest being in Rostock and Stralsund), and also established a
nuclear power plant in Lubmin near Greifswald.

Prior to German reunification in 1990, the postwar eastern states were reconstituted, including
the use of the full historic term Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Since 1990, the state has
undergone dramatic changes.


Map of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, showing heights, waters and locations[edit] Geography
Sixth-largest in area but only fourteenth in overall population among Germany's sixteen
states, it is bounded to the north by the Baltic Sea, to the west by Schleswig-Holstein, to the
southwest by Lower Saxony, to the south by Brandenburg, and to the east by the West
Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. Its administrative seat is Schwerin. The largest city is
Rostock with approximately 200,000 people. Other major cities include Greifswald, Güstrow,
Neubrandenburg, Stralsund and Wismar. The state's Baltic Sea coast features several islands,
most notably Germany's biggest island Rügen, but also Hiddensee, Usedom and Poel. The
southern part of the state is marked by a multitude of lakes, the largest of which is Lake
Müritz.


Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the least densely populated and least industrial German state,
being the sixth largest in size, but only 14th in population. The unemployment rate of 11.8%
(Oktober 2009) [4], which has been negatively affected by rigorous economic reforms after the
German reunification in the 1990s, is currently the lowest in more than 15 years while the
economy is growing and the number of jobs increases continually.

Culture:
:Over the centuries, Mecklenburg and Vorpommern have developed and maintained strong
regional cultures. It can generally be described as North German and has similar linguistic and
historic characteristics to other north German states, such as Schleswig-Holstein. People in
Vorpommern, as a result of that territory being a former province of Prussia, tend to look
slightly more towards Berlin and Brandenburg than people in Mecklenburg would.

Architecture:
The cities are characterised by a certain "Hanseatic" style also found in other parts of
Northern Germany (e.g. Lübeck) as well as in countries bordering the Baltic Sea like Estonia
(e.g. Tallinn) or Latvia (e.g. Riga). A common feature of many towns in Mecklenburg and
Vorpommern are Gothic red brick churches dating back to the Middle Ages. The old towns are
usually built around one or several market places with a church or the town hall. Often towns
were founded at the Baltic Sea, one of the many Lakes or a river for logistical and trade
motives.

Mecklenburg State Theatre House in SchwerinMecklenburg-Vorpommern is home to many
cultural events throughout the year. In addition to many regular museums and art galleries,
Stralsund offers the very popular Deutsches Meeresmuseum (German Maritime Museum; the
most popular museum in Northern Germany), Ribnitz-Damgarten the Deutsches
Bernsteinmuseum (German Amber Museum).

During summer, many open air concerts and operas are open to visitors. The Festspiele
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Music Festival of MV) attract a sizeable audience by performing
classical concerts in parks, churches and castles.

Caspar David Friedrich, a famous romanticist painter born in Greifswald, immortalised parts of
the state in several of his paintings.

Language:
Low German dialectsWhereas today the vast majority of people speak Standard German (also
called High German, Hochdeutsch), a few centuries ago most people spoke what is called Low
German (German: Plattdeutsch or Niederdeutsch). It is not "low" in prestige, however, but
rather originates in the geographically lower (northern) part of Germany.

Due to several sound shifts in Standard German which did not occur in Low German, Low
German is rather distinct and is considered a separate language by some, a dialect of German
by others. At its highpoint, the late Middle Ages, it was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic
League, a trade organisation in northern Europe. More than 1500 years ago, "Old Low
German" (also known as Old Saxon) was also the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons, who
originally came from northern Germany before leaving for England. That is why, there is often
a closer similarity between English and Low German words than between English and
Standard/High German words, for instance:

English water = Low German water (High German: Wasser)
English he = Low German hei (High German: er)
Low German is protected by the state's constitution and, similar to Welsh in Wales, taught at
school and at university level. There is also a diverse Low German literature by such authors
as Fritz Reuter or Rudolf Tarnow. Low German has also been recognised by the Netherlands
and by Germany (since 1999) as a regional language according to the European Charter for
Regional or Minority Languages. Within the official terminology defined in the charter, this
status would not be available to a dialect of an official language. As a result of this, Germany
would appear, therefore, to have at least implicitly adopted the stance that Low German is not
a dialect of the German language, but rather a separate language.

Food and drinks:
Like most German regions, Mecklenburg and Vorpommern have their own traditional dishes,
often including fish, beef and pork. Rostock has its own type of bratwurst called Rostocker
Bratwurst. An unusual food from Western Pomerania is Tollatsch. Rote Grütze is a popular
dessert. The largest brewery produces Lübzer Pils.

Religion:
Evangelical Church in Germany 17.9 %[5], Catholic Church 3.3 %[6].

Following the Christian Reformation, led in Germany by Martin Luther, as well as a period of
Swedish rule, the traditional faith in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is Protestantism, specifically
Lutheranism. There are also a number of Catholics and people of other faiths. As a result of
the extremely secular laws of the former communist GDR, more than three quarters of the
population are now non-religious or agnostic.

Education:
University of Rostock
University of Greifswald[edit] Universities and colleges
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has two of the oldest universities of Germany, and indeed Europe:

University of Rostock (est 1419)
University of Greifswald (est. 1456)
Also, there are four colleges / technological universities.

Fachhochschule Stralsund
Hochschule Wismar
Hochschule Neubrandenburg
Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock
Baltic College Güstrow
Fachhochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung, Rechtspflege und Polizei in Güstrow

Schools:
The state's school system is centralised. There are two main types of schools, Regionalschule
(for the majority of pupils) and Gymnasium (for the top 30% of each year's students, leading
to the university entrance qualification "Abitur"). Besides, there are also independent schools,
comprehensive schools, and trade schools.

Politics:
Schwerin - State capital and seat of the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern[edit]
Minister President
The Schwerin-based executive is led by a cabinet, in turn led by a Minister-President, who is
the official head of government.

Tourism:
A historic street in WismarThe "state of a thousand lakes" is mainly characterised by its
unspoilt nature. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's varied coastline offers peninsulas such as
Fischland-Darß-Zingst as well islands like Rügen (Germany's largest island), Hiddensee or
Usedom. The state also focuses on medical tourism[7] based on the clean air and idyllic settings
by the Baltic Sea.[7]

A total number of 283 nature reserves, 110 landscape reserves and three of Germany's 14
national parks are scattered all over the state - the most prominent perhaps being Jasmund
National Park, Müritz National Park and Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park.
Many lakes used for fishing and sailing are in the Mecklenburg Lake District.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern also attracts tourists with its nearly 2,000 castles, palaces and
manor houses, which often function as venues for concerts and festivals.

The old towns of Wismar and Stralsund are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and
feature late Gothic red brick architecture so typical for Hanseatic cities.

Main sporting attractions include Fußball-Bundesliga, F.C. Hansa Rostock and the
international sailing event Hanse Sail. Had the bid for the 2012 summer Olympics in Leipzig
been successful, the sailing competitions would have taken place off the coast of Rostock.

=========================================

             Lower Saxony
         From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lower Saxony borders on (from north and clockwise) the North Sea, the states of Schleswig-
Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia,
Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In total, Lower
Saxony borders more neighboring states than any other federal state. The state of Bremen
forms two enclaves within Lower Saxony, one being the city of Bremen, the other its seaport
city of Bremerhaven. The state's principal cities include Hanover, Braunschweig, Osnabrück,
Oldenburg, and Göttingen.

The northwestern portion of Lower Saxony is a part of Frisia; it is called Ostfriesland (East
Frisia) and lies on the coast of the North Sea. It includes seven islands, known as the East
Frisian Islands. In the extreme west of Lower Saxony is the Emsland, a traditionally poor and
sparsely populated area, once dominated by inaccessible swamps. The northern half of Lower
Saxony, also known as the North German Plains, is almost invariably flat except for the gentle
hills around the Bremen geestland. Towards the south and southwest lie the northern parts of
the German Central Highlands, the Weserbergland (Weser mountain range) and the Harz
mountains. Between these two lies the Lower Saxon Hill Country, a range of minor elevations.
Lower Saxony's major cities and economic centres are mainly situated in its central and
southern parts, namely Hanover, Braunschweig, Osnabrück, Wolfsburg, Salzgitter, Hildesheim
and Göttingen. Oldenburg, near the northwestern coastline, is another economic center. The
region in the northeast is called Lüneburger Heide (Lüneburg Heath), the largest heathland
area of Germany and in medieval times wealthy due to salt mining and salt trade, as well as to
a lesser degree the exploitation of its peat bogs up until about the 1960s. To the north, the Elbe
river separates Lower Saxony from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania and Brandenburg. The banks just south of the Elbe are known as Altes Land (Old
Country). Due to its gentle local climate and fertile soil it is the state's largest area of fruit
farming, its chief produce being apples.

Religion:
Evangelical Church in Germany 50.8 %[1], Catholic Church 17.6 %[2].


Oldenburg
Osnabrück
Salzgitter
Wilhelmshaven
Wolfsburg
¹ following the "Göttingen Law" of January 1, 1964, the town of Göttingen is incorporated into
the district (Landkreis) of Göttingen, but the rules on urban districts still apply, as long as no
other rules exist.
² following the "Law on the region of Hanover", Hanover counts since November 1, 2001 as an
urban district as long as no other rules apply.

History:

Ordinance No. 55, with which on November 22, 1946 the British military government founded
the state Lower Saxony retroactively to November 1, 1946.The area is named after the Saxons.
The Saxons lived in today's state of Schleswig-Holstein and merged with the Chauci on the left
bank of the river Elbe until the middle of the 1st millennium AD. They then expanded over the
whole of today's Lower Saxony and further. Originally the region was simply called Saxony, but
as the center of gravity of the Duchy of Saxony gradually moved up the Elbe, towards the
present-day states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony, the region was given the name of Lower
Saxony, which it bore as an Imperial Circle Estate from the late 15th century on.

Historically, Low Saxony esp. the southern regions or the Gottingen region sought a high
degree of autonomy.[citation needed]

The state was founded in 1946 by the British military administration, who merged the former
states of Brunswick, Oldenburg, and Schaumburg-Lippe with the former Prussian province of
Hanover.

After the Second World War, the military authorities appointed the first Legislative Assembly
(Landtag) in 1946, followed by a direct election of Lower Saxony's legislature a year later. It
resulted in the election of Social Democrat leader Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf, who became the first
prime minister. Kopf led a five-party coalition, whose basic task was to rebuild a state affected
by the war's rigours. Kopf's cabinet had to organise an improvement of food supplies and the
reconstruction of the cities and towns destroyed by the Allied air raids of the war years. In
addition, the first state government also faced the challenge of integrating hundreds of
thousands of refugees from Germany's former territories in the east (such as Silesia and East
Prussia), which had been annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union.

Between 1978 and 2004, the state's districts and independent towns were grouped into four
administrative regions (Regierungsbezirke): Since 2004 the Bezirksregierungen have been
broken up again.

Braunschweig
Hannover (Hanover)
Lüneburg
Weser-Ems

Economy:
Agriculture has always been a very important economic factor in Lower Saxony. Wheat,
potatoes, rye, and oats as well as beef, pork and poultry are some of the state's present-day
agricultural products. The north and northwest of Lower Saxony are mainly made up of coarse
sandy soil that makes crop farming difficult and therefore grassland and cattle farming are
more prevalent in those areas. Towards the south and southeast, extensive loess layers in the
soil left behind by the last ice age allow high-yield crop farming. One of the principal crops
there is sugar beet.

Mining has been an important source of income in Lower Saxony for centuries. Silver ore
became a foundation of notable economic prosperity in the Harz Mountains as early as the
1100s, while iron mining in the Salzgitter area and salt mining in various areas of the state
became another important economic backbone. Although overall yields are comparatively low,
Lower Saxony is also an important supplier of crude oil in the European Union. Mineral
products still mined today include iron and lignite.

Radioactive waste is frequently transported in the area to the city of Salzgitter, for the deep
geological repository Schacht Konrad and between Schacht Asse II in the Wolfenbüttel district
and Lindwedel and Höfer.

Manufacturing is another large part of the regional economy. Despite decades of gradual
downsizing and restructuring, the car maker Volkswagen with its five production plants within
the state's borders still remains the single biggest private-sector employer, its world
headquarters based in Wolfsburg. Due to a legal act commonly known as the Volkswagen Law
that has just recently been ruled illegal by the European Union's high court, the state of Lower
Saxony is still the second largest shareholder, owning 20.3% of the company. [3] Due to the
importance of car manufacturing in Lower Saxony, a thriving supply industry is centered
around its regional focal points. Other mainstays of the Lower Saxon industrial sector include
aviation, shipbuilding, biotechnology, and steel.

The service sector has gained importance following the demise of manufacturing in the 1970s
and 1980s. Important branches today are the tourism industry with TUI AG in Hanover, one of
Europe's largest travel companies, as well as trade and telecommunication.

Politics of Lower Saxony:
Since 1948, politics in the state has been dominated by the rightist Christian Democratic Union
(CDU) and the leftist Social Democratic Party. Lower Saxony was one of the origins of the
German environmentalist movement in reaction to the state government's support for
underground nuclear waste disposal. This led to the formation of the German Green Party in
1980.

The current Minister-President, Der Böse Wolf, has led a coalition of his CDU with the Free
Democratic Party since 2003. In the most recent state election in 2008, the ruling APPD held
on to its position as the leading party in the state, despite losing votes and seats. The CDU's
coalition with the Free Democratic Party retained its majority although it was cut from 29 to 10.

The election also saw the entry into the state parliament for the first time of the leftist The
Left party.

Constitution:
The state of Lower Saxony was formed after World War II by merging the former states of
Hanover, Oldenburg, Brunswick and Schaumburg-Lippe. Hanover, a former kingdom, is by far
the largest of these contributors by area and population and has been a province of Prussia
since 1866. The city of Hanover is the largest and capital city of Lower Saxony.

The constitution states that Lower Saxony be a libertarian, republican, social and
environmentally sustainable state inside the Federal Republic of Germany; universal human
rights, peace and justice are preassigned guidelines of society, and the human rights and civil
liberties proclaimed by the constitution of the Federal Republic are genuine constituents of the
constitution of Lower Saxony. Each citizen is entitled for education and there is universal
compulsory school attendance.

All government authority is to be sanctioned by the will of the people which expresses itself via
elections and plebiscites. The legislative assembly is a unicameral parliament elected for terms
of five years. The composition of the parliament obeys to the principle of proportional
representation of the participating political parties, but it is also ensured that each
constituency delegates one directally elected representative. If a party wins more constituency
delegates than their statewide share among the parties would determine, it can keep all these
constituency delegates.

The governor of the state (prime minister) and his ministers are elected by the parliament. As
there is a system of five political parties in Germany and so also in Lower Saxony, it is usually
the case that two or more parties negotiate for a common political agenda and a commonly
determined composition of government where the party with the biggest share of the
electorate fills the seat of the governor. Currently (January 2010), the coalition majority is
formed by the conservative CDU party with governor Christian Wulff and the radically
capitalistic FDP. The opposition thus consists of the social democrats (SPD), the liberal "Green
Party" and the leftist Socialists.

The states of the Federal Republic of Germany, and so Lower Saxony, have legislative
responsibility and power mainly reduced to the policy fields of the school system, higher
education, culture and media and police, whereas the more important policy fields like
economic and social polcies, foreign policy etc. are a prerogative of the federal government.
Hence the probably most important function of the federal states is their representation in the
Federal Council (Bundesrat), where their approval on many crucial federal policy fields,
including the tax system, is required for laws to become inacted. Currently, the federal
government which is equally to Lower Saxony formed by the CDU with chancellor Angela
Merkel and the FDP, can count on a majority of CDU/FDP governments in the Federal
Council; but if only one of the CDU/FDP governments would loose their majority in state
elections, this majority would no longer exist so that a crucial part of federal policies would
require for the federal government to negotiate with the opposition parties.

==================================

 North Rhine - Westphalia
   From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

North Rhine-Westphalia (German: Nordrhein-Westfalen  Nordrhein-Westfalen (help·info),
usually shortened to NRW, official short form NW) is the westernmost, most populous, and
most economically powerful state of Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia has about 18 million
inhabitants, contributes about 22% of Germany's gross domestic product and comprises a land
area of 34,083 km² (13,158 square miles). North Rhine-Westphalia is situated in the western
part of Germany and shares borders with Belgium in the southwest and the Netherlands in the
west and northwest. It has borders with the German states of Lower Saxony to the north and
northeast, Rhineland-Palatinate to the south and Hesse to the southeast.

The capital city is Düsseldorf, and the largest city is Cologne (Köln). Other major cities are
Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Aachen, Bielefeld, Bonn, Bochum, Bottrop, Bergisch
Gladbach, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim, Münster, Gelsenkirchen, Krefeld, Hagen, Hamm,
Herne, Iserlohn, Leverkusen, Neuss, Paderborn, Recklinghausen, Remscheid, Siegen,
Solingen, Witten and Wuppertal.

Once, the Ruhrgebiet was affected by coal mining and coal and steel industry but, from the
1960s on, a structural change took place. Even after the fall of these industries, the Rhine-
Ruhr metropolitan region is affected by important basic industries and is one of the German
economic centres. In absolute figures, North Rhine-Westphalia remains the most powerful
state, economically.

Geography:
The state is centred on the sprawling Rhine-Ruhr urbanised region, which contains the cities of
Düsseldorf, Bonn and Cologne as well as the Ruhr Area industrial complex. The Ruhr area
consists of, among others, the cities of Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen
and Oberhausen.

The state's area covers a maximum distance of 291 km from north to south, and 266 km from
east to west.

The total length of the state's borders is 1,645 km. The following countries and states have a
border with North Rhine-Westphalia:

For many people North Rhine-Westphalia is synonymous with industrial areas and
agglomerating cities. But the largest part of the state is used for agriculture (almost 52%), and
forests cover 25%.[4] The southern parts of the Teutoburg Forest are located in the northeast.
In the southwest, Nordrhein-Westfalen shares in a small part of the Eifel, located on the
borders with Belgium and Rheinland-Pfalz. The southeast is occupied by the sparsely populated
regions of Sauerland and Siegerland. The northwestern areas of the state are part of the
Northern European Lowlands.

The most important rivers that run at least partially through North Rhine-Westphalia include:
Rhine, Ruhr, Ems, Lippe and Weser. The Pader, which runs only through the city
of Paderborn, is considered the shortest river in Germany.

Location and topography:
North Rhine-Westphalia is located in the west of the Federal Republic of Germany. The north
widely extends into the North German Plain. The northernmost point is the NRW-Nordpunkt
near Rahden in the northeast of the state. The Nordpunkt is located only 100 km to the south
of the North Sea coast. The deepest natural dip is arranged in the district Zyfflich in the city of
Kranenburg with 9.2m above sea level in the northwest of the state. Though, the deepest point
overground results from mining. The open-pit Hambach reaches at Niederzier a deep of 293m
below sea level. At the same time, this is the deepest man-made dip in Germany.
Approximately half of the state is located in the relative shallow regions of the Westphalian
Lowland or rather the Rhineland. In the lowlands are a few isolated mountain ranges located,
thereunder the Hohe Mark, the Beckumer Berge, the Baumberge and the Stemmer Berge.
Towards the south as well as in the east of the state, the terrain rises. There, the state has a
stake in the Mittelgebirgsregionen. To this are counted the Weser Hills with the Eggegebirge,
the Wiehengebirge, the Wesergebirge and the Teutoburg Forest in the east, the Sauerland, the
Bergisches Land, the Siegerland and the Siebengebirge in the south, as well as the Eifel left-
bank in the southwest of the state. The Rothaargebirge in the border region to Hesse exhibits
elevations about 800m above sea level. The highest among these mountains is the Langenberg
with 843.2m above sea level, then follow the Kahler Asten (840.7m above sea level) and the
Clemensberg (839.2m above sea level).

The planimetrical ascertained centre of North Rhine-Westphalia is located in the south of
Dortmund-Aplerbeck in the Aplerbecker Mark (51° 28' 42" N, 7° 33' 18" O). The westernmost
point is situated near Selfkant close to the Dutch border, the easternmost near Höxter on the
Weser and the southernmost near Hellenthal in the Eifel region in the southwest of the state.

The state consists of five administrative regions (Regierungsbezirke), divided into 31 districts
(Kreise) and 23 urban districts (kreisfreie Städte). In total, North Rhine-Westphalia has 396
municipalities (1997), including the urban districts, which are municipalities by themselves.


(Northern) Rhineland and WestphaliaThe districts of North Rhine-Westphalia:

Aachen
Borken
Coesfeld
Düren
Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis
Rhein-Erft-Kreis
Euskirchen
Gütersloh
Heinsberg
Herford
Hochsauerlandkreis
Höxter
Kleve
Lippe
Märkischer Kreis
Mettmann
Minden-Lübbecke
Rhein-Kreis Neuss
Oberbergischer Kreis
Olpe
Paderborn
Recklinghausen
Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis
Rhein-Sieg-Kreis
Siegen-Wittgenstein
Soest
Steinfurt
Unna
Viersen
Warendorf
Wesel

The urban districts:

Aachen
Bielefeld
Bochum
Bonn
Bottrop
Cologne
Dortmund
Duisburg
Düsseldorf
Essen
Gelsenkirchen
Hagen
Hamm
Herne
Krefeld
Leverkusen
Mönchengladbach
Mülheim
Münster
Oberhausen
Remscheid
Solingen
Wuppertal


Duisburg Lake Masuren in the industrial region of the RuhrThe five administrative regions—
also called regional districts—belonging to one of two Landschaftsverbände:

Rheinland (LVR)
Köln
Düsseldorf
Westfalen-Lippe (LWL)
Arnsberg
Münster
Detmold

According to the concept used, the state can be differently arranged. Most common is the
subdivision according to several sociocultural, historical, biogeographical and agricultural
references. Thus, North Rhine-Westphalia firstly has to be divided into its three parts
Northrhine (northern Rhineland, mostly simply called Rhineland), Westfalen and Lippe, which
were allied in 1946/47 to the state North Rhine-Westphalia. Especially between Lippe and
Westfalen on the one side and the Rhineland on the other side, there are clear historical and
cultural differences. The third part of the state, Lippe, which did not enter the already existing
state of North Rhine-Westphalia until 1947/48, is - as a former German Federal State which
had been independent for about 800 years - mostly seen as an independent region and its own
part of the landscape. According to the criteria chosen, an approximate further subdivision
could be made like this:

Rhineland
Bergisches Land
Eifel
Aachen
Lower Rhine
Rheinschiene
Cologne/Bonn
Westfalen
Münsterland
Minden-Ravensberg
Prince-Bishopric Paderborn
Sauerland
Siegerland
Tecklenburger Land
Lippe
Lipper Land, the region of the ancient free state

History:
Augustusburg Palace in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia.The state of North Rhine-Westphalia
was established by the British military administration on 23 August 1946. Originally
it consisted of Westphalia and the northern parts of the Rhine Province, both formerly
belonging to Prussia. In 1947 the former state of Lippe was merged with North Rhine-
Westphalia, hence leading to the present borders of the state. It then passed, and ratified
through a plebiscite the constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The North Rhine-Westphalia state election on May 22, 2005 granted the CDU an unexpected
victory. Their top candidate Jürgen Rüttgers built a new coalition government consisting of
CDU and FDP that replaced the former government headed by Peer Steinbrück. Rüttgers was
elected new Prime Minister (German: Ministerpräsident) of the federal state on June 22, 2005.

Flag:
The flag of North Rhine-Westphalia is green-white-red with the combined coats of arms of the
Prussian Rhine province (white line before green background, symbolizing the river Rhine),
Westfalen (the white horse) and Lippe (the red rose).

According to legend the horse in the Westphalian coat of arms is the horse that the Saxon
leader Widukind rode after his baptism. Other theories attribute the horse to Henry the Lion.
Some connect it with the saxon rulers Hengest and Horsa.

A regional anthem is the Lied für NRW (Song for NRW).

Politics of North Rhine-Westphalia:
These are the Prime Ministers (German: Ministerpräsident) of the Federal State (German:
Bundesland) of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW):

Religion:
42 %[5] of the people are Roman Catholic and 28 %[6] of the people are members of the
Evangelical Church in Germany.

==================================

        Rhineland-Palatinate
            From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of Germany. It has an area of 19,846 square
kilometres (7,663 sq mi) and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English
speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz (pronounced
[ˈʁaɪnlant ˈpfalts]).

History:
The federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate was established on 30 August 1946. It was formed
from the northern part of the French Occupation Zone, which included parts of Bavaria (the
Rhenish Palatinate), the southern parts of the Prussian Rhine Province (including the District
of Birkenfeld which formerly belonged to Oldenburg), parts of the Prussian Province of Nassau
(see Hesse-Nassau), and parts of Hesse-Darmstadt (Rhinehessen on the western banks of the
Rhine); the new state was legally confirmed by referendum on 18 May 1947.

Geography:
Situated in western Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate borders (from the north and clockwise)
North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, France, Saarland, Luxembourg and
Belgium.

The largest river in the state is the Rhine, which forms the border with Baden-Württemberg
and Hesse in the southeast before flowing through the northern part of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The Rhine Valley is bounded by mountain chains and forms a fascinating landscape containing
some of the most historically significant places in Germany.

The Eifel and Hunsrück mountain chains are found on the west bank of the Rhine in northern
Rhineland-Palatinate, while the Westerwald and Taunus mountains are found on the east
bank. The hilly lands in the southernmost region of the state are covered by the Palatinate
forest and the Palatinate.

These mountain chains are separated from each other by several tributaries of the Rhine: the
Mosel, the Lahn and the Nahe.

Religion:
Catholic Church 45.7 %[2], Evangelical Church in Germany 31.4 %[3].

Politics of Rhineland-Palatinate:
Every five years, all Germans residing in the State over the age of 18 elect the members of the
Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag. This regional parliament or legislature then elects the premier
and confirms the cabinet members. Rhineland-Palatinate is the only German Bundesland to
have a cabinet minister for winegrowing (Ministry of Economy, Traffic, Agriculture and
Winegrowing)

Agriculture and viticulture:
Rhineland-Palatinate is Germany's leading producer of wine. In terms of grape cultivation as
well as wine export Rhineland-Palatinate is the leading federal state. Its capital, Mainz, may be
called the capital of the German wine industry, with the home of the German Wine Institute,
the German Wine Fund in the Haus des Deutschen Weines (House of the German Wine), as
well as the venue of the Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter Wine Bourse,
which brings together the top winemakers of Germany and the wine merchants of the world.

Six out of all thirteen wine regions for quality wine in Germany, Rheinhessen, Pfalz, Mosel,
Nahe, Mittelrhein and Ahr are located in Rhineland-Palatinate. Due to this fact 65% to 70% of
the whole production output of wine grapes in Germany have their origin within this federal
state. 13,000 wine producers generate 80% to 90% of the German wine export, which was 2.6
million hectoliters in 2003.

Traditional grape varieties as well as a wide range of varieties developed during the last 125
years are characteristic for the region. Classical white varieties are cultivated at 63,683
hectares (157,360 acres). These comprise the famous Rieslings 14,446 hectares (35,700 acres),
Müller-Thurgau (8,663 hectares (21,410 acres)), Silvaner (3,701 hectares (9,150 acres)) and
Kerner (3,399 hectares (8,400 acres)).

The share of red varieties grew constantly during the last decades and amounts to 20,000
hectares (49,000 acres). Dornfelder, a new breed, is the leading red grape cultivated on 7,626
hectares (18,840 acres), which is more than a third. Blauer Portugieser (4,446 hectares (10,990
acres)) and Spätburgunder (3,867 hectares (9,560 acres)) show also appreciable cultivated
shares.

Beside these Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay as white varieties and Regent and St.
Laurent as red varieties are increasing their share throughout the years, as the growing
conditions improve in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The land supports the wine industry by providing a comprehensive consultancy and education
program in the service supply centers (German: DLR) of the land. The Geilweilerhof Institute
for Grape Breeding and also the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute are fully or even
partially financed by the land. Many well known new breeds like Morio-Muskat, Bacchus,
Optima and Regent have been created in these institutes.

The world wide leader in sparkling wine production, producing 245 million bottles in 2006, is
the renowned Schloss Wachenheim Group. This company has its roots and its operations at
different places in Rhineland-Palatinate and is headquartered in Trier.

Industry:
Important sectors are the chemical industry with the largest chemical company in the world
(BASF), headquartered in Ludwigshafen, the pharmaceutical industry with Boehringer
Ingelheim in Ingelheim am Rhein and the mechanical engineering for important car
manufacturers like Opel (engines in Kaiserslautern) or the biggest European truck
manufacturer Daimler-Truck-Group in Wörth am Rhein, as well as Stabilus, a manufacturer
of shock absorbers and world market leader in pneumatic springs and Schottel for nautical
engineering. Cookie and cracker specialist Griesson - de Beukelaer is one of the leading
biscuit manufacturers in Germany. Bitburger is one of the major brewers in Germany and the
Gerolsteiner Brunnen is also a leader in its sector, the mineral water bottlers. The 17th-
century brewery Königsbacher is in Koblenz. The famous electronic organ manufacturer Wersi
is headquartered in Halsenbach.

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is the only international passenger airport in RP.

Emigration:
Rhineland-Palatinate has supplied immigrants to many parts of the world. The names of the
villages of New Paltz, Palatine Bridge and German Flatts, New York and Palatine, Illinois attest
to settlements of Palatine Germans. The Hunsrückischen dialect in Brazil also bears testimony
to an immigrant community.

The Pennsylvania Dutch spoken by the Amish people in the United States is (among other
dialects) derived from the German dialect spoken in the Rhineland-Palatinate, which many
Palatine refugees brought to the colony in the early decades of the 1700s.

Certain colonies in the United States were settled by major groups of poor Palatines—then
refugees in England—passage paid for by Queen Anne of Great Britain to reduce the number
of impoverished families who had taken refuge in London. In 1710 the English used ten ships
to transport nearly 3,000 Germans to the colony of New York. Many died en route, as they had
been weakened by disease. They were settled in work camps along the Hudson River, where
they developed naval stores for the English to work off their passage. Churches set up in both
the East and West Camps provided some of the earliest population records in New York. In
1723 the first hundred heads of families were allowed to acquire land west of Little Falls, New
York along the Mohawk River, in what was called the Burnetsfield Patent after the governor.
This became Herkimer County. The Germans and their descendants were important in the
defense of the Mohawk Valley during the American Revolutionary War.

One of the most notable is New Bern, one of the earliest North Carolina colonies settled in
1710 by about 400 Palatines (650 left Germany, but about half died in passage) and 100 Swiss.
This venture was orchestrated by the Swiss-born Christoph von Graffenried after purchasing
more than 19,000 acres (7,700 ha) from the British Proprieters of Carolana (later called
Carolina).

==================================
               Saarland
     From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saarland (German pronunciation: [ˈzaːɐ̯lant]; French: Sarre) is one of the 16 states of
Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In
both area and population, it is the smallest of the German Flächenländer ("area states"), i.e.,
those that are not city-states (Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg). Its location between French and
German powers has given Saarland a unique history. It was the only state to join the Federal
Republic of Germany between 1949 and the German reunification in 1990.

Religion:
Catholic Church 64.1 %[2], Evangelical Church in Germany 19.6 %[3].

Saarland has the highest concentration of Roman Catholics of any German state, and is one of
two states (the other being Bavaria) in which Catholics form an overall majority.

Geography;
"Saarschleife" (Bend in the Saar) near MettlachThe state borders France (département of
Moselle, which forms part of the région of Lorraine) [4] to the south and west, Luxembourg to
the west and Rheinland-Pfalz to the north and the east.

It is named after the Saar River, a tributary of the Moselle River (itself a tributary of the
Rhine), which runs through the state from the south to the northwest. One third of the land
area of the Saarland is covered by forest, one of the highest percentages in Germany.
The state is generally hilly; the highest mountain is the Dollberg with a height of 695.4 m
(about 2,280 feet).

Most inhabitants live in a city agglomeration on the French border, surrounding the capital of
Saarbrücken.

At no time before World War I was there a single independent territory in the region of the
Saarland. The region of the Saarland was settled by the Celtic tribes of Treveri and
Mediomatrices. The most impressive relic of their time is the remains of a fortress of refuge at
Otzenhausen in the north of the Saarland. In the first century BC, the Roman Empire made
the region part of its province of Belgica. The Celtic population mixed with the Roman
immigrants. The region gained wealth, which can still be seen in the remains of Roman villas
and villages.

Roman rule ended in the 5th century, when the Franks conquered the territory. The region of
the Saarland was divided into several small territories, some of which were ruled by sovereigns
of adjoining regions. Over the years these territories gained a wide range of independence,
threatened only by the French kings, who sought to incorporate all the territories on the
western side of the river Rhine.

It was not the king of France but the armies of the French Revolution who terminated the
independence of the states in the region of the Saarland. In 1792 they conquered the
region and made it part of the French Republic. Most of the villages became part of the
Département de la Sarre, with some villages in the east becoming part of the Département of
Donnersberg. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the region was divided into three parts.
Most of it became part of the Prussian Rhine Province. Another part, corresponding
approximately to the Saarpfalz district, was allocated to the Kingdom of Bavaria. The smallest
part, the village of Nohfelden, was ruled by the Duke of Oldenburg.

On July 31, 1870, the French Emperor Napoleon III ordered an invasion across the Saar River
to seize Saarbrücken. The first shots of the Franco-Prussian War 1870/71 were fired on the
heights of Spichern, south of Saarbrücken. After the war, the German Empire was
founded and the Saar region became part of it.

Saar (League of Nations):
In 1920 the Saargebiet was occupied by Britain and France under the provisions of the
Treaty of Versailles. The occupied area also included portions of the Prussian Rhine Province
and the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate. In practice the region was administered by France. In
1920 this was formalized by a 15-year League of Nations mandate.

In 1933, a considerable number of communists and other political opponents of the Nazis
fled to the Saar, as it was the only part of Germany that remained under foreign occupation
following the First World War. As a result, anti-Nazi groups agitated for the Saarland
to remain under French administration. However, with most of the population being ethnically
German and with strong local anti-French sentiments deeply entrenched, such views were
considered suspect or even treasonable, and therefore found little support.


Germany stamp on the plebisciteWhen the original 15 year term was over, a plebiscite
was held in the territory on 13 January 1935: 90.3% of those voting favored rejoining
Germany.

Following the referendum Josef Bürckel (a Nazi) was appointed on 1 March 1935 as
the German Reich's commissioner for reintegration (Reichskommissar für die Rückgliederung
des Saarlandes). When the reincorporation was considered accomplished, his title was changed
(after 17 June 1936) to Reichskommissar für das Saarland. A further change was made after 8
April 1940 to Reichskommissar für die Saarpfalz; finally, after 11 March 1941, he was made
Reichsstatthalter in der "Westmark" (the region's new name, meaning "Western March or
Border"), until 28 September 1944, when he was succeeded by Willi Stöhr (also a Nazi),
until 21 March 1945.

History after World War II:
After World War II, the Saarland came under French occupation and administration again, as
the Saar Protectorate.

Under the Monnet Plan France attempted to gain economic control of the German industrial
areas with large coal and mineral deposits that were not in Soviet hands - the Ruhr area and
the Saar area. Attempts to gain control of or permanently internationalize the Ruhr area (see
International Authority for the Ruhr ) were abandoned in 1951 with the German agreement to
pool its coal and steel resources (see European Coal and Steel Community) in return for full
political control of the Ruhr. The French attempt to gain economic control over the Saar was
more successful at the time, with the final vestiges of French economic influence ending in
1981. Unlike the Soviet-controlled Poland in Upper Silesia, France did not annex the Saar and
did not forcibly expel the local German population.

In his speech Restatement of Policy on Germany, made in Stuttgart on September 6, 1946,
United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes stated the U.S. motive in detaching the Saar
from Germany: "The United States does not feel that it can deny to France, which has been
invaded three times by Germany in 70 years, its claim to the Saar territory". (See also
Morgenthau plan for U.S. and UK designs for the Saar area.)

In the years from 1945 to 1951 a policy of industrial disarmament was pursued in Germany by
the Allies (see the industrial plans for Germany). As part of this policy, limits were placed on
production levels, and industries in the Saar were dismantled just as in the Ruhr, although
mostly in the period prior to its detachment (see also the 1949 letter from the UK Foreign
Secretary Ernest Bevin to the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, urging a
reconsideration of the dismantling policy).

The Saar Protectorate was headed by a military governor from 30 August 1945: Gilbert Yves
Édmond Grandval (b. 1904 - d. 1981), who remained on 1 January 1948 as High Commissioner,
and January 1952 - June 1955 as the first of two French ambassadors, his successor being Eric
de Carbonnel (b. 1910 - d. 1965) until 1956. Saarland, however, was allowed a regional
administration very soon, consecutively headed by:

a President of the Government:
31 July 1945 - 8 June 1946: Hans Neureuther, Non-party
a Chairman of the (until 15 December 1947, Provisional) Administration Commission:
8 June 1946 - 20 December 1947: Erwin Müller (b. 1906 - d. 1968), Non-party
Minister-presidents (as in any Bundesland):
20 December 1947 - 29 October 1955 Johannes Hoffmann (b. 1890 - d. 1967), CVP
29 October 1955 - 10 January 1956 Heinrich Welsch (b. 1888 - d. 1976), Non-party
10 January 1956 - 4 June 1957 Hubert Ney (b. 1892 - d. 1984), CDU
In 1954, France and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) developed a detailed
plan called the Saarstatut to establish an independent Saarland. It was signed as an agreement
between the two countries on October 23, 1954 as one of the Paris Pacts but a plebiscite held on
October 23, 1955 rejected it by 67.7%. On 27 October 1956 the Saar Treaty declared that
Saarland should be allowed to join the Federal Republic of Germany, which it did on 1 January
1957. This was the last significant international border change in Europe until the fall of
Communism.

The Saarland's reunification with the Federal Republic of Germany was sometimes referred to
as the kleine Wiedervereinigung ("small reunification", in contrast with the post-Cold War
reabsorption of the GDR). Even after reunification, the Saar franc remained as the territory's
currency until West Germany's Deutsche Mark replaced it on 7 July 1959. The Saar Treaty
established that French, not English as in the rest of West Germany, should remain the first
foreign language taught in Saarland schools; this provision is still largely followed today,
although it is no longer binding.

Since 1971, Saarland has been a member of SaarLorLux, a euroregion created from Saarland,
Lorraine, Luxembourg, Rhineland Palatinate and Wallonia.

Other:
The Saar competed in the qualifying section of the 1954 football World Cup, but failed after
coming second to West Germany but ahead of Norway. It also competed in the 1952 Summer
Olympics (see Saar at the 1952 Summer Olympics).

From 1920 to 1935, and then from 1947 to 1959, the inhabitants used postage stamps issued
specially for the territory; see postage stamps and postal history of the Saar for details.

In 1954, the Paris mint coined 10, 20, and 50 "franken" pieces. The following year a 100
franken was also minted. After reunification, Saarland switched to the West German mark.

Between 1950 and 1956, Saarland was a member of the Council of Europe.

One of Lufthansa's Boeing 747-400s (registered D-ABVS) is named Saarland.

Politics of Saarland:
Saarland has been governed by the rightist Christian Democratic Union since 1999. In
the most recent elections in 2009, the CDU lost its absolute majority and is not able to even
form government with the right of centre Liberals (FDP). The left of centre Social Democrats,
the left-wing, post-communist Left Party, and the Greens won a majority of seats, however, on
the 11 of October 2009, the Greens announced their intention to form a coalition with the CDU
and the FDP. Such a coalition is known in Germany as the Jamaica coalition and is highly
experimental. It could potentially shape future coalition governments on both a regional and
national scale.

Since Saarland joined the Federal Republic of Germany, the CDU has governed the state for 37
out of 51 years. The center-left Social Democratic Party of Germany ruled for 14 years (1985-
1998), with Oskar Lafontaine serving as minister-president.

Economy:
Important income sources are automobile industry, steel industry, coal mining, ceramic
industry and computer science and information systems industry.

In 2005 Saarland the highest economic growth in GDP among German states.

People in the Saarland speak Rhine Franconian (in the southeast, very similar to that dialect
spoken in the western part of the Palatinate) and Moselle Franconian (in the northwest, very
similar to that dialect spoken along the Moselle River and the cities of Trier or even in
Luxembourg), dialects of German[6]. Outside of the Saarland, specifically the Rhine-
Franconian variant spoken in the Landeshauptstadt Saarbrücken is generally considered to be
the Saarland dialect. The two dialect regions are mainly separated by the "das/ dat"
isogloss. In the northwestern portion of the state, including cities such as Saarlouis, standard
German "das" is pronounced with a final "t" instead of an "s".

In general, both dialects are an integral part of the “Saarlandish” identity and thus a strong
source of local patriotism.

Both dialects, even more so in their respective Saarland flavour, share many characteristic
features, some of which will be explained below.

Women and girls are often referred to using the neuter grammatical gender, es, with the
pronunciation being something like Ähs. Ähs hat mir's gesaat (it told me so, instead of
she told me so; vs. High German: Sie hat es mir gesagt). This stems from the word Mädchen
(girl) being neuter in German (es is correct in German when referring to words like Mädchen
but would not be used by itself in reference to a woman).

The conjunctive in Rhine Franconian is normally composed with the words dääd (High German
“tät” = “would do”) or gäng (“would go”) as auxiliary verbs: Isch dääd saan, dass... (“I would
say that...”) instead of the High German Ich würde sagen, dass....

Declension is rather different:
The genitive case does not exist at all and is entirely replaced by constructs with the dative
case.
In most instances, a word is not altered when cast into the dative case. Exceptions are mostly
pronouns.
The same holds for the accusative case. Even more so, it is accepted practice to use the
nominative case instead of the accusative.
Diphthongs are almost non-existent. The Saarlandish variant of a High-German word that
contains a diphthong usually will have a long vowel in its place. Moreover, the vowels ö and
ü do not exist in the dialect. They are generally replaced by e and i respectively.

Both the Rhein-Franconian and Mosel-Franconian dialects (and Luxemburgish) have merged
the palatal fricative "ich" sound with the post-alveolar fricative (the sound in
"schule") causing minimal pairs such as "Kirche" and "Kirsche" to be pronounced in the
same way.

French has had a considerable influence on the vocabulary, although the pronunciation of
imported French words usually is quite different from their original. Popular examples
comprise Trottwaa (from trottoir), Fissääl (from ficelle), and the imperative or greeting aalleh!
(from allez!).

The English phrase My house is green is pronounced almost the same (in the
Rhine Franconian variant): Mei Haus is grien. The main difference lies in the pronunciation of
the r sound.

Regional beer brewer Karlsberg has taken advantage of the Saarlandish dialect to create clever
advertising for its staple product, UrPils. Examples include a trio of men enjoying a beer,
flanked by baby carriages, the slogan reading "Mutter schafft" (meaning "Mom's at work" in
Saarlandish, but plays on the High German word "Mutterschaft", or "motherhood"); another
depicts a trio of men at a bar, with one realizing his beer has been drunk by one of the others,
the slogan reading "Kenner war's" (meaning "It was no one" [Keiner war es] in Saarlandish,
but playing on the High German word "Kenner", or "connoisseur", translating to "It was a
connoisseur"); a third shows an empty beer crate in the middle of outer space, the text reading
"All" (meaning "empty" in Saarlandish, but playing on the same High German word meaning
"outer space").

French:
The French language has a long tradition and special standing in Saarland. This is not least due
to the fact that France sought to incorporate the region into the French state shortly after
World War II. Today, a large part of the population is able to speak French, and it is
compulsory at many schools.[8] Saarbrücken is also home to the bilingual "Deutsch-
Französisches Gymnasium" (German-French high school).

==================================

                   Saxony
                    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The climate of Dresden, the capital of Saxony and situated on the Elbe in eastern middle
Germany, as measured and recorded in Klotzsche (altitude 227 m)The Free State of Saxony
(German: Freistaat Sachsen [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈzaksən]; Upper Sorbian: Swobodny stat Sakska) is a
state of Germany, located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. It is the tenth-
largest German state in area (18,413 km²) and the sixth largest in population (4.3 million), of
Germany's sixteen states.

Located in the historical heart of German-speaking Europe, the history of the state of Saxony
spans more than a millennium. It has been a mediaeval duchy, an electorate of the Holy
Roman Empire, a kingdom and, since 1918, a republic.

During the early Middle Ages the term Saxony referred to the region occupied by today's
states of Lower Saxony and northern North Rhine-Westphalia. The term Saxon does not
always correlate with Saxony: a Saxon is not necessarily an inhabitant of Saxony (e.g. Saxon
people, Anglo-Saxons or Transylvanian Saxons).

Economy:
Saxony has the most vibrant economy among the former GDR states. Its economy grew by
4.0% in 2006, making it the fastest growing region in Germany. Nonetheless, unemployment
remains high, and investment is scarce. The eastern part of Germany, excluding Berlin,
qualifies as an "Objective 1" development region within the European Union, and is eligible to
receive investment subsidies of up to 30% until 2013.

Microchip makers near Dresden have given the region a nickname of "Silicon Saxony". The
publishing and porcelain industries of the region are well known, although their contributions
to the regional economy are not significant. The state government is attempting to develop
tourism, notably in the lake district of Lausitz[2].

In December 2009, Saxony reported unemployment of 12.0%.[3]

History of Saxony:
Saxony has a long history as a duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire (the Electorate
of Saxony), and eventually as a kingdom (the Kingdom of Saxony). In 1918, subsequent to
Germany's defeat in World War I, its monarchy was overthrown and a republican form of
government was established under its current name. The state was broken up into smaller
units during communist rule (1949-1989), but was re-established on 3 October 1990 on the
reunification of East and West Germany.

Prehistory:
In prehistoric times, the territory of Saxony was the site of some of the largest of the ancient
Central European monumental temples, dating from the 5th millennium BC. Notable
archaeological sites have been discovered in Dresden and the villages of Eythra and Zwenkau
near Leipzig. The first Germanic presence in the territory of today's Saxony is thought to be in
the first millennium BC. Parts of Saxony were possibly under the control of Germanic King
Marobod during the Roman era. By the late Roman period, several tribes known as the Saxons
emerged, from which the subsequent state(s) draw their name. For the origins of the Saxon
tribes, see Saxons.


Duchy of Saxony:
Henry the Lion (with his wife Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony) is crowned as Duke of
SaxonyThe first mediæval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem
duchy", which emerged about AD 700, and grew to cover the greater part of Northern
Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Lower Saxony, North Rhine-
Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt. The Saxons were converted to Christianity
during this period by Charlemagne, despite fierce resistance by the Saxon chieftains.

While the Saxons were facing pressure from Charlemagne's post-Roman, Latin Christian
world, they were also facing a westward push by Slavs to the east. The territory of the Free
State of Saxony was briefly occupied by Slavs before being reconquered by the Germans. A
legacy of this period is the small Sorb population in Saxony.

[edit] Holy Roman Empire
The territory of the Free State of Saxony became part of the Holy Roman Empire by the 900s.
In the 10th century, the dukes of Saxony were also kings (or emperors) of the Holy Roman
Empire, comprising the Ottonian, or Saxon, Dynasty. Around this time, the Billungs, a Saxon
noble family, received extensive fiefs in Saxony. The Emperor eventually gave them the title of
Duke of Saxony. After Duke Magnus died in 1106, causing the extinction of the male line of
Billungs, oversight of the duchy was given to Lothar of Supplinburg, who also became Emperor
for a short time.

In 1137, control of Saxony passed to the Guelph dynasty, descendants of Wulfhild Billung,
eldest daughter of the last Billung duke, and the daughter of Lothar of Supplinburg. In 1180
large portions west of the Weser were ceded to the Bishops of Cologne, while some central
parts between the Weser and the Elbe remained to the Guelphs, later forming the Duchy of
Brunswick-Lüneburg). The remaining eastern lands, together with the title of Duke of Saxony,
passed to an Ascanian dynasty (descended from Eilika Billung, Wulfhild's younger sister) and
was divided in 1260 into the two small states of Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg, the
former also named Lower Saxony, the latter Upper Saxony, thence the later names of the two
Imperial Circles. Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg both claimed the Saxon electoral
privilege for their part, but the Golden Bull of 1356 only accepted Wittenberg's claim, with
Lauenburg nevertheless maintaining its claim. In 1422, when the Saxon electoral line of the
Ascanians was extinct, the Ascanian Eric V of Saxe-Lauenburg tried to reunite the Saxon
duchies.

However, Sigismund, King of the Romans, had already granted Margrave Frederick IV the
Warlike of Meissen (House of Wettin) an expectancy on the Saxon electorate, in order to
remunerate his military support. On 1 August 1425 Sigismund enfeoffed the Wettinian
Frederick as Prince-Elector of Saxony, despite protestations of Eric V. Thus the Saxon
territories remained separated in permanence. Electoral Saxony was then merged in the much
bigger Wettinian Margraviate of Meissen, however using the higher ranking name Electorate
of Saxony and even the Ascanian coat-of-arms for the entire monarchy.[4] Thus the name
Saxony was translated to areas as far as Dresden and Meissen. In the 18th and 19th c. Saxe-
Lauenburg became colloquially called the Duchy of Lauenburg, which in 1876 merged in
Prussia as Duchy of Lauenburg district.

Foundation of the second Saxon state:
Between the years 1697 and 1763, the Electors of Saxony were also elected Kings of Poland in
personal union
Saxony is home to numerous castles, like the Schloss Moritzburg north of DresdenSaxony-
Wittenberg, in modern Saxony-Anhalt, became subject to the margravate of Meißen, ruled by
the Wettin dynasty in 1423. This established a new and powerful state, occupying large portions
of the present Free State of Saxony, Thuringia, and Saxony-Anhalt. Although the center of
this state was far to the southeast of the former Saxony, it came to be referred to as Upper
Saxony and then simply Saxony, while the former Saxon territories were now known as Lower
Saxony.

In 1485, Saxony was split. A collateral line of the Wettin princes received what later became
Thuringia and founded several small states there (see Ernestine duchies). The remaining
Saxon state became still more powerful, becoming known in the 18th century for its cultural
achievements, although it was politically inferior to Prussia and Austria, which pressed Saxony
from either side.

Kingdom of Saxony:
In 1806, French Emperor Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire and decreed the
Electorate of Saxony a kingdom in itself. Elector Frederick Augustus III became King
Frederick Augustus I. Frederick Augustus remained loyal to Napoleon during the wars that
swept Europe in the following years; he was taken prisoner and his territories declared forfeit
by the allies in 1813, who intended the annexation of Saxony by Prussia. Ultimately, the
opposition of Austria, France, and the United Kingdom to this plan resulted in the restoration
of Frederick Augustus to his throne at the Congress of Vienna. At this time in 1815, Saxony
was forced to cede the northern part of the kingdom to Prussia.[5] These lands became the
Prussian province of Saxony, incorporated today in Saxony-Anhalt. The remnant of the
Kingdom of Saxony was roughly identical with the present federal state.

Meanwhile, in 1815, the southern part of Saxony, now called the "State of Saxony joined the
German Confederation.[6]. (The German Confederation should not be confused with the North
German Confederation mentioned below.) In the politics of the Confederation, Saxony was
overshadowed by Prussia. King Anton of Saxony, came to the throne of Saxony in 1827. Shortly
thereafter, liberal pressures in Saxony mounted and broke out in the revolt during 1830--a
year of revolution in Europe.[7] The revolution in Saxony resulted in a Constitution for the
State of Saxony which served as a basis for the government in Saxony until 1918.[8]

During the 1848–49 constitutionalist revolutions in Germany, Saxony became a hotbed for
revolutionaries, with anarchists such as Mikhail Bakunin and democrats including Richard
Wagner and Gottfried Semper taking part in the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849. (Scenes of
Richard Wagner's participation in the May 1849 Uprising in Dresden are pictured in the 1983
movie, Wagner starring Richard Burton as Richard Wagner.) The May Uprising in Dresden
forced King Friedrich August II of Saxony to concede further reforms in the Saxon
government.[9]

In 1854 King Friedrich August II's brother, King Johann of Saxony, succeeded to the throne. A
scholar, King Johann translated Dante.[10] King Johann followed a federalistic and pro-
Austrian policy throughout the early 1860's until the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War.
During the war, Saxony was immediately overrun? occupied? by Prussian troops.[11] After the
Austro-Prussian War, Saxony was forced to pay an indemnity and was forced joined the North
German Confederation in 1867.[12] Under the terms of the North German Confederation,
prussia took over control of the Saxon postal system, railroads, military and foreign affairs.
[13] In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Saxon troops fought together with Prussian troops
against France.[14] In 1871, Saxony joined the newly formed German Empire.[15]


After 1918, Saxony was a state in the Weimar Republic and was the scene of Gustav
Stresemann's overthrow of the SPD-led government in 1923. The state maintained its name
and borders during the National Socialist era as a Gau, but lost any quasi-autonomous status.
In April 1945, American troops under General Patton conquered the western part of the Free
State while Soviet troops conquered the eastern part. That summer, the entire state was
handed over to the Soviet Union as part of the Potsdam Conference agreement on post-war
occupation zones.

The Soviet Union set up the communist government of the German Democratic Republic in
1949, giving the USSR a satellite in the heart of Europe. The communist government officially
dissolved the Free State in 1952, and divided it into three smaller Bezirke based on Leipzig,
Dresden, and Karl-Marx-Stadt. The state reconstituted with slightly altered borders in 1990
upon German reunification. The border alterations revolve around the Oder-Neisse line.
Present-day Saxony includes a small part of Prussian province of Lower Silesia that was located
to the west of the 1945 borders of the town of Görlitz, but excludes all the former territory of
Saxony east of the same line. This territory, like the majority of Silesia, was incorporated into
post-war Poland.

Religion:
Evangelical Church in Germany 20.9 %[16], Catholic
Church 3.6 %[17].

Languages:
Boundary sign of Bautzen / Budyšin in German and Upper Sorbian; many place names in
Saxony are derived from SorbianThe most common patois spoken in Saxony are combined in
the group of "Thuringian and Upper Saxon dialects". Due to the incorrect usage of "Saxon
dialects" in colloquial language, the Upper Saxon attribute has been added to distinguish it
from Old Saxon and Low Saxon. Other German dialects spoken in Saxony are the dialects of
the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), which have been affected by Upper Saxon dialects, and the
dialects of the Vogtland, which are more affected by the East Franconian languages.

Upper Sorbian (a Slavic language) is still actively spoken in the parts of Upper Lusatia that are
occupied by the Sorbian minority. The Germans in Upper Lusatia speak distinct dialects of
their own (Lusatian dialects).

Tourism:
Except for Dresden and perhaps Leipzig, Saxony is not known as a primary destination for
foreign tourists. Areas along the border with the Czech Republic, such as the Lusatian
Mountains, Ore Mountains, Saxon Switzerland, and Vogtland, attract significant visitors,
largely Germans. Saxony has well preserved historic towns such as Meissen, Freiberg, Pirna,
Bautzen, and Görlitz.

Politics:
A minister-president heads the government of Saxony. Since May 28, 2008 the minister-
president of Saxony is Stanislaw Tillich. see the List of Ministers-President of Saxony for a full
listing.

==================================

            Saxony-Anhalt
       From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saxony-Anhalt (German: Sachsen-Anhalt, pronounced [ˈzaksən ˈanhalt]) is a state of
Germany. It has an area of 20,447 square kilometres (7,895 sq mi) and a population of 2.4
million (more than 2.8 million in 1990). Its capital is Magdeburg.

Saxony-Anhalt should not be confused with Saxony or Lower Saxony, also German states.



Geography:

Saxony-Anhalt is one of 16 states of Germany. It covers a total area of 20,445 km² (12,676 sq.
miles). By size, it is the 8th largest state in Germany, and by population, the 10th largest. It
borders the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony.

The capital of Saxony-Anhalt is Magdeburg. It is the second largest city in the state, after
Halle. Nearby is the city of Dessau, where the "Bauhaus" is located. The Bauhaus provided a
basis for the field of architecture and fine arts in the area. Dessau is also home to the opulent
Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm. The city’s main attraction is the Wörlitzer Park which is part
of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The landscape of Saxony-Anhalt is quite varied. From the region of Altmark in the north, the
state extends from the Magdeburg region, a vast lowland, through the Harz, a low mountain
range, to Thuringia. The highest mountain in the vicinity is Brocken, with an elevation of
1,141 meters (3,735 ft). Below the summit, the National Park Harz forms an extensive wildlife
sanctuary.

History:
Saxony-Anhalt was formed as a province of Prussia in 1945, from the territories of the former
Prussian Province of Saxony (except the Regierungsbezirk Erfurt), the Free State of Anhalt,
the Free State of Brunswick (Calvörde and the eastern part of the former Blankenburg
district) and the formerly Thuringian town Allstedt. See the respective articles for the history
of the area before 1945.

When Prussia was disbanded in 1947, the province became the state Saxony-Anhalt. It became
part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1949. From 1952 to 1990 Saxony-
Anhalt was divided into the East German districts of Halle and Magdeburg. In 1990, in the
course of German reunification, the districts were reintegrated as a state.

Economy:
Saxony-Anhalt is famous for its good soil. The "Magdeburger Börde" contains the best soil in
all of Germany and some of the best of Europe. It is often said by the local populace that the
smoothness of the soil is more luxurious than balls of silk. The food industry has an important
role in this state. Some of the best known products are "Baumkuchen" from Salzwedel
(Altmark) or "Hallorenkugeln" from Halle.

In the industrial sector the chemical industry is quite important. One of the biggest chemical
producing areas can be found around the cities of Wolfen and Bitterfeld. Because of the
chemical industry, Saxony-Anhalt is the largest receiver of foreign direct investments in all of
eastern Germany.

Saxony-Anhalt is also the location of numerous "wind farms" throughout the state producing
wind-turbine energy.

Religion:
Evangelical Church in Germany 15 %[3], Catholic
Church 3.5 %[4].

Anthem:
Lied für Sachsen-Anhalt ("Song for Saxony-Anhalt")

==================================

         Schleswig-Holstein
      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Schleswig-Holstein (pronounced [ˈʃleːsvɪç ˈhɔlʃtaɪn]  (help·info)) is the northernmost of the
sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the two historical duchies of Schleswig and
Holstein. Its capital city is Kiel, other notable cities are Lübeck, Flensburg and Neumünster.

Schleswig-Holstein borders Denmark (Region Syddanmark) to the north, the North Sea to the
west, the Baltic Sea to the east, and the German states of Lower Saxony, Hamburg, and
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to the south.

The former English name was Sleswick-Holsatia, the Danish name is Slesvig-Holsten, the Low
German name is Sleswig-Holsteen, and the North Frisian name is Slaswik-Holstiinj.
Historically, the name can also refer to a larger region, containing both present-day Schleswig-
Holstein and the former South Jutland County (Northern Schleswig) in Denmark.

Religion:
Evangelical Church in Germany 54.3 %[3], Catholic Church 6 %[4].

Geography:
GeographySchleswig-Holstein lies on the base of Jutland Peninsula between the North Sea and
the Baltic Sea. Strictly speaking, "Schleswig" refers to the German Southern Schleswig,
whereas Northern Schleswig is in Denmark. The state of Schleswig-Holstein further consists of
Holstein as well as Lauenburg, and the formerly independent city of Lübeck. This makes it one
of the few nations with a boundary where the name is used in two countries; usually it is two
counties villages that share the same name, as in Somerset.[clarification needed]

In the western part of the state, there are lowlands with virtually no hills. The North Frisian
Islands, as well as almost all of Schleswig-Holstein's North Sea coast, form
Schleswig-Holstein's Wadden Sea National Parks (Nationalpark Schleswig-Holsteinisches
Wattenmeer) which is the largest national park in Central Europe. Germany's only high-sea
island, Heligoland, is situated in the North Sea.

The Baltic Sea coast in the east of Schleswig-Holstein is marked by bays, fjords and cliff lines.
There are rolling hills (the highest elevation is the Bungsberg at 168 metres or 550 feet) and
many lakes, especially in the eastern part of Holstein, called the Holsteinische Schweiz
("Holsatian Switzerland") and the former Duchy of Lauenburg (Herzogtum Lauenburg).
Fehmarn is the only island off the eastern coast. The longest river besides the Elbe is
the Eider; the most important waterway is the Kiel Canal which connects the North Sea and
Baltic Sea.

Languages:
Heligoland island in the North SeaThe official language is German based on the
standard dialect used by the Federal German government in Berlin. Low German, Danish and
North Frisian enjoy legal protection or state promotion.

Historically, Low German, Danish (in Schleswig) and Frisian (in Schleswig) were spoken. Low
German is still used in many parts of the state, and a pidgin of Low and standardised German
(Missingsch) is used in most areas. Danish is used by the Danes in Southern Schleswig, and
Frisian is spoken by the North Frisians of the North Sea Coast and the Northern
Frisian Islands in Southern Schleswig. The North Frisian dialect called Heligolandic (Halunder)
is spoken on the island of Heligoland.

High German was introduced in the 16th century, mainly for official purposes, but is today the
predominant language.

Culture:
Shared with the Danish neighbour: Rote Grütze served in Schleswig-Holstein with milk or
custardSchleswig-Holstein combines Danish and German aspects of culture. The castles and
manors in the countryside are the best example for this tradition; some dishes like
Rote Grütze are also shared.

The most important festivals are the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, an annual classic
music festival all over the state, and the Nordische Filmtage, an annual film festival for movies
from Scandinavian countries, held in Lübeck.

The annual Wacken Open Air festival is considered to be the largest heavy metal rock festival
in the world.

The state's most important museum of cultural history is in Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig.

The old city of Lübeck is a world heritage site.

History:
The Limes Saxoniae border between the Saxons and the Obotrites, established about 810 in
present-day Schleswig-Holstein
Kiel is the state's capital and largest city.
The City of Lübeck was the centre of the Hanse, and its city centre is a World Heritage Site
today. Lübeck is the birthplace of the author Thomas Mann.
A rapeseed field in Schleswig-Holstein — agriculture continues to play an important role in
parts of the state.
Schleswig-Holstein's islands, beaches and cities are popular tourist attractions (here: Isle of
Sylt).The term "Holstein" derives from Old Saxon, Holseta Land, meaning "the land of those
who dwell in the wood" (Holz means wood in modern Standardised German). Originally, it
referred to the central of the three Saxon tribes north of the Elbe river, Tedmarsgoi, Holcetae,
and Sturmarii. The area of the Holcetae was between the Stör river and Hamburg, and after
Christianization their main church was in Schenefeld. Saxon Holstein became a part of
the Holy Roman Empire after Charlemagne's Saxon campaigns in the late eighth century.
Since 811 the northern frontier of Holstein (and thus the Empire) was marked by the river
Eider.

The term Schleswig takes its name from the city of Schleswig. The name derives from the
Schlei inlet in the east and vik meaning inlet or settlement in Old Saxon and Old Norse. The
name is similar to the place-names ending in the "-wick" or "-wich" element along the
coast in the United Kingdom.

The Duchy of Schleswig or Southern Jutland was originally an integral part of Denmark, but
was in medieval times established as a fief under the Kingdom of Denmark, with the same
relation to the Danish Crown as for example Brandenburg or Bavaria vis-à-vis the Holy Roman
Emperor. Around 1100 the Duke of Saxony gave Holstein, as it was his own country, to Count
Adolf I of Schauenburg.

Schleswig and Holstein have at different times belonged in part or completely to either
Denmark or Germany, or have been virtually independent of both nations. The exception is
that Schleswig had never been part of Germany until the Second War of Schleswig in 1864. For
many centuries, the King of Denmark was both a Danish Duke of Schleswig and a German
Duke of Holstein, the Duke of Saxony. Essentially, Schleswig was either integrated into
Denmark or was a Danish fief, and Holstein was a German fief and once a sovereign state long
ago. Both were for several centuries ruled by the kings of Denmark. In 1721 all of Schleswig
was united as a single duchy under the king of Denmark, and the great powers of Europe
confirmed in an international treaty that all future kings of Denmark should automatically
become dukes of Schleswig, and consequently Schleswig would always follow the same line of
succession as the one chosen in the Kingdom of Denmark.

The German national awakening following the Napoleonic Wars led to a strong popular
movement in Holstein and Southern Schleswig for unification with a new Prussian-dominated
Germany. However, this development was paralleled by an equally strong Danish national
awakening in Denmark and northern Schleswig. It called for the complete reintegration of
Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark and demanded an end to discrimination against Danes
in Schleswig. The ensuing conflict is sometimes called the Schleswig-Holstein Question.
In 1848 King Frederick VII of Denmark declared that he would grant Denmark a liberal
constitution and the immediate goal for the Danish national movement was to ensure that this
constitution would not only give rights to all Danes, i.e., not only in the Kingdom of Denmark,
but also to Danes (and Germans) living in Schleswig. Furthermore, they demanded protection
for the Danish language in Schleswig since the dominant language in almost a quarter of
Schleswig had changed from Danish to German since the beginning of the 19th century.

A liberal constitution for Holstein was not seriously considered in Copenhagen, since it was a
well-known fact that the political élite of Holstein had been far more conservative than
Copenhagen's. This proved to be true, as the politicians of Holstein demanded that the
Constitution of Denmark be scrapped — not only in Schleswig but also in Denmark. They also
demanded that Schleswig immediately follow Holstein and become a member of the German
Confederation, and eventually a part of the new united Germany. These demands
were rejected and in 1848 the Germans of Holstein and Southern Schleswig rebelled. This was
the beginning of the First War of Schleswig (1848–51) which ended in a Danish victory at
Idstedt. Elements of this period were fictionalized in Royal Flash, the second of George
MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels.

In 1863 conflict broke out again as King Frederick VII of Denmark died leaving no heir.
According to the line of succession of Denmark and Schleswig, the crowns of both Denmark
and Schleswig would now pass to Duke Christian of Glücksburg (the future King
Christian IX); the crown of Holstein was considered to be more problematic. This decision was
challenged by a rival pro-German branch of the Danish royal family, the House of
Augustenburg (Danish: Augustenborg) who demanded, as in 1848, the crowns of both
Schleswig and Holstein. The passing of a common constitution for Denmark and Schleswig in
November 1863 then gave Otto von Bismarck a chance to intervene and Prussia and Austria
declared war on Denmark. This was the Second War of Schleswig which ended in a Danish
defeat. British attempts to mediate failed, and Denmark lost Schleswig (Northern and
Southern Schleswig), Holstein, and Lauenburg to Prussia and Austria.

Following the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, section five of the Peace of Prague stated that the
people in northern Schleswig should be granted the right to a referendum on whether they
would remain under Prussian rule or return to Danish rule. This promise was never fulfilled by
Prussia.

Following the defeat of Germany in World War I, the Allied powers arranged a referendum in
northern and central Schleswig. In northern Schleswig (10 February 1920) 75% voted for
reunification with Denmark and 25% voted for Germany. In central Schleswig (14
March 1920) the results were reversed; 80% voted for Germany and just 20% for Denmark,
primarily in Flensburg. No vote ever took place in the southern third of Schleswig, although it
was planned. For the referendum under authority of an international commission (CIS,
Commission Internationale de Surveillance du Plébiscite Slesvig) two (primarily three)
election-zones were created. Primarily three zones were planned, Zone III should involve the
rest of Southern Schleswig. Denmark passed on an election in this zone. Just the votes for the
whole zone were crucial, not dissent votes in a single Kreis (district) or city:

Zone I
Kreis (district) Hadersleben (Haderslev):  6.585 votes (16.0%) for Germany, 34.653 votes
(84.0%) for Denmark - thereunder: city of Hadersleben: 3.275 votes (38.6%) for Germany,
5.209 votes (61.4%) for Denmark;
Kreis (district) Apenrade (Aabenraa):  6.030 votes (32.3%) for Germany, 12.653 votes (67.7%)
for Denmark - thereunder: city of Apenrade: 2.725 votes (55.1%) for Germany, 2.224 votes
(44.9%) for Denmark;
Kreis (district) Sonderburg (Sønderborg):  5.083 votes (22.9%) for Germany, 17.100 votes
(77.1%) for Denmark - thereunder:  city of Sonderburg 2.601 votes (56.2%) for Germany,
2.029 votes (43.8%) for Denmark;
northern part of Kreis (district) Tondern (Tønder):  7.083 votes (40.9%) for Germany, 10.223
votes (59.1%) for Denmark - thereunder: city of Tondern 2.448 votes (76.5%) for Germany,
750 votes (23.5%) for Denmark;
northern part of Kreis (district) Flensburg (Flensborg) - without the city of Flensburg
(Flensborg): 548 votes (40.6%) for Germany, 802 votes (59.4%) for Denmark.
Zone II
southern part of Kreis (district) Tondern (Tønder): 17.283 votes (87.9%) for Germany, 2.376
votes (12.1%) for Denmark;
southern part of Kreis (district) Flensburg (Flensborg) - without the city of Flensburg
(Flensborg): 6.688 votes (82.6%) for Germany, 1.405 votes (17.4%) for Denmark;
northern part of Kreis (district) Husum:  672 votes (90.0%) for Germany, 75 votes (10.0%) for
Denmark;
city of Flensburg (Flensborg): 27.081 votes (75.2%) for Germany, 8.944 votes (24.8%) for
Denmark.[5]
On 15 June 1920, northern Schleswig officially returned to Danish rule. The Danish/German
border was the only one of the borders imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles after
World War I which was never challenged by Adolf Hitler.

In 1937 the Nazis passed the so-called Greater Hamburg Act (Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz), where
the nearby Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was expanded, to encompass towns that had
formally belonged to the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. To compensate Prussia for
these losses (and partly because Hitler had a personal dislike for Lübeck), the 711-year-long
independence of the Hansestadt Lübeck came to an end, and almost all its territory was
incorporated into Schleswig-Holstein.

After the Second World War, the Prussian province Schleswig-Holstein came under British
occupation. On August 23, 1946, the Military Government abolished the province and
reconstituted it as a separate Land[6].

Symbols:
The coat of arms shows the symbols of the two duchies united in Schleswig-Holstein, i.e., the
two lions for Schleswig and the leaf of a nettle for Holstein. Supposedly, Otto von Bismarck
decreed that the two lions were to face the nettle because of the discomfort to their bottoms
which would have resulted if the lions faced away from it.

The motto of Schleswig-Holstein is "Up ewich ungedeelt" (Middle Low German: "Forever
undivided", modern High German: "Auf ewig ungeteilt"). It goes back to the Vertrag von
Ripen or Handfeste von Ripen (Danish: Ribe Håndfæstning) or Treaty of Ribe in 1460. Ripen
(Ribe) is a historical small town at the North Sea coast in Northern Schleswig. See History of
Schleswig-Holstein.

The anthem is usually referred to with its first line "Schleswig-Holstein meerumschlungen" (i.
e., "Schleswig-Holstein embraced by the seas") from 1844.

==================================

                    Thuringia
          From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe Free

State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈtyːʁɪŋən]) is a state
of Germany, located in the central part of the country. It has an area of 16,171 square
kilometers (6,243.7 sq mi) and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area
and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states. The capital is Erfurt.

Geography;
Thuringia borders on (from the northwest and clockwise) the German states of Lower Saxony,
Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bavaria and Hesse. The ridges of the western Harz Mountains divide
the region from Lower Saxony on the north-west, while the eastern Harz similarly separates
Thuringia from the state of Saxony-Anhalt to the north-east. To the south and southwest, the
Thuringian Forest effectively separates the ancient region of Franconia, now the northern part
of Bavaria, from the rolling plains of most of Thuringia. The central Harz range extends
southwards along the western side into the northwest corner of the Thuringian Forest region,
making Thuringia a lowland basin of rolling plains nearly surrounded by ancient somewhat-
difficult mountains. To the west across the mountains and south is the drainage basin of the
Rhine River.

The most conspicuous geographical feature of Thuringia is the Thuringian Forest, a mountain
chain in the southwest. The Werra River, a tributary of the Weser River, separates this
mountain chain from the volcanic Rhön Mountains, which are partially in Thuringia, Bavaria,
and Hesse. In the northwest, Thuringia includes a small part of the Harz. The eastern part of
Thuringia is generally a plain. The Saale River runs through these lowlands from south to
north.

The geographic center of the Federal Republic is located in Thuringia, near the municipality of
Niederdorla.

Thuringia is divided into 17 districts (Landkreise):

Altenburger Land
Eichsfeld
Gotha
Greiz
Hildburghausen
Ilm-Kreis
Kyffhäuserkreis
Nordhausen
Saale-Holzland
Saale-Orla
Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Schmalkalden-Meiningen
Sömmerda
Sonneberg
Unstrut-Hainich
Wartburgkreis
Weimarer Land

Furthermore there are six urban districts (not
numerated in the map):

Erfurt
Eisenach
Gera
Jena
Suhl
Weimar

History:
Herzogtum (Landgrafschaft) Thüringen
Duchy (Landgraviate) of Thuringia
Pagan kingdom, Frankish duchy,
then State of the Holy Roman Empire
450–1247  →

For the earlier history of the region, see Thuringii.
Named after the Thuringii tribe who occupied it ca. AD 300, Thuringia came under Frankish
domination in the 6th century, forming a part of the subsequent Holy Roman Empire.


Arms of the landgraves of Thuringia (1265)Thuringia became a landgraviate in 1130. After the
extinction of the reigning Ludowingian line of counts in 1247 and the War of the Thuringian
Succession (1247–1264), the western half became independent under the name of Hesse, never
to become a part of Thuringia again. Most of the remaining Thuringia came under the rule of
the Wettin dynasty of the nearby Margraviate of Meissen, the nucleus of the later Electorate
and Kingdom of Saxony. With the division of the house of Wettin in 1485, Thuringia went to
the senior Ernestine branch of the family, which subsequently subdivided the area into a
number of smaller states, according to the Saxon tradition of dividing inheritance amongst
male heirs. These were the "Saxon duchies", consisting, among others, of the states of Saxe-
Weimar, Saxe-Eisenach, Saxe-Jena, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg, and Saxe-
Gotha; Thuringia became merely a geographical concept.

Thuringia generally accepted the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic faith was abolished as
early as 1520; priests that remained loyal were driven away and churches and monasteries
were largely destroyed, especially during the Peasants' War of 1525. In Mühlhausen and
elsewhere, the Anabaptists found many adherents. Thomas Müntzer, a leader of some non-
peaceful groups of this sect, was active in this city. Within the borders of Thuringia the
Catholic faith was maintained only in the district called Eichsfeld, which was ruled by the
Archbishop of Mainz, and to a small degree in the city and vicinity of Erfurt.


This German map shows the various states of Thuringia within the German Empire in 1905.
Map of Thuringian States 1890Some reordering of the Thuringian states occurred during the
German Mediatisation from 1795–1814, and the territory was included within the Napoleonic
Confederation of the Rhine organized in 1806. The 1815 Congress of Vienna confirmed these
changes and the Thuringian states' inclusion in the German Confederation; the Kingdom of
Prussia also acquired some Thuringian territory and administered it within the Province of
Saxony. The Thuringian duchies which became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the
Prussian-led unification of Germany were Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-
Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and the
two principalities of Reuß. In 1920, after World War I, these small states merged into one
state, called Thuringia; only Saxe-Coburg voted to join Bavaria instead. Weimar became the
new capital of Thuringia. The coat of arms of this new state was simpler than they had been
previously.


Coat of arms used 1945–1952After July 1945, the state of Thuringia came under the Soviet
occupation zone, and was expanded to include parts Prussian Saxony, such as the areas around
Erfurt, Mühlhausen, and Nordhausen. Erfurt became the new capital of Thuringia.

In 1952, the German Democratic Republic dissolved its states, and created districts (Bezirke)
instead. The three districts that shared the territory of Thuringia were based in Erfurt, Gera
and Suhl.

The State of Thuringia was restored with slightly altered borders during Germany's
reunification in 1990.

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