Baden-WürttembergCapital: Stuttgart. Formed on April 25, 1952, when three smaller states merged. It is third in both area and population, and the Danube rises in its southwest.
BavariaCapital: Munich, the third largest city in Germany. The largest state, at 70,541 square kilometers, it calls itself a Free State. The Zugspitze, the highest mountain in the country at 2,962 meters, is here.
BerlinA city-state with no separate capital. Berlin is the capital of Germany and its largest city. Reunited Berlin became a state on October 3, 1990. Voters rejected a merger with Brandenburg in 1996.
BrandenburgCapital: Potsdam, also its largest city. It surrounds Berlin completely and borders Poland along the Oder. The fifth largest state by area, and one of the five that joined on October 3, 1990.
BremenCapital: Bremen. The smallest state in both area and population. It is two cities on the Weser, Bremen and Bremerhaven, both enclaves in Lower Saxony. Its full name is the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.
HamburgA city-state with no separate capital. Hamburg, Germany's second largest city after Berlin, has been a state since 1949.
HesseCapital: Wiesbaden. Frankfurt is its largest city. It has more than twice as many people as the capital.
Lower SaxonyCapital: Hanover. The second largest state by area. It borders nine other states, more than any other, and both parts of Bremen lie inside it. The seven East Frisian Islands line its North Sea coast.
Mecklenburg-Western PomeraniaCapital: Schwerin, the only state capital with fewer than 100,000 people. Rostock is the largest city. Rügen and Usedom, the two biggest German islands, are here, and so is the Müritz, the largest lake wholly inside Germany.
North Rhine-WestphaliaCapital: Düsseldorf. The state with the most people. It had about 18 million at the end of 2023. Cologne, not the capital, is its largest city.
Rhineland-PalatinateCapital: Mainz, also its largest city. Founded on August 30, 1946. It borders France, Luxembourg and Belgium and grows between 65 and 70 percent of German wine grapes.
SaarlandCapital: Saarbrücken. The smallest of the 13 area states. It covers 2,572 square kilometers. It joined the Federal Republic on January 1, 1957.
SaxonyCapital: Dresden. Leipzig is slightly larger than the capital. One of three states that call themselves a Free State, and one of the five that joined on October 3, 1990.
Saxony-AnhaltCapital: Magdeburg. Halle (Saale) is almost exactly the capital's size. One of the five states that joined on October 3, 1990.
Schleswig-HolsteinCapital: Kiel, also its largest city. The northernmost state, from North Sea to Baltic, bordering Denmark. The Kiel Canal crosses it, and the lowest natural point in Germany, 3.54 meters below sea level, is here.
ThuringiaCapital: Erfurt, also its largest city. Called the green heart of Germany, it is landlocked and lies nearest the center of the country. One of three Free States. Its highest point is the Großer Beerberg, 983 meters.
How this list was compiled: State names in English and German written for this site and checked on 2026-09-19 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:DE. Capitals, the year each became a state, areas and populations (31 December 2023) checked the same day against the table at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_Germany. The site of the Federal Statistical Office (destatis.de) could not be fetched that day, so the copy gives no exact population. The five states of 1990 and Berlin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunification. City sizes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Germany_by_population. Mountains, rivers and the lowest point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Germany. The Müritz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCritz. Single states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Saxony, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_(state), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhineland-Palatinate, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schleswig-Holstein, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuringia and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg, all read on 2026-09-19. How the two city-states on rivers reach the sea, used in the coast answer on the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_(state) (Bremerhaven is an exclave at the Weser's mouth, open to the North Sea) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg (the 110 km Elbe estuary begins in Hamburg; the islands Neuwerk, Scharhörn and Nigehörn, 100 km off, are part of the city), both read on 2026-09-19. Neighbors and coasts named in the hints were worked out from the drawing itself. Boundaries follow Natural Earth. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 51.2°N 10.4°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This German states quiz draws all 16 states on a blank map: 13 area states plus the city-states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. Under Name it, typed answers count in English or in German, so Bayern is as good as Bavaria.
Read the full guide
Three city-states and one ring
Berlin sits inside Brandenburg, and Hamburg lies between Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. The state of Bremen is two cities on the Weser, Bremen and Bremerhaven, both enclaves in Lower Saxony. It is too small to tap, so it has a numbered ring just above it, slightly left. A wrong tap shows the right state, and Practise the ones you missed brings them back afterward.
English labels, German names
The labels are English. The German names that count include Hessen, Niedersachsen, Sachsen and Thüringen, and umlauts are optional, so Thuringen counts. Several capitals are not the largest city: Frankfurt is bigger than Wiesbaden, Cologne bigger than Düsseldorf, and Leipzig slightly bigger than Dresden. Print blank gives the map with 16 numbered shapes and 16 lines.
Three names contain Saxony: Lower Saxony (northwest), Saxony-Anhalt (middle of the east) and plain Saxony (southeast). Typing only Saxony counts for the last.
Lower Saxony touches nine other states on this map, more than any other. Learn it first and the north falls into place.
Five states joined on October 3, 1990: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. On the map they form one connected block in the east.
Questions and answers
How many states does Germany have?
Sixteen: 13 area states and the 3 city-states Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. Baden-Württemberg was formed on April 25, 1952, when three smaller states merged, and Saarland joined on January 1, 1957. A state is a Land, plural Länder, or Bundesland in everyday German.
Which German state is the largest?
Bavaria, at 70,541 square kilometers, with Lower Saxony second. North Rhine-Westphalia has the most people, about 18 million at the end of 2023. Bremen is the smallest in both area, about 419 square kilometers, and population. Saarland is the smallest of the 13 area states.
Which German states have a coast?
Three have open sea coast: Lower Saxony on the North Sea, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on the Baltic and Schleswig-Holstein on both. Two city-states reach the sea by river: Bremerhaven at the mouth of the Weser, and Hamburg on the Elbe, where its 110 km estuary begins.