Baden-Württemberg

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Statistics
Capital:	Stuttgart
Area:	35,742 km²
Inhabitants:	10,694,215 (2004)
pop. density:	299 people/km²
Homepage:	baden-wuerttemberg.de
ISO 3166-2:	DE-BW
Politics
Minister-president:	Erwin Teufel (CDU)
Ruling party:	CDU/FDP coalition
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With an area of 35,742 km² and 10.7 million inhabitants, Baden-Württemberg lies in south-western Germany to the east of the upper Rhine, and is third largest in both area and population among the country's sixteen Bundesländer (federal states). The capital is Stuttgart.

Geography

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

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

The Rhine forms the western border as well as large portions of the southern border. East of the Rhine there is the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), the main mountain range of the state. In the south Baden-Württemberg shares in the foothills of the Alps and in Lake Constance (Bodensee). The source of the Danube is located in the state.

See also List of places in Baden-Württemberg

Administration

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

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Furthermore there are nine independent towns, which don't belong to any district:

1. Baden-Baden
2. Freiburg
3. Heidelberg
4. Heilbronn
5. Karlsruhe
6. Mannheim
7. Pforzheim
8. Stuttgart
9. Ulm

History

The state combines the historical states of Baden, Hohenzollern and Württemberg. After World War II the Allied forces established three states: Württemberg-Baden (US), Württemberg-Hohenzollern (French) and Baden (French) - in 1952 these territories were merged in order to form the state of Baden-Württemberg.

List of Minister-presidents of Baden-Württemberg

1. 1952 - 1953: Reinhold Maier (FDP/DVP)
2. 1953 - 1958: Gebhard Müller (CDU)
3. 1958 - 1966: Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU)
4. 1966 - 1978: Hans Karl Filbinger (CDU)
5. 1978 - 1991: Lothar Späth (CDU)
6. since 1991: Erwin Teufel (CDU)

External link

• The state's official website