States of the German Confederation

The German Confederation, 1815–1866 (in German)

The States of the German Confederation were those member states that from 20 June 1815 were part of the German Confederation, which lasted, with some changes in the member states, until 24 August 1866, under the presidency of the Austrian imperial House of Habsburg, which was represented by an Austrian presidential envoy to the Federal diet in Frankfurt.

Explanation

On the whole, its territory nearly coincided with that remaining in the Holy Roman Empire at the outbreak of the French Revolution, with the notable exception of Belgium. Except for the two rival major powers, Habsburg and Prussia, and the western left bank of the Rhine (which France had annexed, with tiny Katzenelnbogen), the other member states or their precursors, making up most of present Germany, had been within Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine.

1. The Austrian Empire, excluding the Kingdom of Hungary, the Principality of Transylvania, and Croatia (all of which became parts of the apostolic kingdom of Hungary within the Danubian Dual Monarchy), the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia (constituting parts lost to Italy in 1859- viz. 1866), Bukovina, the kingdoms of Dalmatia and Galicia
2. Kingdom of Bohemia
3. Archduchy of Austria (split into Upper Austria and Lower Austria in 1849)
4. Margraviate of Moravia
5. Grand Duchy of Salzburg
6. Duchy of Carinthia
7. Duchy of Carniola
8. Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia
9. Duchy of Styria
10. Littoral (consisting of Gorizia and Gradisca, Istria and Trieste)
11. County of Tyrol
12. Vorarlberg
13. The Kingdom of Prussia (without Posen, East Prussia and West Prussia)
14. Brandenburg
15. Pomerania
16. Rhine Province (until 1822, Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg)
17. Saxony
18. Silesia
19. Westphalia
20. The Kingdom of Bavaria (the third largest member)
21. The Kingdom of Saxony
22. The Kingdom of Hanover
23. The Kingdom of Württemberg
24. The Electorate of Hesse
25. The Grand Duchy of Baden
26. The Grand Duchy of Hesse
27. The Duchy of Holstein (in personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark, was not a former member of the Confederation of the Rhine)
28. The Duchy of Schleswig (a fief of Denmark and together with the Duchy of Holstein in personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark, was not a former member of either the Holy Roman Empire or the Confederation of the Rhine. The secessionist (pro-German) government of Schleswig-Holstein (1848–51) joined Schleswig to the Confederation. This was not recognized by the Danish government, and the peace settlement in 1851 specified that Schleswig was not a member.
29. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (lost over half of its territory in the west to Belgium in the breakup of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1839, and thereby causing Duchy of Limburg to become a member.)
30. The Duchy of Limburg (became a member in 1839 as a compensation for territorial losses in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg that were caused by the breakup of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.)
31. The Duchy of Brunswick (prior Brunswick-Lunenburgian Principality of Wolfenbüttel)
32. The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
33. The Duchy of Nassau
34. The Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
35. The Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (to 1825)
36. The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (to 1826)
37. The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (from 1826)
38. The Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
39. The Duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen (Saxe-Altenburg from 1826)
40. The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
41. The Duchy of Oldenburg (Grand Duchy from 1829)
42. The Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau (Duchy of Anhalt from 1863)
43. The Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg (to 1863)
44. The Duchy of Anhalt-Köthen (to 1847)
45. The Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
46. The Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
47. The Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen (merged in Prussia in 1850)
48. The Principality of Liechtenstein
49. The Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (merged in Prussia in 1850)
50. The Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont
51. The Principality of Reuss Senior Line
52. The Principality of Reuss Junior Line
53. The Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe
54. The Principality of Lippe
55. The Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg (from 1817)
56. The Duchy of Lauenburg
57. The Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck
58. The Free City of Frankfurt upon Main
59. The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (still a constitutive state of federal Germany)
60. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (still a constitutive state of federal Germany)

The four free cities were republics by constitution, while all the others were monarchies, some constitutional, some absolutist.

Sources and references

• Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German, detailed maps)
• WorldStatesmen
Categories
• States of the German Confederation
• Lists of country subdivisions
• Germany history-related lists
• Germany geography-related lists