States of the German Confederation

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The States of the German Confederation were those member states that from June 20, 1815 were part of the German Confederation, which lasted, with some changes in the member states, until August 24, 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.

[edit] Explanation

On the whole, its territory nearly coincided with that remaining in the Holy Roman Empire when Napoleon caused its end; with the exception of the two rivalling major powers, Habsburg and Prussia, and the western left bank of the Rhine (which France had annexed, with tiny Katzenellenbogen) the other member states or their precursors, most of present Germany, had been within his Confederation of the Rhine.

  1. The Austrian Empire (without the Kingdom of Hungary, Transylvania, Bukovina, and Croatia, which became the apostolic kingdom of Hungary within the Danubian Dual Monarchy, the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia (constituting parts lost to Italy in 1859- viz. 1866), the kingdoms of Dalmatia and Galicia)
    1. Austria (split into Upper Austria and Lower Austria in 1849)
    2. Kingdom of Bohemia
    3. Duchy of Carinthia
    4. Duchy of Carniola
    5. Littoral (consisting of Gorizia and Gradisca, Istria and Trieste)
    6. March of Moravia
    7. Grand Duchy of Salzburg
    8. Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia
    9. Duchy of Styria
    10. County of Tyrol
    11. Vorarlberg
  2. The Kingdom of Prussia (without Posen, East Prussia and West Prussia)
    1. Brandenburg the homeland, with the capital
    2. Pomerania
    3. Rheinland (until 1822, Niederrhein and Jülich-Kleve-Berg)
    4. Saxony
    5. Silesia
    6. Westphalia (different from and significantly smaller than the former Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia)
  3. The Kingdom of Bavaria (the third largest member)
  4. The Kingdom of Hanover
  5. The Kingdom of Saxony
  6. The Kingdom of Württemberg
  7. The Electorate of Hesse
  8. The Grand Duchy of Baden
  9. The Grand Duchy of Hesse
  10. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (lost in 1839 over half of its territory in the west to Belgium, in the aftermath of the breakup of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands; only the easternmore present independent country, then in personal union with the Dutch crown, remained in the Confederation until 1866)
  11. The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
  12. The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
  13. The Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
  14. The Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau (Duchy of Anhalt from 1863)
  15. The Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg (to 1863)
  16. The Duchy of Anhalt-Köthen (to 1847)
  17. The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, or Brunswick for short
  18. The Duchy of Holstein (in personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark, was not a former member of the Confederation of the Rhine)
    1. The Duchy of Schleswig (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.
  19. The Duchy of Lauenburg
  20. The Duchy of Limburg (became a member in 1839 after losing half of its territory in the west to Belgium, in the aftermath of the breakup of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands; only the easternmore present Dutch province of Limburg was in the Confederation)
  21. The Duchy of Nassau
  22. The Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (to 1825)
  23. The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha from 1826)
  24. The Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
  25. The Duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen (Saxe-Altenburg from 1826)
  26. The Duchy of Oldenburg (Grand Duchy from 1829)
  27. The Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg (from 1817)
  28. The Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
  29. The Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
  30. The Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen (to 1850)
  31. The Principality of Liechtenstein
  32. The Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (to 1850)
  33. The Principality of Waldeck
  34. The Principality of Reuss Senior Line
  35. The Principality of Reuss Junior Line
  36. The Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe
  37. The Principality of Lippe
  38. The Free City of Lübeck
  39. The Free City of Frankfurt
  40. The Free City of Bremen (still a constitutive state of federal Germany)
  41. The Free City of Hamburg (still a constitutive state of federal Germany)

[edit] Sources and references

  • Westermann, Großer Atlass zur Weltgeschichte (in German, detailed maps)
  • WorldStatesmen
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