Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg (/ˌbɑːdən ˈvɜːrtəmbɜːrɡ/,^[2] German: [ˌbaːdn̩ ˈvʏʁtəmbɛʁk] (listen); Alemannic German: Baade-Wiirdebäärg) is a federal state (Bundesland) in the southwestern region of Germany. It is the third largest German state by total area (after Bavaria and Lower Saxony) with a size of nearly 35,752 km² and population (after North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria) with over 11 million people as of 2017. It shares borders to the east with the state of Bavaria, to the north with the states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, to the west with the country of France (along the river Rhine), and to the south with the countries of Switzerland and Austria. Its biggest cities are Stuttgart, the capital, Mannheim, and Karlsruhe. The Minister President is Winfried Kretschmann of the party Alliance '90/The Greens.

Baden-Württemberg
State of Germany
Flag Coat of arms
Coordinates: 48°32′16″N 9°2′28″E
Country	Germany
Capital	Stuttgart
Government
• Minister-President	Winfried Kretschmann (Greens)
• Governing parties	Greens / CDU
• Votes in Bundesrat	6 (of 69)
Area
• Total	35,751.46 km2 (13,803.72 sq mi)
Population
• Total	11,023,424
• Density	310/km2 (800/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	DE-BW
GDP/ Nominal	€ 477/ $561 billion (2016) [1]
GDP per capita	€ 42,000/ $49,400 (2015)
NUTS Region	DE1
Website	www.baden-württemberg.de (in German) www.baden-württemberg.de/en/home (in English)

Official logo

In 2017, Baden-Württemberg ranked 2 on the Human Development Index (HDI) among all states in Germany.^[3]

History

In 1952, the three states of Baden, Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern joined to found Baden-Württemberg.

Politics

The Minister President is the chief of the government of Baden-Württemberg. The government is made up of ministers and state secretaries.

The CDU was the main political party in the state between 1953 and 2011, the Ministers President have all been members of the CDU. Between the years 1972 and 1992, the members of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg were mostly members of the CDU. But the state is also a stronghold of the "Grünen" which were founded in the early 1980s in Karlsruhe. The election results of the Grünen in Baden-Württemberg have always been above the election average for the party in Germany.

Since 2016 there have been 5 parties represented in the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg:

• Greens
• Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
• Alternative for Germany (AfD)
• Social Democratic Party (SPD)
• Free Democratic Party (FDP/DVP)

List of Ministers President since 1952:

Term	Minister President	Party
1952–1953	Reinhold Maier	DVP
1953–1958	Gebhard Müller	CDU
1958–1966	Kurt Georg Kiesinger	CDU
1966–1978	Hans Filbinger	CDU
1978–1991	Lothar Späth	CDU
1991–2005	Erwin Teufel	CDU
2005–2010	Günther Oettinger	CDU
2010–2011	Stefan Mappus	CDU
2011–present	Winfried Kretschmann	Greens

Tourism

The castle ruin in Weinsberg

The Black forest, the Swabian Alb and the Lake Constance are world famous holiday regions. The highest mountain is the Feldberg (1492m).

Other important cities for tourism in Baden-Württemberg besides the capital city of Stuttgart are: Freiburg, Heidelberg, Rastatt, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Ulm, Ravensburg and Heilbronn.

The Danube, the Neckar and the Rhine are important rivers which are in the state.

Economy

Baden-Württemberg has the third largest economy in Germany after the economies of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria. It had a gross regional product (GRP) of €524.33 billion in 2019.^[4]

Religion

In the northern part of Württemberg and the Kurpfalz the majority are Protestants. But the other parts of the state, especially the south, the majority are Roman Catholics.

Statistics for Baden-Württemberg:

Confession	Percentage	Number
Roman Catholic	38.3%	c. 4.1 mio.
Protestants	34.6%	c. 3.7 mio.
Muslim	5.6%	c. 600,000
Buddhists	0.23%	c. 25,000
Hindus	0.14%	c. 15,000
Jews	0.08%	c. 9,000
Other or none	21.4%	c. 2.25 mio.

Sports

Football is the most popular sport in Baden-Württemberg. The best clubs are the VfB Stuttgart and the SC Freiburg. In former times also Karlsruher SC (Karlsruher SC or KSC). Another popular sport is handball.