List of German States at the time of the German Unification in 1871.
Following the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, at the beginning of the 19th century, the German Confederation was formed by several of the German states. After the revolutions of 1848, the states failed to unify under one constitution, and this led the way for Prussian dominance during the next twenty years.
In 1871, the German Empire was declared, with the uniting of the North German Confederation (formed in 1866) with the Southern German states. The new German Empire was made up of former kingdoms, duchies, principalities and cities, listed below. The king of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm I, was the official head of the new Empire.
KingdomsBavaria
Prussia (the largest state)
Saxony
Wurtemberg
Grand Duchies
Baeden
Hesse- Home to Castle Frankenstein
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Saxe-Weimar-Egenach
Duchies
Anhalt
Brunswick
Holstein
Saxe-Altenburg
Saxe-Coburg & Gotha
Saxe-Meiningen
Scheswig
Principalities
Lippe
Oldenburg-Ruess
Schaumburg-Lippe
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
Waldek-Pyrmont
Cities
Lubek
Bremen
Hamburg
Imperial Territories
Alsace-Lorraine
Sources:
Barraclough, Geoffrey. Atlas of World History. Ann Arbor: Harper Collins, 2001.
Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior. From the Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. Brookline, MA. 1994.
