States_of_Germany

context: Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen federal states (German: Bundesland, or Land).[a] Since today's Germany was formed from an earlier collection of several states, it has a federal constitution, and the constituent states retain a measure of sovereignty. With an emphasis on geographical conditions, Berlin and Hamburg are frequently called Stadtstaaten (city-states), as is the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, which in fact includes the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The remaining 13 states are called Flächenländer (literally: area states).
qas: answers: sixteen
question: How many federal states does Germany have?

answers: Stadtstaaten (city-states)
question: What are Hamburg and Berlin called?

answers: Bremen and Bremerhaven
question: The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen includes which two cities?

answers: sixteen federal states
question: How many federal states does Germany have?

answers: measure of sovereignty
question: What do constituent states still have?

answers: Berlin and Hamburg
question: What are the two major city-states?

answers: Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
question: What is the name of the city-state that contains Bremen and Bremerhaven?

answers: Flächenländer
question: What do Germans call the other 13 states?

answers: sixteen
question: How many states are in Germany?

answers: Berlin and Hamburg
question: Which cities are called Stadtstaaten, other than Bremen?

answers: Bundesland, or Land
question: What is the German terms for states?

answers: 13
question: How many states are called "Flächenländer"?

answers: Bremen and Bremerhaven
question: The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen includes which cities?

context: The creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 was through the unification of the western states (which were previously under American, British, and French administration) created in the aftermath of World War II. Initially, in 1949, the states of the Federal Republic were Baden, Bavaria (in German: Bayern), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (Hessen), Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), North Rhine Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz), Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. West Berlin, while officially not part of the Federal Republic, was largely integrated and considered as a de facto state.
qas: answers: 1949
question: What year was the Federal Republic of Germany created?

answers: World War II
question: The Federal Republic of Germany was founded after which world war?

answers: West Berlin
question: What area was initially not apart of the Federal Republic of Germany?

answers: 1949
question: When was the Federal Republic of Germany formed?

answers: the aftermath of World War II
question: How did this republic come to be?

answers: American, British, and French administration
question: How was the republic controlled at the end World War II?

answers: West Berlin
question: Which state was NOT a part of the Federal Republic in 1949?

answers: 1949
question: When was the Federal Republic of Germany created

answers: American, British, and French
question: Which countries administrations was the Federal Republic of Germany previously under?

answers: West Berlin
question: Which city was originally not a part of the Federal Republic of Germany?

answers: World War II
question: What was the Federal Republic of Germany created in the aftermath of?

context: In 1952, following a referendum, Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern merged into Baden-Württemberg. In 1957, the Saar Protectorate rejoined the Federal Republic as the Saarland. German reunification in 1990, in which the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) ascended into the Federal Republic, resulted in the addition of the re-established eastern states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (in German Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Saxony (Sachsen), Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt), and Thuringia (Thüringen), as well as the reunification of West and East Berlin into Berlin and its establishment as a full and equal state. A regional referendum in 1996 to merge Berlin with surrounding Brandenburg as "Berlin-Brandenburg" failed to reach the necessary majority vote in Brandenburg, while a majority of Berliners voted in favour of the merger.
qas: answers: following a referendum
question: How did Baden-Württemberg form?

answers: German reunification
question: When did the  the Saar Protectorate rejoin the republic?

answers: German reunification
question: What was it called when East Germany joined the republic?

answers: West and East Berlin
question: What states formed Berlin in 1990?

answers: Brandenburg
question: Who did Berlin fail to merge with in 1996?

answers: Baden-Württemberg
question: Which city did Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern merge into?

answers: 1952
question: In what year did Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern merge?

answers: Saarland
question:  In 1957, the Saar Protectorate rejoined the Federal Republic as which city?

answers: 1990
question: When did the German reunification take place?

answers: failed to reach the necessary majority vote in Brandenburg
question: Why did a regional referendum in 1996 to merge Berlin with surrounding Brandenburg fail?

context: Federalism is one of the entrenched constitutional principles of Germany. According to the German constitution (called Grundgesetz or in English Basic Law), some topics, such as foreign affairs and defense, are the exclusive responsibility of the federation (i.e., the federal level), while others fall under the shared authority of the states and the federation; the states retain residual legislative authority for all other areas, including "culture", which in Germany includes not only topics such as financial promotion of arts and sciences, but also most forms of education and job training. Though international relations including international treaties are primarily the responsibility of the federal level, the constituent states have certain limited powers in this area: in matters that affect them directly, the states defend their interests at the federal level through the Bundesrat (literally Federal Council, the upper house of the German Federal Parliament) and in areas where they have legislative authority they have limited powers to conclude international treaties "with the consent of the federal government".
qas: answers: Federalism
question: What is an entrenched constitutional principle in Germany?

answers: the federation
question: In Germany, foreign affairs is under the exclusive purvey of what? 

answers: culture
question: What is an example of what states retain authority over?

answers: the Bundesrat
question: The states defend their interests at the federal level through what?

answers: the federal government
question: Whose consent do the states need to make international treaties?

context: The use of the term Länder (Lands) dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919. Before this time, the constituent states of the German Empire were called Staaten (States). Today, it is very common to use the term Bundesland (Federal Land). However, this term is not used officially, neither by the constitution of 1919 nor by the Basic Law (Constitution) of 1949. Three Länder call themselves Freistaaten (Free States, which is the old-fashioned German expression for Republic), Bavaria (since 1919), Saxony (originally since 1919 and again since 1990), and Thuringia (since 1994). There is little continuity between the current states and their predecessors of the Weimar Republic with the exception of the three free states, and the two city-states of Hamburg and Bremen.
qas: answers: the Weimar Constitution of 1919
question: What does the term Länder date back to?

answers: Staaten
question: Before 1919 what were the German states called?

answers: Freistaaten
question: What does Bavaria refer to itself as?

answers: three
question: How many free states are there in Germany?

answers: Hamburg and Bremen
question: What are the two city-states in Germany?

context: A new delimitation of the federal territory keeps being debated in Germany, though "Some scholars note that there are significant differences among the American states and regional governments in other federations without serious calls for territorial changes ...", as political scientist Arthur B. Gunlicks remarks. He summarizes the main arguments for boundary reform in Germany: "... the German system of dual federalism requires strong Länder that have the administrative and fiscal capacity to implement legislation and pay for it from own source revenues. Too many Länder also make coordination among them and with the federation more complicated ...". But several proposals have failed so far; territorial reform remains a controversial topic in German politics and public perception.
qas: answers: delimitation of the federal territory
question: What keeps being debated in Germany?

answers: pay for it from own source revenues
question: What does Gunlick remark that the German System of  dual federalism requires strong Länder to have other than the capacity to implement legislation?

answers: several
question: How many proposals have failed so far?

context: Federalism has a long tradition in German history. The Holy Roman Empire comprised many petty states numbering more than 300 around 1796. The number of territories was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1814). After the Congress of Vienna (1815), 39 states formed the German Confederation. The Confederation was dissolved after the Austro-Prussian War and replaced by a North German Federation under Prussian hegemony; this war left Prussia dominant in Germany, and German nationalism would compel the remaining independent states to ally with Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, and then to accede to the crowning of King Wilhelm of Prussia as German Emperor. The new German Empire included 25 states (three of them, Hanseatic cities) and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The empire was dominated by Prussia, which controlled 65% of the territory and 62% of the population. After the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles, the remaining states continued as republics of a new German federation. These states were gradually de facto abolished and reduced to provinces under the Nazi regime via the Gleichschaltung process, as the states administratively were largely superseded by the Nazi Gau system.
qas: answers: more than 300
question: The Holy Roman Empire comprised of how many petty states? 

answers: the Napoleonic Wars
question: The number of territories was greatly reduced during what?

answers: the German Confederation
question: A North German Federation under Prussian hegemony replaced what confederation?

answers: 62%
question: How much of the population did Prussia control?

answers: 65%
question: How much of the land did Prussia control?

context: During the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, internal borders were redrawn by the Allied military governments. No single state comprised more than 30% of either population or territory; this was intended to prevent any one state from being as dominant within Germany as Prussia had been in the past. Initially, only seven of the pre-War states remained: Baden (in part), Bavaria (reduced in size), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse (enlarged), Saxony, and Thuringia. The states with hyphenated names, such as Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt, owed their existence to the occupation powers and were created out of mergers of former Prussian provinces and smaller states. Former German territory that lie east of the Oder-Neisse Line fell under either Polish or Soviet administration but attempts were made at least symbolically not to abandon sovereignty well into the 1960s. However, no attempts were made to establish new states in these territories as they lay outside the jurisdiction of West Germany at that time.
qas: answers: Allied military governments
question: Who redrew Germany's internal borders after World War II?

answers: 30%
question: No single state comprised of how much of the population after World War II?

answers: seven
question: After WWII how many states initially remained in Germany?

answers: Polish or Soviet administration
question: Former German territory that lie east of the Oder-Neisse Line went under which countries administration?

answers: no attempts
question: How many made to establish new states in the territories  lying east of the Oder-Neisse Line?

context: Upon its founding in 1949, West Germany had eleven states. These were reduced to nine in 1952 when three south-western states (South Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern, and Württemberg-Baden) merged to form Baden-Württemberg. From 1957, when the French-occupied Saar Protectorate was returned and formed into the Saarland, the Federal Republic consisted of ten states, which are referred to as the "Old States" today. West Berlin was under the sovereignty of the Western Allies and neither a Western German state nor part of one. However, it was in many ways de facto integrated with West Germany under a special status.
qas: answers: eleven
question: How many states did West Germany have at its founding?

answers: Western Allies
question: What was West Berlin under the sovereignty of?

answers: neither a Western German state nor part of one
question: Which state was West Berlin apart of?

answers: 1957
question: When did the Saarland form?

answers: 1952
question: How many states was Germany reduced to in 1952

context: Later, the constitution was amended to state that the citizens of the 16 states had successfully achieved the unity of Germany in free self-determination and that the Basic Law thus applied to the entire German people. Article 23, which had allowed "any other parts of Germany" to join, was rephrased. It had been used in 1957 to reintegrate the Saar Protectorate as the Saarland into the Federal Republic, and this was used as a model for German reunification in 1990. The amended article now defines the participation of the Federal Council and the 16 German states in matters concerning the European Union.
qas: answers: had successfully achieved the unity of Germany
question: What was the German constitution later amended to say about the citizens of the 16 states?

answers: "any other parts of Germany" to join
question: Article 23, before it was rephrased allowed what?

answers: Saar Protectorate
question: Which state was Article 23 used to reintegrate? 

answers: the 16 German states
question: The amended article 23 now defines the participation of the Federal Council and what else?

context: A new delimitation of the federal territory has been discussed since the Federal Republic was founded in 1949 and even before. Committees and expert commissions advocated a reduction of the number of states; academics (Rutz, Miegel, Ottnad etc.) and politicians (Döring, Apel, and others) made proposals –  some of them far-reaching –  for redrawing boundaries but hardly anything came of these public discussions. Territorial reform is sometimes propagated by the richer states as a means to avoid or reduce fiscal transfers.
qas: answers: new delimitation of the federal territory
question: What has been discussed since the Federal Republic was founded in 1949?

answers: a reduction of the number of states
question: What have experts advocated in regards to delimitation?

answers: Territorial reform
question: What is propagated by the richer states as a means to avoid or reduce fiscal transfers?

context: The debate on a new delimitation of the German territory started in 1919 as part of discussions about the new constitution. Hugo Preuss, the father of the Weimar Constitution, drafted a plan to divide the German Reich into 14 roughly equal-sized states. His proposal was turned down due to opposition of the states and concerns of the government. Article 18 of the constitution enabled a new delimitation of the German territory but set high hurdles: Three fifth of the votes handed in, and at least the majority of the population are necessary to decide on the alteration of territory. In fact, until 1933 there were only four changes in the configuration of the German states: The 7 Thuringian states were merged in 1920, whereby Coburg opted for Bavaria, Pyrmont joined Prussia in 1922, and Waldeck did so in 1929. Any later plans to break up the dominating Prussia into smaller states failed because political circumstances were not favorable to state reforms.
qas: answers: 1919
question: When did the debate on delimitation begin in Germany?

answers: Hugo Preuss
question: Who was the father of the Weimar Constitution?

answers: 14
question: How many states was the German Reich to divided into?

answers: four
question: Until 1933 how many configurations in the German states occurred? 

answers: 1922
question: When did Pyrmont join Prussia?

context: After the Nazi Party seized power in January 1933, the Länder increasingly lost importance. They became administrative regions of a centralised country. Three changes are of particular note: on January 1, 1934, Mecklenburg-Schwerin was united with the neighbouring Mecklenburg-Strelitz; and, by the Greater Hamburg Act (Groß-Hamburg-Gesetz), from April 1, 1937, the area of the city-state was extended, while Lübeck lost its independence and became part of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein.
qas: answers: January 1933
question: When did the Nazi Party seize power?

answers: They became administrative regions
question: What happened to the Länder as they lost importance during the Nazi regime?

answers: Mecklenburg-Strelitz
question: on January 1, 1934, Mecklenburg-Schwerin was united with which state?

answers: April 1, 1937
question: When did the Greater Hamburg Act occur?

answers: Schleswig-Holstein
question: Which Prussian province did Lübeck become a part of?

context: As the premiers did not come to an agreement on this question, the Parliamentary Council was supposed to address this issue. Its provisions are reflected in Article 29. There was a binding provision for a new delimitation of the federal territory: the Federal Territory must be revised ... (paragraph 1). Moreover, in territories or parts of territories whose affiliation with a Land had changed after 8 May 1945 without a referendum, people were allowed to petition for a revision of the current status within a year after the promulgation of the Basic Law (paragraph 2). If at least one tenth of those entitled to vote in Bundestag elections were in favour of a revision, the federal government had to include the proposal into its legislation. Then a referendum was required in each territory or part of a territory whose affiliation was to be changed (paragraph 3). The proposal should not take effect if within any of the affected territories a majority rejected the change. In this case, the bill had to be introduced again and after passing had to be confirmed by referendum in the Federal Republic as a whole (paragraph 4). The reorganization should be completed within three years after the Basic Law had come into force (paragraph 6).
qas: answers: the Federal Territory must be revised
question: In the revision of Article 29, what was a binding provision for a new delimitation of the federal territory?

answers: one tenth
question: How much of the population must have been in favor of the revision?

answers: a referendum
question: What was required in each territory or part of a territory whose affiliation was to be changed? 

answers: paragraph 6
question: Which paragraph stated that reorganization should be completed within three years after the Basic Law had come into force?

context: In the Paris Agreements of 23 October 1954, France offered to establish an independent "Saarland", under the auspices of the Western European Union (WEU), but on 23 October 1955 in the Saar Statute referendum the Saar electorate rejected this plan by 67.7% to 32.3% (out of a 96.5% turnout: 423,434 against, 201,975 for) despite the public support of Federal German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer for the plan. The rejection of the plan by the Saarlanders was interpreted as support for the Saar to join the Federal Republic of Germany.
qas: answers: Paris Agreements
question: In what negotiation did France offer to establish the independent Saarland?

answers: 67.7%
question: In the 23 October 1955 Saar Statute referendum, what percentage opposed the formation of the Saarland?

answers: 96.5%
question: What was the Saar Statute referendum voter turnout?

answers: Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
question: Which political figure supported the Saar Statute referendum?

answers: join the Federal Republic of Germany.
question: The rejection of the plan by the Saarlanders was interpreted as support for the Saar to do what?

context: Paragraph 6 of Article 29 stated that if a petition was successful a referendum should be held within three years. Since the deadline passed on 5 May 1958 without anything happening the Hesse state government filed a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court in October 1958. The complaint was dismissed in July 1961 on the grounds that Article 29 had made the new delimitation of the federal territory an exclusively federal matter. At the same time, the Court reaffirmed the requirement for a territorial revision as a binding order to the relevant constitutional bodies.
qas: answers: three
question: Paragraph 6 of Article 29 states that a referendum, in the event of a successful petition should be held within how many years?

answers: filed a constitutional complaint
question: What did the Hesse state government due when the May 5, 1958 deadline passed?

answers: July 1961
question: When was the Hesse state government's complaint dismissed?

answers: exclusively federal matter
question: On what grounds was the Hesse state government's complaint dismissed

context: In his investiture address, given on 28 October 1969 in Bonn, Chancellor Willy Brandt proposed that the government would consider Article 29 of the Basic Law as a binding order. An expert commission was established, named after its chairman, the former Secretary of State Professor Werner Ernst. After two years of work, the experts delivered their report in 1973. It provided an alternative proposal for both northern Germany and central and southwestern Germany. In the north, either a single new state consisting of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony should be created (solution A) or two new states, one in the northeast consisting of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and the northern part of Lower Saxony (from Cuxhaven to Lüchow-Dannenberg) and one in the northwest consisting of Bremen and the rest of Lower Saxony (solution B). In the Center and South West either Rhineland-Palatinate (with the exception of the Germersheim district but including the Rhine-Neckar region) should be merged with Hesse and the Saarland (solution C), the district of Germersheim would then become part of Baden-Württemberg.
qas: answers: Article 29 of the Basic Law as a binding order
question: What did Chancellor Willy Brandt propose in his  28 October 1969 address?

answers: Bonn
question: Where did Chancellor Willy Brandt make his  28 October 1969 address?

answers: Werner Ernst
question: An expert commission was established under which chairman?

answers: the district of Germersheim
question: When did the expert commission deliver its report?

answers: Baden-Württemberg
question: Which state would the district of Germersheim be a part of?

context: The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, the federal constitution, stipulates that the structure of each Federal State's government must "conform to the principles of republican, democratic, and social government, based on the rule of law" (Article 28). Most of the states are governed by a cabinet led by a Ministerpräsident (Minister-President), together with a unicameral legislative body known as the Landtag (State Diet). The states are parliamentary republics and the relationship between their legislative and executive branches mirrors that of the federal system: the legislatures are popularly elected for four or five years (depending on the state), and the Minister-President is then chosen by a majority vote among the Landtag's members. The Minister-President appoints a cabinet to run the state's agencies and to carry out the executive duties of the state's government.
qas: answers: Article 28
question: Which article stipulates that the structure of each Federal State's government must "conform to the principles of republican, democratic, and social government, based on the rule of law"?

answers: Ministerpräsident
question: Most states are governed by what figure?

answers: Landtag
question: What are most state legislatures called?

answers: a majority vote among the Landtag's members
question: How is the Minister President chosen?

answers: a cabinet
question: Who does Minister-President choose to run state agencies?

context: The governments in Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg are designated by the term Senate. In the three free states of Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia the government is referred to as the State Government (Staatsregierung), and in the other ten states the term Land Government (Landesregierung) is used. Before January 1, 2000, Bavaria had a bicameral parliament, with a popularly elected Landtag, and a Senate made up of representatives of the state's major social and economic groups. The Senate was abolished following a referendum in 1998. The states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg are governed slightly differently from the other states. In each of those cities, the executive branch consists of a Senate of approximately eight, selected by the state's parliament; the senators carry out duties equivalent to those of the ministers in the larger states. The equivalent of the Minister-President is the Senatspräsident (President of the Senate) in Bremen, the Erster Bürgermeister (First Mayor) in Hamburg, and the Regierender Bürgermeister (Governing Mayor) in Berlin. The parliament for Berlin is called the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives), while Bremen and Hamburg both have a Bürgerschaft. The parliaments in the remaining 13 states are referred to as Landtag (State Parliament).
qas: answers: Senate
question: What are the governments in Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg called?

answers: the State Government
question:  What is the government called in the three free states of Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia?

answers: a bicameral parliament
question: What did Bavaria's government have before 2001?

answers: eight
question: How many people are in the executive branch senate in Berlin?

answers: Abgeordnetenhaus
question: The parliament in Berlin is called what?

context: The Districts of Germany (Kreise) are administrative districts, and every state except the city-states of Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen consists of "rural districts" (Landkreise), District-free Towns/Cities (Kreisfreie Städte, in Baden-Württemberg also called "urban districts", or Stadtkreise), cities that are districts in their own right, or local associations of a special kind (Kommunalverbände besonderer Art), see below. The state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen consists of two urban districts, while Berlin and Hamburg are states and urban districts at the same time.
qas: answers: administrative districts
question: What are the districts of Germany considered?

answers: "rural districts"
question: Every state, other than the free states, consist of districts called what?

answers: two
question: How many urban districts are in Bremen?

answers: urban districts
question: Berlin and Hamburg are states and what else at the same time?

context: Local associations of a special kind are an amalgamation of one or more Landkreise with one or more Kreisfreie Städte to form a replacement of the aforementioned administrative entities at the district level. They are intended to implement simplification of administration at that level. Typically, a district-free city or town and its urban hinterland are grouped into such an association, or Kommunalverband besonderer Art. Such an organization requires the issuing of special laws by the governing state, since they are not covered by the normal administrative structure of the respective states.
qas: answers: one or more Kreisfreie Städte
question: Local associations of a special kind are an amalgamation of one or more Landkreise with what?

answers: administrative entities at the district level
question: What do local associations replace?

answers: simplification of administration
question: What are local associations  intended to implement?

answers: Kommunalverband besonderer Art
question: What is the association a district-free city or town and its urban hinterland typically grouped into?

answers: the issuing of special laws
question: What does a Kommunalverband besonderer Art require?

context: Municipalities (Gemeinden): Every rural district and every Amt is subdivided into municipalities, while every urban district is a municipality in its own right. There are (as of 6 March 2009[update]) 12,141 municipalities, which are the smallest administrative units in Germany. Cities and towns are municipalities as well, also having city rights or town rights (Stadtrechte). Nowadays, this is mostly just the right to be called a city or town. However, in former times there were many other privileges, including the right to impose local taxes or to allow industry only within city limits.
qas: answers: municipalities
question: Every rural district is subdivided into what?

answers: municipality
question: Every urban district is what in its own right?

answers: 12,141
question: How many municipalities are there?

answers: a municipality
question: What is the smallest administrative unit in Germany?

answers: Stadtrechte
question: What are town rights called?

context: The municipalities have two major policy responsibilities. First, they administer programs authorized by the federal or state government. Such programs typically relate to youth, schools, public health, and social assistance. Second, Article 28(2) of the Basic Law guarantees the municipalities "the right to regulate on their own responsibility all the affairs of the local community within the limits set by law." Under this broad statement of competence, local governments can justify a wide range of activities. For instance, many municipalities develop and expand the economic infrastructure of their communities through the development of industrial trading estates.
qas: answers: local governments can justify
question: Municipalities have how many major policy responsibilities?

answers: Article 28(2)
question: What article grants the municipalities "the right to regulate on their own responsibility all the affairs of the local community within the limits set by law.

answers: a wide range of activities
question: Under Article 28(2) local governments can justify what?

answers: development
question: What is one way municipalities develop the economic infrastructure?