Other divisions · History
Prussia and the rest, 1871
When the German Empire was founded in 1871, Prussia alone covered almost two thirds of it. 176 of today's 401 districts lie mostly on former Prussian soil, home to 52% of Germany's people today, from Aachen and Cologne to Berlin, Hanover, Frankfurt and Kiel.
| Zone | Districts | People | Share | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of Prussia Including Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau, Frankfurt and Schleswig-Holstein (annexed 1866), Lauenburg and Hohenzollern | 176 | 43.2 m | 51.8% | 180,936 km² |
| Kingdom of Bavaria Including the Palatinate west of the Rhine | 111 | 14.7 m | 17.6% | 75,772 km² |
| Kingdom of Saxony | 11 | 3.6 m | 4.3% | 14,310 km² |
| Other states Württemberg, Baden, Hesse(-Darmstadt), Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, Brunswick, Anhalt, the Thuringian states, Waldeck, Lippe, Schaumburg-Lippe | 100 | 19.3 m | 23.1% | 85,275 km² |
| Hanseatic cities Free cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck | 3 | 2.7 m | 3.2% | 1,295 km² |
The Empire of 1871 was a federation of 25 states, but one of them dominated: the Kingdom of Prussia, whose king was the German Emperor and whose prime minister, Otto von Bismarck, was the Reich chancellor. After its victory over Austria in 1866 Prussia had annexed Hanover, the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel, Nassau, the Free City of Frankfurt and Schleswig-Holstein, and so stretched without a break from the Dutch to the Russian border. Even the Hohenzollern lands on the Swabian Alb, the family's ancestral home, were Prussian.
What remained outside was the south and a patchwork in the middle: the kingdoms of Bavaria (with the Palatinate west of the Rhine), Saxony and Württemberg, the grand duchies of Baden, Hesse, Mecklenburg and Oldenburg, the duchies of Brunswick and Anhalt, eight small Thuringian states, the principalities of Waldeck, Lippe and Schaumburg-Lippe, and the three Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck. The Allies dissolved Prussia formally in 1947; most of today's states were cut out of it or built around its remains.
Does the old line still show? Within the former West alone (so that the 1949–1990 border does not decide it), districts that were once Prussian have higher unemployment, 7.0% against 4.3% in former Bavaria and 5.0% in the other former states, and somewhat lower salaries (€4,161 a month against €4,296 and €4,403): old Prussia includes the Ruhr and the other former coal and steel regions. They also vote less AfD (17.3% against 19.2%). Across all of Germany the Prussian average mixes the Ruhr with the rural East, and the starkest figures belong to the former Kingdom of Saxony (AfD 36.1%). For tour guides: Berlin was Prussia's capital, Potsdam its royal residence.
Does the line still show?
Today's figures on each side, as population-weighted averages of the district values (our calculation from the live themes on this site).
| Indicator | Kingdom of Prussia | Kingdom of Bavaria | Kingdom of Saxony | Other states | Hanseatic cities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AfD vote 2025 | 19.6% | 19.2% | 36.1% | 21.8% | 11.8% |
| Green vote 2025 | 11.6% | 12.1% | 7.0% | 12.0% | 18.6% |
| Unemployment 2025 | 7.3% | 4.3% | 6.8% | 5.3% | 8.9% |
| Gross monthly salary € 31.12.2025 | 4,100 | 4,296 | 3,611 | 4,271 | 4,646 |
| Young people 31.12.2025 | 13.0% | 13.3% | 12.1% | 13.3% | 15.8% |
| Childcare 1 March 2025 | 39.6% | 33.6% | 54.0% | 36.7% | 45.0% |
| Foreign population 31.12.2025 | 16.6% | 17.9% | 9.4% | 17.4% | 20.8% |
How we drew the line
Each of today's 401 districts is assigned to the state of the German Empire (1871 borders) that held the majority of its area. Most assignments follow from the provinces and states that today's districts were formed from; where a district combines parts of two former states (e.g. Schaumburg, Wolfsburg, Salzgitter, Birkenfeld, Sigmaringen, Görlitz, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Kyffhäuserkreis), the areas of its municipalities by former state were compared and the larger share decides; the reasoning for each case is documented in the build script. Prussia includes Lauenburg (in personal union, listed as "Preußen mit Lauenburg" in the 1871 constitution) and the Hohenzollern lands; Waldeck, administered by Prussia from 1868, is counted as the sovereign member state it was.
- An approximation by today's district boundaries: districts made of former Prussian and non-Prussian land are shown wholly on the side holding the larger area. Close calls (roughly 45–60 %): Wolfsburg, Schaumburg and Sigmaringen (shown Prussian), Birkenfeld and Waldeck-Frankenberg (shown as other states).
- Small exclaves and enclaves (e.g. Bad Wimpfen of Hesse, Ostheim of Saxe-Weimar, the Brunswick exclave of Calvörde, the Upper Harz) do not change any district and are not shown.
- Shows the 1871 borders. Later changes include Lauenburg's merger into Prussia (1876), the union of the Thuringian states (1920), Coburg joining Bavaria (1920), Pyrmont (1922) and Waldeck (1929) joining Prussia, and the Greater Hamburg Act of 1937.
- Comparisons show association, not cause: the Prussian zone spans the former East and West and both industrial and rural regions.