Baden-Württemberg

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Baden-Württemberg —  State of Germany  — Flag Coat of arms Coordinates: 48°32′16″N 9°2′28″E / 48.53778°N 9.04111°E / 48.53778; 9.04111 Country Germany Capital Stuttgart Government  - Minister-President Stefan Mappus (CDU)  - Governing parties CDU / FDP  - Votes in Bundesrat 6 (of 69) Area  - Total 35,751.65 km2 (13,803.8 sq mi) Population (2007-10-31)[1]  - Total 10,755,000  - Density 300.8/km2 (779.1/sq mi) Time zone CET (UTC+1)  - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2) ISO 3166 code DE-BW GDP/ Nominal € 331 billion (2005)[citation needed] NUTS Region DE1 Website baden-wuerttemberg.de

A campaign sticker, translated, "We can do anything except [speak] standard German." This is an allusion to the fact that Baden-Württemberg is one of the principal centres for innovation in Germany and has many inhabitants with distinctive dialects.

Baden-Württemberg (German pronunciation: [ˈbaːdən ˈvʏɐtɛmˌbeɐk]) is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine—but one which has some of its major cities straddling the banks of the Neckar River (Tübingen, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Heidelberg, Mannheim). It is third largest in both area and population among the country's sixteen states, with an area of 35,742 square kilometers (13,800.1 sq mi) and 10.7 million inhabitants (both almost equivalent to all of Belgium). The state capital is Stuttgart.

[edit] History

The area used to be covered by the historical states of Baden, the Prussian Hohenzollern and Württemberg, part of the region of Swabia.^[2] After World War II Allied forces established three federal states: Württemberg-Hohenzollern, South Baden (both occupied by France), and Württemberg-Baden (US-occupied). In 1949 these three states became founding members of the Federal Republic of Germany. Article 118 of the new German constitution however had already prepared a procedure for those states to merge. After a plebiscite held on 9 December 1951 in four different regions, of which three approved the merger, the three states merged on 25 April 1952 into Baden-Württemberg.

In 1956 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that the plebiscite was unlawful because it had disadvantaged Baden's population. The plebiscite was then held again within the area of former Baden in 1970 resulting in a majority of more than 81% for the new state.

[edit] Geography

The Rhine (German: Rhein) forms the western border as well as large portions of the southern border. The Black Forest (Schwarzwald), the main mountain range of the state, rises east of the Rhine valley. The high plateau Swabian Alb between Neckar, Black Forest and Danube is an important European watershed. Baden-Württemberg shares both Lake Constance (Bodensee) and the foothills of the Alps with Switzerland.

The Danube (Donau) river has its source in Baden-Württemberg near the town of Donaueschingen, in a place called Furtwangen in the Black Forest.

[edit] Administration

Baden-Württemberg is divided into 35 districts (Landkreise) and 9 independent cities (Stadtkreise), both grouped into the four Administrative Districts (Regierungsbezirke) of Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, and Tübingen.

Map

Furthermore there are nine independent cities, which do not belong to any district:

A. Baden-Baden
B. Freiburg
C. Heidelberg
D. Heilbronn
E. Karlsruhe
F. Mannheim
G. Pforzheim
H. Stuttgart
I. Ulm

[edit] Economy

Baden-Württemberg is among the most prosperous states in Germany^[2] and is one of the wealthiest regions in Europe with a traditionally low unemployment rate. A number of well-known enterprises are headquartered in the state, for example Daimler AG, Porsche, Robert Bosch GmbH (automobile industry), Carl Zeiss AG (optics), and SAP AG (largest software enterprise in Europe). In spite of this, Baden-Württemberg's economy is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises. Although poor in workable natural resources (formerly lead, zinc, iron, silver, copper and salts) and still rural in many areas, the region is heavily industrialized. In 2003, there were almost 8,800 manufacturing enterprises with more than 20 employees, but only 384 with more than 500. The latter category accounts for 43% of the 1.2 million persons employed in industry. The Mittelstand or mid-sized company is the backbone of the Baden-Württemberg economy.^[3] Medium-sized businesses and a tradition of branching out into different industrial sectors have ensured specialization over a wide range. A fifth of the "old" Federal Republic's industrial gross value added is generated by Baden-Württemberg. Turnover for manufacturing in 2003 exceeded 240,000 million, 43% of which came from exports. The region depends to some extent on global economic developments, though the great adaptability of the region's economy has generally helped it through crises. Half of the employees in the manufacturing industry are in mechanical and electrical engineering and automobile construction. This is also where the largest enterprises are to be found. The importance of the precision mechanics industry also extends beyond the region's borders, as does that of the optical, clock making, toy, metallurgy and electronics industries. The textile industry, which formerly dominated much of the region, has now all but disappeared from Baden-Württemberg. Research and development (R&D) is funded jointly by the State and industry. In 2001, more than a fifth of the 100,000 or so persons working in R&D in Germany were located in Baden-Württemberg, most of them in the Stuttgart area.^[4] Baden-Württemberg is also one of the Four Motors of Europe.

A study performed in 2007 by the pr campaign "Initiative for New Social Market Economy" (German: Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM)) and the trade newspaper "Wirtschaftswoche" awarded Baden-Württemberg for being the "economically most successful and most dynamic state" among the 16 states.

[edit] Tourism

Baden-Württemberg is a popular holiday destination rivalled only by Bavaria in its natural landscapes.^[2] Main sights include the capital Stuttgart, the spas of Baden-Baden, the architecture of Ulm, the university cities Heidelberg and Tübingen, and Freiburg as an ideal base for exploring the Black Forest and the vineyards of Breisach.^[2] Lake Constance (German: Bodensee) is a draw in the summer.^[2]

[edit] Education

Baden-Württemberg is home to some of the oldest, most renowned and prestigious Universities in Germany, such as the universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg and Tübingen. It also contains four of the nine German 'excellence universities' (Freiburg, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, and Konstanz). The International University in Germany is situated in Bruchsal.

Other university towns are Tübingen, Mannheim and Ulm. Furthermore, two universities are located in the state capital Stuttgart, the University of Hohenheim and the University of Stuttgart. Ludwigsburg is home to the renowned national film school Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg).

[edit] Language

In many areas of Baden-Württemberg, residents still speak the distinctive dialects of Swabian (German: Schwäbisch) and 'Badisch'/Allemanic, both of which are known for being almost unintelligible to northern Germans, especially in its stronger variants in the countryside. In the northern part of Baden-Württemberg, i.e., the area around Heidelberg and Mannheim, a third dialect known as Kurpfälzisch is spoken. The dialects spoken in most of Baden-Württemberg are related to those of the neighboring regions of Alsace, northern Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg, being either of Swabian or Alemannic origin.

[edit] Demographics

The population of Baden-Württemberg is 10,749,755 (2008), of which 5,466,966 is female and 5,282,789 is male, total population up 0.10 per cent over a year earlier. This was due to more births than deaths. In 2006, the birth rate was 8.61 per 1000, lower than that of 8.80 per 1000 in 2005. The death rate is decrease from 8.80 per 1000 in 2005 to 8.60 per 1000 in 2006. In 2008, Nearly 14.87 percent of the population under the age of 15, fell from 15.13 per cent over a previous year. The proportion of people aged 65 and over rose from 18.72 per cent to 18.99 per cent. Correspondingly, the median age (aged 15–64) of the population fell from 66.15 to 66.14 over the same period. The ratio of people aged under 15 and aged 65 and over to the population of working age (aged 15–64), the overall dependency ratio is 512 per 1000 in 2008. The Sex ratio of total population is 0.966 male(s)/female.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Religion

[edit] Religious Freedom Controversy

Baden-Württemberg was the first of Germany's 16 states to outlaw the wearing of headscarves by Muslim teachers at state schools after a similar ban in France in 2004. Several resultant cases received international attention.

In one prominent example, one of the women affected, Doris Graber, had been teaching since 1973 but began wearing a headscarf in 1995. On March 18, 2008, a German court ruled that she could not wear a headscarf despite her argument that she should be permitted to do so under equal treatment laws since nuns were allowed to teach in a public school at that time while wearing religious habits.^[7] The state attorney spoke of a "historic exception" in the aforementioned public school where the nuns still teach in habit.^[7] The school, a former monastery, was taken over by the state and authorities are bound to a contract governing the "exceptions status" of the school.^[7]

In the Fereshta Ludin case, education minister Annette Schavan asserted that headscarves are "understood as a symbol of the exclusion of woman from civil and cultural society," after she, herself, excluded Ms. Ludin from a teaching position because Ms. Ludin wore a scarf.^[8]

[edit] Politics

The politics of Baden-Württemberg are dominated by the conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), who have led all but one governments since the establishment of the state in 1952. The CDU currently have a minority of one in the state assembly, and rule in coalition with the liberal Free Democratic Party. The opposition is lead by the leftist Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Alliance '90/The Greens party. Until 2001 the anti-immigration The Republicans party also had seats in the state assembly.

[edit] Minister-presidents of Baden-Württemberg since 1952

[edit] See also

• List of places in Baden-Württemberg
• Four Motors of Europe

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Philip Cooke, Kevin Morgan (1998). The Associational Economy: Firms, Regions, and Innovation. Oxford University Press. p. 84. ISBN 9780198296591. 

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Baden-Württemberg

• Official website
• Baden-Württemberg at the Open Directory Project

v • d • e    Urban and rural districts in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany    Urban districts Baden-Baden · Freiburg · Heidelberg · Heilbronn · Karlsruhe · Mannheim · Pforzheim · Stuttgart · Ulm Rural districts Alb-Donau · Biberach · Bodensee · Böblingen · Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald · Calw · Emmendingen · Enz · Esslingen · Freudenstadt · Göppingen · Heidenheim · Heilbronn · Hohenlohe · Karlsruhe · Konstanz · Lörrach · Ludwigsburg · Main-Tauber · Neckar-Odenwald · Ortenau · Ostalbkreis · Rastatt · Ravensburg · Rems-Murr · Reutlingen · Rhein-Neckar · Rottweil · Schwarzwald-Baar · Schwäbisch Hall · Sigmaringen · Tübingen · Tuttlingen · Waldshut · Zollernalb