Grand Duchy of Baden | ||||||||||
Großherzogtum Baden | ||||||||||
State of the Confederation of the Rhine (1806–1813) State of the German Confederation (1815–1866) Federal State of the German Empire (1871–1918) |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Anthem Badnerlied (Unofficial) |
||||||||||
Location of the Grand Duchy of Baden within Europe in 1815.
|
||||||||||
The Grand Duchy of Baden on a section of the Travel Map of Germany from 1861.
|
||||||||||
Capital | Karlsruhe | |||||||||
Languages | Alemannic German, South Franconian German, Palatinate German | |||||||||
Religion | Catholic, Protestant | |||||||||
Government | Monarchy | |||||||||
Grand Duke | ||||||||||
• | 1771–1811 (first grand dukea) |
Charles Frederick | ||||||||
• | 1907–18 (last grand duke) |
Friedrich II (died 1928) | ||||||||
Staatsminister | ||||||||||
• | 1809–10 (first) | |||||||||
• | 1917–18 (last) | |||||||||
Legislature | Landtag | |||||||||
• | Upper house | Erste Kammer | ||||||||
• | Lower house | Zweite Kammer | ||||||||
History | ||||||||||
• | Margraviate raised to Grand Duchy | 1806 | ||||||||
• | Joined German Empire | 1871 | ||||||||
• | German Revolution | November 14, 1918 | ||||||||
Area | ||||||||||
• | 1803 | 3,400 km2 (1,300 sq mi) | ||||||||
• | 1905 | 15,082 km2 (5,823 sq mi) | ||||||||
Population | ||||||||||
• | 1803 est. | 210,000 | ||||||||
Density | 62/km2 (160/sq mi) | |||||||||
• | 1905 est. | 2,009,320 | ||||||||
Density | 133/km2 (345/sq mi) | |||||||||
Currency |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
a: Karl Friedrich was Margrave of Baden-Durlach from 1746–71, when he inherited Baden-Baden, becoming Margrave of unified Baden. In 1803, support for Napoleon saw him raised to Elector of Baden. He joined the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, when he was raised to Grand Duke of Baden. |
The Grand Duchy of Baden (German: Großherzogtum Baden) was a state in the southwest of German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.
It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subsequently split into different lines, which were unified in 1771. It then became the much-enlarged Grand Duchy of Baden through the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1803–06 and was a sovereign country until it joined the German Empire in 1871, remaining a Grand Duchy until 1918 when it became part of the Weimar Republic as the Republic of Baden. Baden was bordered to the north by the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt; to the west, along most of its length, by the River Rhine, which separated Baden from the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate and Alsace in modern France; to the south by Switzerland; and to the east by the Kingdom of Württemberg, the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Bavaria.
After World War II, the French military government in 1945 created the state of Baden (originally known as "South Baden") out of the southern half of the former Baden, with Freiburg as its capital. This portion of the former Baden was declared in its 1947 constitution to be the true successor of the old Baden. The northern half of the old Baden was combined with northern Württemberg, becoming part of the American military zone, and formed the state of Württemberg-Baden. Both Baden and Württemberg-Baden became states of West Germany upon its formation in 1949.