States of Germany
The German use of the term Länder (‘lands’) dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919. Before this time, the 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’, an older German term for ‘republic’): Bavaria (since 1919), Saxony (originally since 1919 and again since 1990), and Thuringia (since 1994). From the 17 states at the end of the Weimar Republic, six still exist (though partly with different border-lines):
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