ABSTRACT
The internal political geography of Germany under the Weimar regime was among the most complicated of all contemporary European countries. (Fig. 0.1) Before the birth of Hitler's state, Germany was divided into no less than 17 Lander, the largest of which was Prussia, covering some 60 per cent of the country's land area and embracing some 60 per cent of its population. Prussia was itself divided into separate provinces. The remaining Lander varied wildly in size and population. Bavaria, for instance, had an area of 78,000 square kilometres and a population of some 8 million, while Schaumburg-Lippe had corresponding figures of 340 and 50,000. The resulting geographical mosaic was predictably very confused. While Prussia was the dominant force across the northern half of the country and Bavaria, by virtue of its large size, likewise in the south, the small German Lander were distributed across the face of western Germany, many of them also having detached territorial outliers to add further to the confusion.
