Grand Duchy of Baden - Population

Population

At the beginning of the 19th century, Baden was only a margraviate, with an area of barely 1300 sq mi (3,400 km²) and a population of 210,000. Since then, the grand duchy acquired more territory so that, by 1905, it had 5823 sq mi (15,082 km²) and a population of 2,010,728, of whom 61% are Roman Catholics, 37% Protestants, 1.5% Jews, and the remainder of other religions. Of the population about half may have been said, at that time, to be rural, living in communities of less than 2,000, while the density of the rest is about 330 /sq mi (130 /km2).

The country was divided into the following districts:

• Mannheim district had the towns Mannheim, and Heidelberg
• Karlsruhe district included Karlsruhe and Pforzheim
• Freiburg im Breisgau district included Freiburg
• Konstanz district had Konstanz

The capital of the duchy was Karlsruhe, and among important towns other than the above, there are Rastatt, Baden-Baden, Bruchsal, Lahr and Offenburg. The population is most thickly clustered in the north and near the Swiss city of Basel. The inhabitants of Baden are of various origins, those to the south of Murg being descended from the Alemanni and those to the north from the Franks, while the Swabian Plateau derives its name from the adjacent German tribe (Schwaben) living in Württemberg.

Due to the traditional rivalry between the populations of Baden and Württemberg, there was a strong opposition in Baden (predominantly in the South) against the unification of the two initially independent Länder. In recent years patriotism in Baden has increased again, mainly due to discontent with the politics of the government in Stuttgart (situated in Württemberg).