Before unification, German territory was made up of 26 constituent states. These states consisted of kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, free Hanseatic cities and one imperial territory. The Kingdom of Prussia was the largest of the constituent states, covering some 60 percent of the territory of the German Empire.
Several of these states had gained sovereignty following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Others were created as sovereign states after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Territories were not necessarily contiguous – many existed in several parts, as a result of historical acquisition, or, in several cases, divisions of the ruling family trees. The constituent Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, then ruled in personal union by the Prussian king, merged with Prussia in real union in 1876.
Each component of the German Empire sent representatives to the Imperial Council (Bundesrat) and the Imperial Diet (Reichstag). Relations between the Imperial centre and the Empire's components were somewhat fluid, and were developed on an ongoing basis. The extent to which the German Emperor could, for example, intervene on occasions of disputed or unclear succession was much debated on occasion – for example with the Lippe-Detmold inheritance crisis.
| State | Capital | |
|---|---|---|
| Kingdoms (Königreiche) | ||
 | Prussia (Preußen) | Berlin |
 | Bavaria (Bayern) | Munich |
 | Saxony (Sachsen) | Dresden |
 | Württemberg | Stuttgart |
| Grand duchies (Großherzogtümer) | ||
 | Baden | Karlsruhe |
 | Hesse (Hessen) | Darmstadt |
 | Mecklenburg-Schwerin | Schwerin |
| Mecklenburg-Strelitz | Neustrelitz |
 | Oldenburg | Oldenburg |
 | Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) | Weimar |
| Duchies (Herzogtümer) | ||
 | Anhalt | Dessau |
 | Brunswick (Braunschweig) | Braunschweig |
 | Saxe-Altenburg (Sachsen-Altenburg) | Altenburg |
 | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) | Coburg |
| Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen) | Meiningen |
| Principalities (Fürstentümer) | ||
 | Lippe | Detmold |
 | Reuss, junior line | Gera |
 | Reuss, senior line | Greiz |
 | Schaumburg-Lippe | Bückeburg |
 | Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt | Rudolstadt |
| Schwarzburg-Sondershausen | Sondershausen |
 | Waldeck-Pyrmont | Arolsen |
| Free Hanseatic cities (Freie Hansestädte) | ||
 | Bremen | |
 | Hamburg | |
 | Lübeck | |
| Imperial territory (Reichsland) | ||
 | Alsace-Lorraine (Elsaß-Lothringen) | Straßburg |
 Kingdom of Prussia |  Kingdom of Bavaria |  Kingdom of Saxony |  Kingdom of Württemberg |
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