Other divisions · History
Where French law ruled
Until the German Civil Code took effect on 1 January 1900, Napoleon's Code civil was the civil law west of the Rhine, in the Bergish lands around Düsseldorf and, in German translation, in Baden. 78 of today's 401 districts lie mostly in that area, home to 17 million people (20% of the population).
| Zone | Districts | People | Share | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhenish (French) law Code civil until 1899: west of the Rhine and the former Grand Duchy of Berg | 59 | 12.3 m | 14.7% | 30,385 km² |
| Baden law (Code civil in German) Badisches Landrecht, 1810–1899 | 19 | 4.8 m | 5.7% | 14,498 km² |
| Elsewhere Prussian Land Law, common law, Saxon, Bavarian and other codes | 323 | 66.4 m | 79.6% | 312,706 km² |
The left bank of the Rhine belonged to France under the Peace of Lunéville (1801), so the Code civil of 1804 applied there as French law. When the Congress of Vienna divided the region, mainly between Prussia, Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt and Oldenburg, the new rulers kept it. As "Rhenish law" it stayed in force in the Prussian Rhine Province, the Bavarian Palatinate, Rheinhessen and Birkenfeld. On the right bank it survived in the former Grand Duchy of Berg, where it had been introduced in 1810, while Prussia brought back its own General Land Law (Allgemeines Landrecht) in its old territories such as the right-bank part of Kleve. That is why Düsseldorf, Wuppertal and right-bank Cologne are on the map, but not Duisburg, Essen or Mülheim an der Ruhr.
Baden went its own way: from 1810 its Badisches Landrecht, an adapted German version of the Code civil, was the civil law of the Grand Duchy. Rhenish law zone: 59 districts, 12.3 million people today, including Köln, Düsseldorf, Rhein-Sieg-Kreis and Städteregion Aachen. Baden law zone: 19 districts, 4.8 million people, including Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, Karlsruhe district, Ortenaukreis and Mannheim.
Does it still show? All of these districts lie in the former West, so the fair comparison is with the rest of the former West. There, unemployment is 7.0% in the Rhenish-law zone, 4.8% in former Baden and 5.8% elsewhere; mean gross monthly salaries are €4,244, €4,397 and €4,262; the AfD vote is 17.1%, 18.9% and 18.1%. These are associations, not effects of a civil code that ended in 1900.
Does the line still show?
Today's figures on each side, as population-weighted averages of the district values (our calculation from the live themes on this site).
| Indicator | Rhenish (French) law | Baden law (Code civil in German) | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|---|
| AfD vote 2025 | 17.1% | 18.9% | 21.3% |
| Green vote 2025 | 12.6% | 15.1% | 11.4% |
| Unemployment 2025 | 7.0% | 4.8% | 6.3% |
| Gross monthly salary € 31.12.2025 | 4,244 | 4,397 | 4,141 |
| Young people 31.12.2025 | 13.3% | 14.2% | 13.0% |
| Childcare 1 March 2025 | 34.2% | 35.6% | 39.7% |
| Foreign population 31.12.2025 | 18.2% | 19.1% | 16.4% |
How we drew the line
Each of today's 401 districts is assigned to the legal area that held the majority of its land. West of the Rhine: the share of each district lying west of today's main channel of the Rhine, from the French border at the Lauter mouth to the Dutch border (river course from OpenStreetMap), estimated from about 2,000 sample points per district on the official district boundaries (BKG VG2500). On the right bank, the districts formed from the former Grand Duchy of Berg within the Prussian Rhine Province (Düsseldorf, Remscheid, Solingen, Wuppertal, Mettmann, Leverkusen, Oberbergischer Kreis, Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis and Rhein-Sieg-Kreis) are counted as Rhenish law; Duisburg and Mülheim an der Ruhr, old Prussian territory of the Duchy of Kleve where Prussia reintroduced its General Land Law in 1815, are not (from 1879 their court, the Landgericht Duisburg, belonged to the Oberlandesgericht Hamm, not Cologne); Essen is treated the same way. Baden: the share of each district's area made up of municipalities that were part of the Grand Duchy of Baden, from the official municipal areas (31 December 2025) and the pre-1973 districts the municipalities belonged to. Every boundary decision is documented in the build script.
- Essen is counted outside the Rhenish-law area like its neighbours Duisburg and Mülheim; we could not confirm this from an accessible primary source, so treat Essen as uncertain.
- An approximation by today's district boundaries: districts split between legal areas are shown wholly on the side with the larger share of their area. Close or uncertain cases: Duisburg (28% of its area lies west of the Rhine; its Bergish south around Huckingen and Mündelheim also had Rhenish law but could not be measured; shown as elsewhere), Wesel (45% west of the Rhine; shown as elsewhere), Kleve (85% west of the Rhine) and the Enzkreis (about 39% former Baden; shown as elsewhere).
- The river is today's main channel; the Upper Rhine was straightened in the 19th century, which does not change any district.
- "Elsewhere" is not one legal area: before 1900 it combined several civil-law systems, among them the Prussian General Land Law and the "common law" (gemeines Recht).
- French civil law also applied for a few years in other parts of Germany under Napoleon, for example in the Kingdom of Westphalia and in the right-bank part of Kleve around Emmerich (1810–1815), but was abolished there; the map shows only where it lasted until 1900.
- Right-bank areas of today's Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse (Neuwied, Westerwald, Rhein-Lahn, Mainz-Kastel) are shown as elsewhere; we found no authoritative statement that Rhenish law applied there.