Skip to main content

Leben in Deutschland Test — North Rhine-Westphalia

Free practice for the German citizenship test, with the 10 BAMF state-specific questions for North Rhine-Westphalia.

What's specific to North Rhine-Westphalia

Each Bundesland has a 10-question pool of state-specific questions about its parliament, capital, geography, and government. When you take the mock test, 3 of the 33 questions are randomly drawn from North Rhine-Westphalia's pool — the same as the real BAMF Einbürgerungstest. The 30 general questions you'll see are the same across Germany.

North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's most populous state with 17.9 million residents — more than the entire population of the Netherlands. It contains the Ruhr area (Ruhrgebiet), the largest urban region in Germany, and was created in 1946 by British occupation forces merging the northern Rhine Province with Westphalia. The Einbürgerungstest covers Düsseldorf as capital, Cologne Cathedral (UNESCO World Heritage), the post-industrial transformation of the Ruhr, and Bonn as the former West German capital from 1949 to 1990.

Quick facts about North Rhine-Westphalia

Capital
Düsseldorf
Population
17.9 million
Area
34,113 km²
Naturalisation authority
Ministerium des Innern Nordrhein-Westfalen
Test centers
VHS Köln, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Bonn, Münster, Bochum, Aachen

Frequently asked questions about the Einbürgerungstest in North Rhine-Westphalia

Where can I take the Einbürgerungstest in North Rhine-Westphalia?

NRW offers the test at VHS centers in Köln, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Bonn, Münster, Bochum, Aachen, and dozens more. As Germany's most populous state, NRW has the highest test frequency — typically several sittings per week in major cities.

Why was Bonn the former capital of Germany?

After WWII, the Federal Republic chose Bonn over Frankfurt in 1949, partly because Konrad Adenauer (the first chancellor) lived nearby and partly to signal the temporary nature of the West German state. Bonn remained the capital until 1990, after which Berlin took over — a topic in NRW's question pool.

What's special about the Ruhrgebiet?

The Ruhrgebiet is a polycentric urban region of 5.1 million people including Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, and Bochum. It was Germany's coal and steel heartland through the 20th century; since the 1970s it has transformed into a service economy. The Zollverein Coal Mine (UNESCO World Heritage) symbolizes this shift.

Practice for any other Bundesland