Leben in Deutschland: Nordrhein-Westfalen

The coat of arms of North Rhine-Westphalia shows, on a green field, the white Rhine as a wavy band, the white Westphalian horse and the red rose of Lippe; picture 2 shows this coat of arms. The other pictures show the coats of arms of other federal states and are wrong.

The Rhein-Sieg-Kreis lies between Bonn and Cologne and is a district in North Rhine-Westphalia. Ammerland belongs to Lower Saxony, Nordfriesland to Schleswig-Holstein and the Vogtlandkreis to Saxony.

The state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia is elected for five years; the electoral term ends when the new parliament convenes. Three, four or six years are not valid terms in NRW and are therefore wrong.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, all German citizens aged 16 and over who have lived in the municipality for at least three months may vote in local elections. 14 is too young, 18 applies to state and federal elections, and 20 is too high.

The state flag of North Rhine-Westphalia is green-white-red, with the state coat of arms in the centre. Red-white is the flag of Hesse, black-gold the flag of Baden-Württemberg and blue-white-red the flag of Schleswig-Holstein.

The North Rhine-Westphalia State Agency for Civic Education provides information on politics and democracy through publications, events and training courses. The public order office, the consumer advice centre and the churches fulfil other tasks and are not state institutions for civic education.

Düsseldorf is the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia; the state parliament and the state government have their seat there. Cologne is the largest city in the state, Bonn was the seat of the Bundestag and the federal government until 1999, and Dortmund is a centre of the Ruhr area.

On the map for this question, North Rhine-Westphalia carries the number 3; the state lies in the west of Germany and borders the Netherlands and Belgium. The other numbers designate other federal states and are therefore wrong.

The head of government of North Rhine-Westphalia is called Minister President and is elected by the state parliament. "First Minister" and "Prime Minister" are titles used in other countries, and a mayor heads a city or municipality.

Foreign policy is the responsibility of the federal government alone (Article 73(1) of the Basic Law), which is why the Federal Foreign Office exists only in Berlin and there is no foreign minister in Düsseldorf. Justice, finance and the interior are separate ministries of the state government.