The Grand Duchy of Baden (German: Großherzogtum Baden) was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a margraviate that eventually split into two, Baden-Durlach and Baden-Baden, before being reunified in 1771. The territory grew and assumed its ducal status after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire but suffered a revolution in 1848, whose demands had been formulated in Offenburg the previous year at a meeting now considered the first-ever democratic program in Germany. With the collapse of the German Empire it became part of the Weimar Republic under the name Republic of Baden. The Grand Duchy of Baden was bordered to the north by the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Grand Duchy of Hesse, to the west by the Rhine, to the south by Switzerland, and to the east mainly by the Kingdom of Württemberg. Its unofficial anthem has been the Badnerlied, or Song of the People of Baden, which has four or five traditional verses and many more added: there are collections with up to 591 verses. Source: Wikipedia (en)