Germany's National Parks by Year of Founding, From the Alps in 1978 to the Black Forest in 2014

Founded on August 1, 1978, it is Germany's only alpine national park, in the Berchtesgaden Alps on the Austrian border. It holds the Watzmann massif, whose Mittelspitze reaches 2,713 meters, the Blaueis glacier and most of Lake Königssee.

The first of the three German Wadden Sea parks, created by the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament on October 1, 1985 and enlarged in 1999. Its tidal flats reach up to 40 kilometers wide and shelter harbor porpoises, shelducks and eelgrass beds.

Established in 1986 and run from Wilhelmshaven, it protects the East Frisian Islands and the mudflats and salt marshes between the Dollart bay and the Outer Elbe channel. In June 2009 it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site together with the Schleswig-Holstein and Dutch Wadden Sea areas.

Founded on April 9, 1990, this is the smallest of the three Wadden Sea parks, an exclave of the city-state of Hamburg in the Elbe estuary. It covers the islands of Neuwerk, Scharhorn and Nigehorn and was designated a Ramsar wetland the same year.

Created in September 1990 by the last government of East Germany shortly before reunification, it is Germany's smallest national park at about 30 square kilometers. The Königsstuhl chalk cliff of Rügen rises 118 meters above the Baltic, and the beech forest behind it joined the World Heritage List in 2011.

Established in 1990 near Dresden, it protects two separate areas totaling 93.5 square kilometers of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The land climbs from the Elbe valley at about 110 to 120 meters to the Grosser Winterberg at 556 meters, and it adjoins Bohemian Switzerland National Park across the Czech border.

Founded on October 1, 1990, it is the largest national park in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at about 805 square kilometers. It spans the Darß peninsula, the west coast of Rügen, Hiddensee and the shallow lagoons between them, and is a resting site for tens of thousands of migratory cranes and geese each year.

Also founded on October 1, 1990, it lies midway between Berlin and Rostock in the Mecklenburg lake district and covers 318 square kilometers. Its visitor center, the Müritzeum, stands near the town of Waren, and its beech forests were added to the World Heritage List in 2011.

Established on December 31, 1997, it was Germany's 13th national park and is still the only one in Thuringia. About 75 square kilometers near Bad Langensalza protect an ancient native beech forest, which joined the World Heritage List in 2011.

Founded on January 1, 2004 as Germany's 14th national park and the first in North Rhine-Westphalia. Its roughly 10,700 hectares near Mechernich, Düren and Aachen sit within the High Fens-Eifel Nature Park, a cross-border conservation area shared with Belgium.

Designated the same day, January 1, 2004, it protects 57.38 square kilometers of the Kellerwald low mountains south of the Edersee reservoir in Hesse. Its beech-forested area has formed part of a World Heritage Site since June 25, 2011.

The newest stop, officially opened on May 3, 2014. It protects 10,062 hectares along the ridge of the northern Black Forest in two sections, one of 7,615 hectares around Ruhestein and one of 2,447 hectares around Hoher Ochsenkopf and Plattig.