The contest was held on 29 September 2011 at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia,[1] following Unheilig's win in the 2010 contest in Berlin with the song "Unter deiner Flagge".

[3] The contest was hosted by Stefan Raab, Johanna Klum, with Lena Meyer-Landrut; Germany's Eurovision Song Contest 2010 winner, and representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 conducting interviews in the green room, whilst regular green room host Elton sat in the fan block.

[4] The winner of the Bundesvision Song Contest 2011 was Tim Bendzko with the song "Wenn Worte meine Sprache wären", representing Berlin, the state's third win.

[5] Bundesvision Song Contest 2005 winners Juli returned participating for Hesse, the second time a former winner had returned to the contest after Peter Fox had competed and won in 2009, and before that as a member of Seeed who won in 2006.

Other returning artists include Jennifer Rostock from 2008; again for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Anna Loos representing Lower Saxony; who competed in the band Silly in 2010 for Saxony-Anhalt.