This should do it: [out:json]; area['admin_level'='2']['name'='Deutschland']; (relation['admin_level'='8'](area);); out geom; My understanding is that this line limits the query to just Germany: area['admin_level'='2']['name'='Deutschland']; Then this line does the actual search of all cities within that area: (relation['admin_level'='8'](area);); If it's still too slow, you could run multiple queries - one for each State (which exist at admin level 4), based on this example for Brandenburg: [out:json]; area['ISO3166-2'~'^DE']['admin_level'='4']['name'='Brandenburg']; (relation['admin_level'='8'](area);); out geom;

This should do it: [out:json]; area['admin_level'='2']['name'='Deutschland']; (relation['admin_level'='8'](area);); out geom; My understanding is that this line limits the query to just Germany: area['admin_level'='2']['name'='Deutschland']; Then this line does the actual search of all cities within that area: (relation['admin_level'='8'](area);); If it's still too slow, you could run multiple queries - one for each State (which exist at admin level 4), based on this example for Brandenburg: [out:json]; area['ISO3166-2'~'^DE']['admin_level'='4']['name'='Brandenburg']; (relation['admin_level'='8'](area);); out geom;