Home  

Random  

Nearby  



Log in  



Settings  



Donate  



About Wikipedia  

Disclaimers  



Wikipedia





Districts of Germany





Article  

Talk  



Language  

Watch  

Edit  


(Redirected from Landkreis)
 


In 13 German states,[a] the primary administrative subdivision higher than a Gemeinde (municipality) is the Landkreis[b]orKreis.[c][d] Most major cities in Germany are not part of any Kreis, but instead combine the functions of a municipality and a Kreis; such a city is referred to as a kreisfreie Stadt[e]orStadtkreis.[f]

Districts of Germany
Landkreis (German)
  • Also known as:
  • Kreis
  • Stadtkreis
  •   Rural districts   Urban districts
    LocationGermany
    Found inStates
    Possible types
    • Rural District
  • Urban District
  • Government
    • Kreistag
    Subdivisions

    (Land-)Kreise stand at an intermediate level of administration between each state (Länder) and the municipalities (Gemeinden) within it.[g] These correspond to level-3 administrative units in the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS 3).

    Previously, the similar title Imperial Circle (Reichskreis) referred to groups of states in the Holy Roman Empire. The related term Landeskommissariat was used for similar administrative divisions in some German territories until the 19th century.

    Types of districts

    edit
     Federal LevelFederal StatesCity States(Governmental Districts)(Rural) Districts(Collective Municipalities)Municipalities(Municipalities)Urban Districts
    Administrative divisions of Germany (clickable image)

    The majority of German districts are "rural districts"[1] (German: Landkreise, pronounced [ˈlantˌkʁaɪ̯zə] ), of which there are 294 as of 2017. Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants (and smaller towns in some states) do not usually belong to a district, but take on district responsibilities themselves, similar to the concept of independent cities. These are known as "urban districts" (German: kreisfreie StädteorStadtkreise)—cities which constitute a district in their own right—and there are 106 of them,[2] bringing the total number of districts to 400. As of 2016, approximately 26 million people live in these 107 urban districts.[3]

    InNorth Rhine-Westphalia, there are some cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants which are not urban districts, these being Recklinghausen, Gütersloh, Siegen, Paderborn, Bergisch Gladbach, Neuss and Moers. Nevertheless, these cities take over many district responsibilities themselves, although they are still part of a larger rural district. Midsize towns can perform particular administrative functions of the district as well, especially to provide common services to the local citizens. The classification as "midsize" town is usually based on a town's registered population, but varies from state to state.

    A special type of rural districts includes the three Kommunalverbände besonderer Art (Municipal unions of special kind), a fusion of a district-free town with its adjacent rural district: besides the Regionalverband Saarbrücken (Saarbrücken regional association), from 1974 until 2007 called『Stadtverband Saarbrücken』(Saarbrücken town association), there is the Hanover Region since 2001 and the Städteregion Aachen (Aachen region of towns) since 2009. Aachen, Hanover and Göttingen retain certain rights of an urban district (Kreisfreie Stadt); Saarbrücken has not explicitly determined a similar provision in its legislation.

    Responsibilities

    edit

    According to common federal and state laws, the districts are responsible for the following tasks:

    Districts can perform additional functions, based on varying local laws in each region:

    All these tasks are carried out by local (municipal) authorities operating together. Urban districts have these responsibilities and also those of the municipalities.

    District council

    edit

    The district council (German: Kreistag, pronounced [ˈkʁaɪ̯sˌtaːk] ) is the highest institution of a rural district and is responsible for all fundamental guidelines of regional self-administration. This council is elected directly every five years, except in Bavaria where it is elected every six years. Usually the administrative seat of a rural district is located in one of its largest towns. However, district council and administrative seat of some rural districts are not situated within the district proper, but in an adjacent district-free city. Most of those rural districts are named after this central city as well (e.g. Bamberg and Karlsruhe). Moers is the biggest city in Germany (and at present time the only one with more than 100,000 inhabitants) that is neither an urban district, nor the district seat of its rural district.

    District administration

    edit

    The highest administrative position of a rural district is an officer known as LandratorLandrätin, who is responsible for the district's day-to-day administration and acts as its representative for official purposes. In parts of northern Germany, Landrat is also the name of the entire district administration, which in southern Germany is known as KreisverwaltungorLandratsamt.

    In urban districts similar administrative functions are performed by a mayor, in most greater cities usually by the Lord Mayor.

    Rural districts in some German states have an additional administrative committee called Kreisausschuss. This committee is generally led by the Landrat and includes a number of additional voluntary members. It takes over certain administrative functions for the district, following decisions of the district council. However, the exact role and regulations of this panel vary greatly between different states.

    The city where the office of the district's administration is located is called Kreisstadt ("district city"), or Kreishauptort ("district main community") if it is not a city. Often the district is named after its district city.

    Linguistically, any city within a district could be called a "Kreisstadt", especially those that aren't district-free to distinguish them from district-free cities. This term has to be distinguished from the legal term "Kreisstadt" that only denotes the location of the administrative office. In everyday language, district cities are also called Kreishauptstadt ("district capital").

    See also

    edit

    Notes

    edit
    1. ^ All, except for the three city states
  • ^ official term in all states, except North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein
  • ^ official term in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein
  • ^ In either case, the plural of the noun is formed by suffixing it with "e". In Germany, the term Kreis is also used informally for any rural district, and (for example in statistical summaries) for a district of any type.
  • ^ literally "district-free city"; official term in all states, except Baden-Württemberg
  • ^ literally "urban district"; official term in Baden-Württemberg
  • ^ AKreis is not to be confused with a Regierungsbezirk. These are state administrative subdivision above Landkreis-level and below state-level. Currently only four states make use of this administrational level: North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse.
  • References

    edit
    1. ^ "Country Compendium, A companion to the English Style Guide" (PDF). European Commission Directorate-General for Translation (EC DGT). February 2017. pp. 50–51.
  • ^ This number includes the "city-states" of Berlin and Hamburg, and two urban districts of the city-state Bremen.
  • ^ "Kreisfreie Städte und Landkreise nach Fläche und Bevölkerung auf Grundlage des ZENSUS 2011 und Bevölkerungsdichte - Gebietsstand: 31.12.2015" (XLS) (in German). Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. July 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2017.

  • Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Districts_of_Germany&oldid=1226629831"
     



    Last edited on 31 May 2024, at 21:45  





    Languages

     


    Alemannisch
    العربية
    Aragonés
    Azərbaycanca
     / Bân-lâm-gú
    Беларуская
    Беларуская (тарашкевіца)
    Български
    Boarisch
    Bosanski
    Català
    Čeština
    Cymraeg
    Dansk
    Deutsch
    Dolnoserbski
    Eesti
    Español
    Esperanto
    فارسی
    Français
    Frysk
    Gaelg
    Galego

    Hornjoserbsce
    Hrvatski
    Bahasa Indonesia
    Interlingua
    Italiano
    עברית

    Қазақша
    Kurdî
    Ladin
    Latina
    Lëtzebuergesch
    Lietuvių
    Limburgs
    Magyar
    Македонски
    Bahasa Melayu
    Nederlands
    Norsk bokmål
    Norsk nynorsk
    Pälzisch
    Plattdüütsch
    Polski
    Português
    Română
    Русский
    Simple English
    Slovenčina
    Српски / srpski
    Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
    Suomi
    Svenska
    Тоҷикӣ
    Türkçe
    Українська
    Vèneto
    Tiếng Vit
    West-Vlams


     

    Wikipedia


    This page was last edited on 31 May 2024, at 21:45 (UTC).

    Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Terms of Use

    Desktop