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26-449: The Bezirk Suhl was a Region ( Bezirk ) of East Germany . The administrative seat and the main town was Suhl . The region was established, with the other 13, on 25 July 1952, substituting the old German states . After 3 October 1990 it was disestablished as a consequence of the German reunification , becoming again part of the state of Thuringia . The Bezirk Suhl, the westernmost and

52-453: A 15th district, though it retained a special status until the adoption of the 1968 Constitution formally designated it as Bezirk Berlin . The Bezirke (with the exception of East Berlin, which consisted of a single municipality) were subdivided into rural districts ( Landkreise ) and urban districts ( Stadtkreise ): From north to south, the Bezirke were: *) The Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt

78-524: A district in their own right—and there are 106 of them, bringing the total number of districts to 400. As of 2016 , approximately 26 million people live in these 107 urban districts. In North 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

104-670: 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

130-423: 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 ),

156-593: 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

182-498: A similar provision in its legislation. 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. The district council (German: Kreistag , pronounced [ˈkʁaɪ̯sˌtaːk] )

208-668: A state in its own right. East Germany claimed East Berlin as its capital, a status recognised by virtually all Eastern Bloc countries. However, the Western Allies (the US , UK , and France ) never formally acknowledged the authority of the East German government to govern East Berlin; the official Allied protocol recognised only the authority of the Soviet Union in East Berlin in accordance with

234-419: Is an officer known as Landrat or Landrätin , 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 Kreisverwaltung or Landratsamt . In urban districts similar administrative functions are performed by

260-476: 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

286-639: The Bezirkstage (district assemblies) in each Land and in 1958 directly by the Bezirkstage . However, on 8 December 1958, the Länderkammer and Länder were formally dissolved with no objections being raised by the Länderkammer . Due to its special status, East Berlin was originally not counted as a Bezirk . In 1961, after the construction of the Berlin Wall , East Berlin came to be recognised in GDR administration as

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312-525: The municipalities ( Gemeinden ) within it. 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

338-518: The 19th century. The majority of German districts are "rural districts" (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 Städte or Stadtkreise )—cities which constitute

364-447: The borders of the Länder and each named after their capitals, from north to south: Rostock , Neubrandenburg , Schwerin , Potsdam , Frankfurt (Oder) , Magdeburg , Cottbus , Halle , Leipzig , Erfurt , Dresden , Karl-Marx-Stadt (named Chemnitz until 1953), Gera and Suhl . The Länderkammer also remained in existence and its members were elected in 1954 by combined sessions of

390-463: The country's history. The GDR first retained the traditional German division into federated states called Länder , but in 1952 they were replaced with districts called Bezirke . Immediately before German reunification in 1990, the Länder were restored, but they were not effectively reconstituted until after reunification had completed. In May 1945, following its defeat in World War II , Germany

416-462: 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. The highest administrative position of a rural district

442-597: The five original Länder . Legally, it was these Länder that then acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany . In reality, the restored Länder did not fully reconstitute themselves until after reunification. On 14 October 1990, elections to the Landtage (state parliaments) were held in the five new states, initiating the formation of state governments. Since changes to the boundaries of municipal districts were not reversed, and also due to considerations of expediency,

468-587: The four powers divided into four sectors. A united German state government existed in the city until it broke apart in 1948. After 1949, both West Berlin and East Berlin (officially only called Berlin) were in effect incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, respectively, despite not legally being part of these countries. In the Soviet occupation zone , five Länder were established which roughly corresponded to

494-554: The legislative branch through the Länderkammer (Chamber of States), which was elected by the Landtage (state parliaments). However, the Länder were not constituting entities forming a federal republic (as in West Germany) but rather decentralised administrative entities of a quasi- unitary state . As a nod to the legal fiction that East Berlin was still occupied territory, it was counted neither as part of Brandenburg, nor as

520-547: The occupation status of Berlin as a whole. On 23 July 1952, a law combined the GDR's municipal districts ( Kreise ) into 14 regional districts ( Bezirke ), and subsequently, on 25 July 1952, the state governments transferred their administrative tasks to the new regional districts. With this law, the Länder were in effect dissolved, and the GDR had become a highly centralized state. While they formally remained in existence, they no longer had any political or administrative functions. The Bezirke were drawn without regard to

546-423: 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

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572-637: The preexisting states and provinces. (The territories east of the Oder–Neisse line had been transferred from the Soviet occupation zone to the Polish authorities as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference .) The five states were: In 1949, the Soviet occupation zone was transformed into the German Democratic Republic. The five Länder (and East Berlin , though the latter only with consultative votes) participated in

598-526: The smallest of the GDR, bordered with the Bezirke of Erfurt and Gera . It bordered also with West Germany . The Bezirk was divided into 9 Kreise : 1 urban district ( Stadtkreis ) and 8 rural districts ( Landkreise ): Administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic The administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic (commonly referred to as East Germany ) were constituted in two different forms during

624-459: The territorial make-up of the restored Länder differed somewhat from the borders before 1952. Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt initially retained the rural and urban districts as administrative entities ( Regierungsbezirke ). Saxony-Anhalt later abolished them in 2003, while Saxony transformed them into directorates in 2008. Districts of Germany (Land-)Kreise stand at an intermediate level of administration between each state ( Länder ) and

650-475: Was named Bezirk Chemnitz for a short period at both the beginning and end of the republic, corresponding with the renaming and reversal of the city Chemnitz . Between 10 May 1953 and 30 May 1990, both the city and Bezirk were named Karl-Marx-Stadt . **) East Berlin was not officially a Bezirk , but from 1961 was provided with the function of one. On 23 August 1990 — just over a month before German reunification on 3 October — East Germany reconstituted

676-501: Was occupied by the United States , Britain , France and the Soviet Union . All four occupation powers reorganised the territories by recreating the Länder (states), the constituting parts of federal Germany. The state of Prussia , whose provinces extended to all four zones and covered two thirds of Germany, was abolished in 1947. Special conditions were assigned to Berlin , which

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