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36-398: The Regierungsbezirk of Stralsund was formed in 1818 as one of three Pomeranian government districts. It covered Swedish Pomerania ( New Hither Pomerania [aka New Western Pomerania] and Rügen ) which had fallen to Prussia in 1815. The special legal position of this territory was the reason for the creation of what was then the smallest government region in the whole of Prussia . Unlike

72-480: A Landesverwaltungsamt (county administration office) with three offices at the former seats of the Bezirksregierungen . On 1 January 2005, Lower Saxony followed suit, disbanding its remaining four Regierungsbezirke of Brunswick , Hanover , Lüneburg , and Weser-Ems . On 1 August 2008, Saxony restructured its counties ( Landkreise , German: [ˈlantˌkʁaɪ̯zə] ), changed

108-453: 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

144-559: A situation that was unlike anywhere else in Prussia and Germany and which even went back to the time of Swedish rule, for example, the so-called Tertialrecht  [ de ] . As a result, the Wismar Tribunal of Appeal  [ de ] , which moved from Wismar via Stralsund to Greifswald in 1802/03, still operated under this name when seated in Greifswald and continued as

180-673: 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 the occupation status of Berlin as a whole. On 23 July 1952, a law combined

216-503: A total of 19 Regierungsbezirke , ranging in population from 5,255,000 ( Düsseldorf ) to 1,065,000 ( Gießen ): [REDACTED] Media related to Regierungsbezirk at Wikimedia Commons Subdivisions of East Germany The administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic (commonly referred to as East Germany ) were constituted in two different forms during the country's history. The GDR first retained

252-518: Is a type of administrative division in Germany. Currently, four of sixteen Bundesländer ( states of Germany ) are split into Regierungsbezirke . Beneath these are rural and urban districts Regierungsbezirke ( pronounced [ʁeˈɡiːʁʊŋsbəˌt͡sɪʁkə] ) serve as regional mid-level local government units in four of Germany's sixteen federal states : Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria , Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia . Each of

288-639: 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

324-468: The GDR . The western part went to the newly formed district of Ribnitz-Damgarten  [ de ] . The old district of Grimmen lost its southern part around Loitz in 1952, which went to the district of Demmin  [ de ] in the new Region of Neubrandenburg , as did the southern part of the old district of Greifswald which went to the new district of Anklam  [ de ] and thus also to

360-754: 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 the legislative branch through the Länderkammer (Chamber of States), which

396-472: 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 the four powers divided into four sectors. A united German state government existed in

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432-660: The state parliament . Regierungsbezirk is a German term variously translated into English as "governmental district", "administrative district" or "province", with the first two being the closest literal translations. The first Regierungsbezirke were established in the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Prussia in 1808. During the course of the Prussian reforms between 1808 and 1816, Prussia subdivided its provinces into 25 Regierungsbezirke , eventually featuring 37 such districts within 12 provinces. By 1871, at

468-515: 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

504-656: The Neubrandenburg Region. In 1952 the eastern part of the old district of Greifswald around Wolgast formed the new district of Wolgast  [ de ] along with that part of the island of Usedom that remained within East Germany post-1945. The district of Rügen was divided in 1952 into the district of Bergen on Rügen  [ de ] and Putbus  [ de ] , but they were merged again already in 1955. While Stralsund city maintained its independence as urban district through these changes, Greifswald

540-455: The Province of Hanover and Schaumburg-Lippe. These differences in autonomy and size were levelled on 1 January 1978, when four Regierungsbezirke replaced the two Verwaltungsbezirke and the six Regierungsbezirke : Brunswick and Oldenburg, Aurich , Hanover (remaining mostly the same), Hildesheim, Lüneburg, Osnabrück and Stade . Following the reunification of Germany in 1990,

576-399: 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

612-504: 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 the preexisting states and provinces. (The territories east of

648-822: The district of Rügen. In ecclesiastical terms the government region is divided into eleven superintendencies , of which three cover the Franzburg district, two the Grimmen district, three the Greifswald district and three the island of Rügen. All parishes are Protestant. Only in Stralsund is there a Catholic church, to which all Catholics in the government region belong. In 1900 the Region of Stralsund comprised one urban ( Stadtkreis ) and four rural districts ( Kreise ). It covered an area of 4,010.88 km, on which there were 873 towns and villages and in which 216,340 inhabitants lived. In 1925

684-627: The end it was its aforementioned special legal status that prevented its dissolution time and again. Not until 1 October 1932 was it merged in the Stettin Region. The Stralsund government region is divided into four counties, three of which take their name from the towns in which the district councils are located. The fourth, however, takes its name after the island of Rügen, of which it is composed alone. New Hither Pomerania has three districts: Franzburg  [ de ] , Greifswald  [ de ] , Grimmen  [ de ] . Rügen forms

720-411: The final arbiter of proper jurisdiction for the region until 1848. The first regional government was inaugurated on 5 January 1818 by the upper president of the Province of Pomerania, Johann August Sack  [ de ] , in his office. This followed several years of discussion about the status of the region. That produced three options: An appeal by the districts and towns to the king against

756-539: 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,

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792-542: The formation of the government region was dismissed. However, the Prussian system of taxation was only introduced in New Hither Pomerania following a royal cabinet order of 19 November 1821. Because of its small size the Region of Stralsund was one of those Prussian government regions which was up for re-negotiation from the outset. Only a few years after its formation there were further discussions about its future. In

828-739: The name of its Regierungsbezirke to Direktionsbezirke (directorate districts), and moved some responsibilities to the districts. The Direktionsbezirke were still named Chemnitz , Dresden , and Leipzig , but a border change was necessary because the new district of Mittelsachsen crossed the borders of the old Regierungsbezirke . On 1 March 2012, the Direktionsbezirke were merged into one Landesdirektion (county directorate). Currently, only four German states out of 16 in total are divided into Regierungsbezirke ; all others are directly divided into districts without mid-level agencies. Those four states are divided into

864-457: The nineteen Regierungsbezirke features a non- legislative governing body called a Regierungspräsidium (governing presidium) or Bezirksregierung (district government) headed by a Regierungspräsident (governing president), concerned mostly with administrative decisions on a local level for districts within its jurisdiction. Saxony has Direktionsbezirke (directorate districts) with more responsibilities shifted from

900-499: The planned local government reform, from 2011 the districts of Rügen and Northern Hither Pomerania, and the town of Stralsund formed a reshaped district of Northern Hither Pomerania, and the districts of Uecker-Randow , together with the town of Greifswald and parts of the district of Demmin, became Hither Pomerania-Greifswald . Regierungsbezirk A Regierungsbezirk ( German pronunciation: [ʁeˈɡiːʁʊŋsbəˌtsɪʁk] ) means "governmental district" and

936-481: The population of the Region of Stralsund was 246,941. In 1925 the seat of the council for the Franzburg district was moved to Barth. From 1 February 1928 the district was officially renamed "Franzburg-Barth". In 1939 all rural districts in Germany were uniformly termed as Landkreis (i.e. rural district), whereas before in Prussia the term Kreis prevailed. However, this played no role for the Stralsund Region which

972-706: The rest of the Province of Pomerania , neither General Prussian State Law nor the laws and ordinances of the so-called Stein-Hardenberg reforms (such as the Local Government Act of 1808), as they were called at the time, applied here. An alignment of the legal position was only gradually achieved in the second half of the 19th century, and was largely completed on the introduction of the Civil Code (BGB) in January 1900. But in some areas, special legal forms continued to exist,

1008-780: The state of North Rhine-Westphalia in modern Germany are in direct continuation of those created in the Prussian Rhine and Westphalia provinces in 1816. Regierungsbezirke never existed in Bremen , Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein , and Saarland . In 1946, Lower Saxony was founded by the merger of the three former Free States of Brunswick , Oldenburg , Schaumburg-Lippe , and the former Prussian province of Hanover . Brunswick and Oldenburg became Verwaltungsbezirke [fɛɐ̯ˈvaltʊŋsbəˌt͡sɪʁkə] (roughly administrative regions of extended competence) alongside six less autonomous Prussian-style Regierungsbezirke comprising

1044-513: The territory of the former East Germany was organized into six re-established new federal states , including a reunified Berlin . Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt established three Regierungsbezirke each, while the other new states didn't implement them. During the 2000s, four German states discontinued the use of Regierungsbezirke . On 1 January 2000, Rhineland-Palatinate disbanded its three Regierungsbezirke of Koblenz , Rheinhessen-Pfalz and Trier . The employees and assets of

1080-540: The three Bezirksregierungen ( German pronunciation: [bəˈt͡sɪʁksʁeˌɡiːʁʊŋən] ) were converted into three public authorities responsible for the whole state, each covering a part of the former responsibilities of the Bezirksregierung ( German: [bəˈt͡sɪʁksʁeˌɡiːʁʊŋ] ). On 1 January 2004, Saxony-Anhalt disbanded its three Regierungsbezirke of Dessau , Halle and Magdeburg . The responsibilities are now covered by

1116-921: The time of German unification , the concept of Regierungsbezirke had been adopted by most States of the German Empire . Similar entities were initially established in other states under different names, including Kreishauptmannschaft (district captainship) in Saxony , Kreis (district) in Bavaria and Württemberg (not to be confused with the present-day Kreis or Landkreis districts), and province in Hesse. The names of these equivalent administrative divisions were standardized to Regierungsbezirk in Nazi Germany , but after World War II these naming reforms were reverted. The Regierungsbezirke in

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1152-533: 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 was occupied by the United States , Britain , France and

1188-504: Was already absorbed in 1932. In 1946, Stralsund became the seat of the virtually unchanged district of Franzburg-Barth which was renamed on this occasion as rural district of Stralsund. In 1952 on the occasion of redistricting East Germany into new administrative units the eastern part of the Franzburg-Barth became the new and smaller District of Stralsund  [ de ] within the likewise new Region ( Bezirk ) of Rostock of

1224-497: 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 a state in its own right. East Germany claimed East Berlin as its capital,

1260-478: Was meanwhile integrated into the district of Greifswald until the 1970s. In 1994, the districts of Grimmen, Ribnitz-Damgarten and Stralsund, now in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (aka Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania) , were merged into the new district of Northern Hither Pomerania , whilst the districts of Anklam, Greifswald and Wolgast joined Eastern Hither Pomerania . Rügen remained unchanged, Greifswald and Stralsund also retained their independence. As part of

1296-475: 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

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