Everything about Districts Of Germany totally explained
German districts are administrative units used in
Germany and the former state of
Prussia. The
districts are at an intermediate level of administration between the (
German states) and the local / municipal levels . They are not to be confused with the larger . Their equivalent in other nations is the
county or
arrondissement.
Types of districts
The majority of the districts are
rural districts of which there are 313. Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants (and smaller towns in some states) don't usually belong to a district, but take over district responsibilities themselves, similar to the concept of
independent cities. These are known as
urban districts —cities which constitute a district in their own right—and there are currently (2007) 116 of them, bringing the total number of districts to 429.
In
North Rhine-Westphalia, there are some cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants which are not urban districts, for example
Iserlohn, Recklinghausen, Siegen, Paderborn, Bergisch Gladbach, Witten and
Neuss. These cities, however, take over many district responsibilities themselves although belonging to a district. As an exception, the former rural and urban districts of
Hanover in
Lower Saxony were united in 2001 to form the new
Region Hannover with about 1,000,000 inhabitants.
Responsibilities
The districts are responsible for the following:
- according to federal and regional laws:
- the building and upkeep of B roads
- other building plans which cover more than one local authority's area
- caring for national parks
- social welfare
- youth welfare
- the building and upkeep of hospitals
- the building and upkeep of state institutes of secondary education
- household waste collection and disposal
- car registration
- electing the or, the chairperson of the district
according to local laws: (differ in each region)
- financial support for culture
- the building of pedestrian zones and bicycle lanes
- financial support for school exchanges
- the building and upkeep of public libraries
- revitalisation of the economy
- encouraging tourism
- the management of (state run adult education colleges)
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
The district council, the, is the legislative body of the district and is responsible for local self-administration. The parliament is elected directly every five years, except in Bavaria where it's elected every six years.
District administration
The executive authority is an officer known as or, who administers the district. In parts of northern Germany, this is also the name of the district administration, in southern Germany it's known as .
Further Information
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