Municipalities of Germany

The "pyramid" of German administrative subdivisions

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Municipalities (Gemeinde) are the official lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke (singular: Regierungsbezirk), where municipalities then become the fifth level if inside a collective municipality. Only 10 municipalities in Germany are fifth level administrative country subdivisions and all of them are in Bavaria. If a municipality is inside a state that has no Regierungsbezirk and is not in a collective municipality it would become the third level. The highest degree of autonomy for a municipality in Germany is when it is separate from the next higher division. It is then kreisfrei and generally referred to as having city status. This can be the case regardless of its size. Such a municipality then is the third or fourth level of territorial division. Yet, many smaller municipalities in Germany have lost this city status in various administrative reforms in the last 40 years when they were amalgamated with the next higher division (Kreis). In some states they did retain a higher measure of autonomy that is than that of the other municipalities of the Kreis (e. g. Große Kreisstadt). Municipalities that refer to itself as a city or officially call itself City means it is an urban munipality and municipalities that are officialy just a municipality(gemeinde) are classified as rural municipalities.

Overview[edit]

With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the most populated municipality of Germany is the city of Berlin; and the least populated is Wiedenborstel (8 inhabitants in 2010), in Schleswig-Holstein. The cities of Aachen and Saarbrücken have a special status, which is why the numbers in the respective states North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland appear in brackets.

Municipalities per federal state[edit]

List updated at August 1, 2009.

See also[edit]

• List of municipalities in Germany

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Media related to Municipalities of Germany at Wikimedia Commons