Talk:Districts of Germany

message: The article says that in Northrine-Westfalia, there are several cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants that nevertheless belong to a rural district. In the list, the towns of Iserlohn and Witten were mentioned as examples. However, Iserlohn has never had more than 100,000 inhabitants (it has some 95,000 plus), and Witten has lost some inhabitants and now only has some 98,000 plus. Therefore, I deleted these two city names, since they are no longer (or have never been) appropriate examples.
I don't know why, but both Iserlohn and Witten are often incorrectly referred to as cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants - but only in the English Wikipedia. I've already read that in several other (English) articles before. I can understand that in the case of Witten, which has once been a major city, but I wonder whoever started to claim that Iserlohn was a major city. It has never been, and the assumption that it is will not become less wrong, if a wrong claim is quoted and referred to regularly ... ;) All the information that I give here can easily be checked by visiting these two city articles in the English or German Wikipedia.
--79.253.234.19 (talk) 16:08, 18 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cities with over 100,000 inhabitants that are no urban districts 

message: I've moved this here from List of German districts after realising it's no longer a list, but only links to the two sublists. Those sublists would be too long to go on one page. There are however lots of links from other pages to List of German districts so I am leaving that page as a redirect. Hope that is OK. Saintswithin 11:03, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Untitled 

message: According to the article text: "The district parliament, the Kreistag, is a representative organ of the district and is responsible for local self-administration. It has only executive, but no legislative powers." [emphasis added] and "The district administration is chaired by an officer known as Landrat or Landrätin." It would seem to me that the latter is actually the executive, while the parliament (as deliberative assemblies tend to be) is the legislative. Is this a typographical error (Kreistag actually is legislative) or am I just mistaken and the Germans do things a little differently? Thnx hellenica 14:50, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: No, you are right. The "Kreistag" (the parliament (-tag) of the Land(kreis)) is the legislative, whereas the administration and the executive is with the Landrat/Landrätin. -- till we ☼☽ | Talk 18:57, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This comment may come quite late after more than seven years, but the formula Kreistag = legislative, Landrat = executive is not correct from a legal point of view; in books on German local administrative law, it is often emphasised that the Kreistage (and the same goes for city councils) are themselves part of the executive, just like the Landrat - executive powers are shared between the two. Kreistage do not possess legislative powers, which, in Germany, are located at the state and federal level only. SchnitteUK (talk) 16:07, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  District Parliament // ''Kreistag'' and District administration // ''Landrat'' 

message: The article suggests that the competencies and responsibilities of the Kreise (sing. Kreis), whether you would like to call them districts or counties, are the same allover Germany. Since the laws on the responsibilities of the municipalities, including the Kreise, differ from Land to Land, the list cannot be correct. Needless to say that the state laws on municipalities vary very much, since different states apply completely different concepts, and they are subject to a lot of change, too. Just to mention the example of North Rhine-Westphalia, that state had exactly copied the British administrative system into its own laws, but later on developed something completely different. Thus, someone who is competent on this subject should revise the article. Is there any German local politician who can write in proper English and would do this job? --DanSchultz (talk) 12:18, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Good luck finding one who is willing to do that? 3 years later, nobody has so far shown up. Local politicians don't even care about the jurisdiction they are supposed to govern, so why would they bother to write on such an article? The problem is that even if a German city has charter, that doesn't mean anything about what they can do. Increasingly in last years power is taken away from local government and given to higher level government. And governments of the same level get merged. They are even talking about merging states. I don't know what these crazy Germans think a federal government (I heard it's mandated by the German constitution) but this mess of a country more looks like a central government with all these changes dictated by the German administration. So unlike in the US, in Germany you cannot say for all eternity what the responsibilities of the different levels of government are. I would write "their functions and responsibilities may differ and be subject to change" (after every election). Chris.usnames (talk) 21:45, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Factual accuracy 

message: The office of the association of the German Landkreise (der deutsche Landkreistag) calls itself German County Association. Therfore it would be logic to take this expression. Who is in charge of nameming hisself if not the association in question?
District is used in the official nomeclatura as the word for Regierungsbezirk. As the Regierungsbezirk is part of the Länder administration whereas the counties are part of the local self government, there are differences which are crucial to understand the german federal system.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.78.210.19 (talk) 14:32, 16 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Your logic is questionable, since anybody can start "the Union States of America, Inc." and be it the association of "the Independent State of California, LLC" and "1st State of Delaware Corporation." That doesn't mean that "the Union States of America" are an association of states. The same way would it be unreasonable to say that the "German County Association" is an association of counties. But where actually did you find the term "German County Association" - it's not on their website and it doesn't show up in search engines. So scrap all of what you said, you were begging the question. Chris.usnames (talk) 22:35, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The Deutscher Landkreistag is not just any sort of private association with a fancy made-up name. It does represent all districts/counties in Germany and has been given, by its members, an explicit mandate to represent the interests of the districts/counties vis-à-vis state governments, the federal government and the public at large. It is not an overly powerful institution, but when it comes to finding someone speaking on behalf of the districts/counties, it's the best thing you will find. And it does use the name "German County Association" itself when publishing documents in English. See here. SchnitteUK (talk) 22:26, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

text: Well, that is precisely what we are discussing here: Which is the correct usage? You say district, I say county. NUTS is a document for a very specific and narrow purpose, namely statistics; it's certainly not an authoritative source on local government in Germany, so I don't see a reason to find that cite more binding than the usage of the county association itself. SchnitteUK (talk) 14:02, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Besides, the translation Kreis = district in the NUTS context you link to appears to be something Wikipedia itself came up with. Here's the NUTS document from the Eurostat website itself. I couldn't find an instance in it where "Kreis" in German is explicitly translated as "district" in English; the document uses "Kreis" as a loan word without translating it. SchnitteUK (talk) 14:08, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  county vs district 

message: I took the liberty of editing the "circles" out of the article. This is silliness to the max.
I’m German by birth and lived in the USA for 30 years. I can assure you that nobody in Germany thinks of a circular object with an equidistant radius when the term “Kreis” or “Landkreis” comes up in an administrative or political context.
Just like a “circle” in English, a “Kreis” can take on many meanings in German, more in the German than in the English language.
My trusted Leo English-German dictionary translates “Kreis” as follows:
*circle  (as in, well, a circular shape)
*circle  (as in a circle of people, such as "inner circle")
*circuit     (as in a circuit of people or interests, "the fashion circuit")    
*circuit (as in electric circuit)    
*county     
*crease (in cricket or hockey)
*cycle
*district
*ring        
*sphere    (not as a ball, as in "sphere of influence")
Just like the English “circle”, which can mean anything from circle of acquaintances to aiming circle, the German “Kreis” will derive its true meaning from the context.
Sorry, but in this context, a German speaker will cringe when he or she reads “This article is about the "Circles" (Kreise) of Germany.” A charitable assumption would be that the article was written by Google translate. Why not "spheres" or "creases" of Germany?
As far as the big “district” vs “county” controversy goes: From an American perspective, I would tend much more towards “county.” It has a function similar to a German “Kreis” or “Landkreis” (it’s the same.) “District” evokes urban associations in me, as in “financial district” or “garment district.” But other than the silly circles, neither “county” nor “district” will awaken strong emotions in me.
I also took out that the equivalent of Regierungsbezirk "in other nations is the county or arrondissement." Not always true. A "Regierungsbezirk Oberbayern" and a "2e arrondissement" of Paris are not equivalent at all. Which goes to show that the article could use some references.
The "Reichskreis" of the Holy Roman Empire could go also. It has nothing to do with the topic at all. Any emotional attachments?
Dankeschön. BsBsBs (talk) 08:49, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  Hey, was this "circular error" discussion written by a single person, since it only contains one signature? Maybe this person should take one position in the discussion only. Ok, here are my thoughts. Yeah, circles is silly, but circuit is just fine (as in the 8th Circuit of Appeals of the US). A meaning of district in English is not only limited to urban zoning. Other kinds of districts in America are for example school districts, congressional or state election districts, or judicial districts. District fits better to Kreis, I would apply the term county to the amts or Verwaltungsgemeinschaften.Chris.usnames (talk) 22:11, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The subject has long been discussed and sourced. The translation we use is district. Agathoclea (talk) 08:08, 2 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Circular error 

message: The section district court in the article creates the impression that the Landgerichte (called “district courts” in the article) are strongly connected to the Landkreise or Kreise (districts) of Germany. I'm not aware of such a connection. There are about 116 Landgerichte in Germany but 295 Landkreise and Kreise (rural districts or districts) plus a little more than 100 Stadtkreise or kreisfreie Städte (urban districts or district independent towns). I propose to delete the section “district court”. – Ocolon (talk) 21:15, 16 July 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the explanation. I've removed the section from the article. – Ocolon (talk) 09:00, 25 July 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: In fact the Landkreise are very closely related to the Amtsgerichte (though urban and rural district of the same name usually go together as one Amtsgericht, and some very few fusioned Landkreise have retained the Amtsgerichte of more than one of the constituent former-counties); the Landgerichtsbezirk typically is in between the Regierungsbezirk and the Landkreis, right in the middle, though sometimes it cuts Regierungsbezirk-borders.--2001:A61:2091:2201:1195:55E5:1213:9BE6 (talk) 17:53, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  “District court” 

message: B roads are bundesstrassen. then you get Landstrassen(literally country roads) and then you get Kreisstrassen.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.186.60.243 (talk) 19:27, 12 February 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed, thank you for pointing this out. Looks like the exact meaning of B road is differing from country to country. I also moved your comment - new sections are usually added at the bottom of talkpages. GermanJoe (talk) 19:38, 12 February 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: B roads

message: Some german states have "Regierungsbezirke" (government districts / administrative districs): Bavaria, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia. These are between states and districts.ManfredV (talk) 17:03, 27 February 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  administration level