Administrative division of Nazi Germany

Following the suppression of the individual Länder (states) of Weimar Germany in 1934, the Gaue (Singular: Gau) were the de facto administrative sub-divisions of Nazi Germany.
The Nazi Gaue were formed in 1926 as Nazi party districts of the respective German states and Prussian provinces as shaped in the aftermath of World War I. Die NS-Gaue, Deutsches Historisches Museum, accessed: 25 June 2008 Each Gau had an administrative leader, the Gauleiter (Gau leader). Though Länder and Prussian provinces continued to exist after the Enabling Act of 1933, their administration was reduced to a rudimental body attached to the respective Nazi Gau administration in the Gleichschaltung process. In total, Germany consisited of 32 Gaue in 1934, and 42 Gaue at its collapse in 1945.The Organization of the Nazi Party & State The Nizkor Project, accessed: 25 June 2008
The regions occupied in 1938 (Anschluss of Austria, Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia by the Munich Agreement) and early 1939 (Klaipėda Region or Memelland from Lithuania) as well as the areas conquered during the Second World War were either incorporated into existing Gaue or organised in so-called Reichsgaue, similar to the Gaue in all but name. In the Reichsgaue, the Gauleiter also carried the position of Reichsstatthalter.
Eventually, in the aftermath of its defeat in the war, and the Yalta Conference, Germany would lose not only the newly annexed territories but some of the territories it held before the Nazi government assumed power; it would also spend most of the following second half of the 20th century divided into two separate states.
== Gaue, Reichsgaue and Länder ==
The Gaue existed parallel to the German states, the Länder, and Prussian provinces throughout the Nazi period. Pro forma, the Administrative division of Weimar Germany was left in place. The plan to abolish the Länder was ultimately given up because Hitler shrank away from structural reforms, a so-called Reichsreform, fearing it would upset local party leaders. For the same reason, the borders of the Gaue remained unchanged within Germany throughout this time. The Gaue were only enlarged through the adding of occupied territories after 1938. Gau (NSDAP) - Kontinuität der Gaugliederung nach 1933, Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, accessed: 25 June 2008 While the Länder continued to exist, the real power on local level did lay with the Gauleiters, not the Minister Presidents of the German states. The Gauleiter were directly appointed by Hitler and only answerable to him. In practice, interference from above was rare and their power almost absolute.
=== Gaue established in 1934 ===
English name 	German name 	Headquarters 	Established	Notes
Baden 	Baden 	Karlsruhe 	1934 	Formed from the state of Baden; subsequently included the former French départements of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin
Bayreuth 	Bayreuth 	Bayreuth 	1934 	Formed from part of the state of Bavaria; originally named Bayrische Ostmark, re-named Gau Bayreuth in 1942; also incooperated parts of Czechoslovakia from 1938
Berlin 	Berlin 	Berlin 	1934 	Formed from the Prussian province of Berlin
Cologne-Aix-la-Chapelle 	Köln-Aachen 	Cologne 	1934 	Formed from the north-central part of the Prussian province of the Rhine
Düsseldorf 	Düsseldorf 	Düsseldorf 	1934 	Formed from the northern half of the Prussian province of the Rhine
East Prussia 	Ostpreußen 	Königsberg 	1934 	Formed from the Prussian Province of East Prussia; from 1939 also included territories annexed from Poland
Eastern Hanover 	Ost-Hannover 	Lüneburg 	1934 	Formed from the northern, central, and eastern parts of the Prussian Province of Hanover
Electoral Hesse 	Kurhessen 	Kassel 	1934 	Formed from the northern half of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau
Essen 	Essen 	Essen 	1934 	Formed from the northern tip of the Prussian province of the Rhine
Franconia 	Franken 	Nuremberg 	1934 	Formed from part of the state of Bavaria
Halle-Merseburg 	Halle-Merseburg 	Halle 	1934 	Formed from the southern half of the Prussian Province of Saxony
Hamburg 	Hamburg 	Hamburg 	1934 	Formed from the state of Hamburg
Hesse-Nassau 	Hessen-Nassau 	Frankfurt am Main 	1934 	Formed from the state of Hesse and the southern half of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau
Koblenz-Trier 	Koblenz-Trier 	Koblenz 	1934 	Formed from the southern half of the Prussian province of the Rhine; re-named Gau Moselland in 1942, following the incorporation of the formerly independent country of Luxembourg
Lower Silesia 	Niederschlesien 	Breslau 	1934 	Formed in the Prussian Province of Lower Silesia
Magdeburg-Anhalt 	Magdeburg-Anhalt 	Dessau 	1934 	Formed from the Free State of Anhalt and the northern half of the Prussian Province of Saxony
Main-Franconia 	Mainfranken 	Würzburg 	1934 	Formed from part of the state of Bavaria
March of Brandenburg 	Mark Brandenburg 	Berlin 	1934 	Formed from the Prussian province of Province of Brandenburg
Mecklenburg 	Mecklenburg 	Schwerin 	1934 	Formed from the state of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Munich-Upper Bavaria 	München-Oberbayern 	Munich 	1934 	Formed from part of the state of Bavaria
Pomerania 	Pommern 	Stettin 	1934 	Formed from the Prussian Province of Pomerania
Saar-Palatinate 	Saarpfalz 	Neustadt an der Weinstraße	1934 	Formed from the Bavarian Palatinate and the Prussian Saarland; renamed Gau Westmark in 1940 after the incooperation of parts of Lorraine
Saxony 	Sachsen 	Dresden 	1934 	Formed from the state of Saxony
Schleswig-Holstein 	Schleswig-Holstein 	Kiel 	1934 	Formed from the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein, the Free City of Lübeck and territory belonging to the Free State of Oldenburg
Southern Hanover-Brunswick	Südhannover-Braunschweig	Hanover 	1934 	Formed from the Free State of Brunswick and the southern and western parts of the Province of Hanover
Swabia 	Schwaben 	Augsburg 	1934 	Formed from part of the state of Bavaria
Thuringia 	Thüringen 	Weimar 	1934 	Formed from the state of Thuringia and adjacent Prussian Province of Saxony
Upper Silesia 	Oberschlesien 	Kattowitz (from 1939) 	1934 	Formed in the Prussian Province of Upper Silesia, also incooperated parts of Poland from 1939
Weser-Ems 	Weser-Ems 	Oldenburg 	1934 	Formed from the Free State of Oldenburg (excluding outlying territories), the state of Bremen and the far western part of the Prussian Province of Hanover
Westphalia-North 	Westfalen-Nord 	Münster 	1934 	Formed from the Free State of Lippe and the northern half of the Prussian Province of Westphalia
Westphalia-South 	Westfalen-Süd 	Dortmund 	1934 	Formed from the southern half of the Prussian Province of Westphalia
Württemberg-Hohenzollern 	Württemberg-Hohenzollern	Stuttgart 	1934 	Formed from the state of Württemberg and the Prussian Province of Hohenzollern
=== Reichsgaue established in 1938 ===
New Reichsgaue were established after the Anschluss of Austria and the incorporation of Sudetenland following the Munich Agreement. Southern parts of Czechoslovakia also gained by the Munich Agreement were not made part of Reichsgau Sudetenland, but incorporated into the northern Reichsgaue of former Austria.
English name 	German name 	Headquarters	Established	Notes
Carinthia 	Kärnten 	Klagenfurt 	1938 	Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Carinthia and Eastern Tyrol, included from 1941 were parts of Slovenia
Niederdonau 	Niederdonau 	Vienna 	1938 	Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Niederösterreich and northern Burgenland; included from 1939 were parts of southern Moravia
Oberdonau 	Oberdonau 	Linz 	1938 	Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Oberösterreich and Ausseerland, a part of Styria; included from 1939 were parts of southern Bohemia
Salzburg 	Salzburg 	Salzburg 	1938 	Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Salzburg
Sudetenland 	Sudetenland 	Reichenberg 	1938 	Formed from the predominantly German speaking parts of Czechoslovakia which were ceded to Germany after the Munich Agreement
Styria 	Steiermark 	Graz 	1938 	Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Styria and southern part of Burgenland; included from 1941 were parts of Slovenia
Tyrol-Vorarlberg	Tirol-Vorarlberg	Innsbruck 	1938 	Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg and the northern part of Tyrol
Vienna 	Wien 	Vienna 	1938 	Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Vienna and surrounding parts of former Niederösterreich
=== Second World War ===
Of the territories annexed from Poland and the Free City of Danzig in 1939, Reichsgau Wartheland and Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia were created. Annexed territories of pre-war Poland not within these two Reichsgaue was incorporated into the neighboring Gaue East Prussia and Silesia. Alsace-Lorraine, annexed from pre-war France in 1940, was split between the bordering Southwestern Gaue of Nazi Germany.
English name 	German name 	Headquarters	Established	Notes
Danzig–West Prussia	Danzig–Westpreußen	Danzig 	1939 	Formed in the Free City of Danzig and the Polish region of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, which were both occupied by Germany in 1939, as well as the pre-1939 German Governorate of West Prussia within then East Prussia
Wartheland 	Wartheland 	Posen 	1939 	Formed primarily in the Polish region of the Poznań Voivodeship and incooperated areas of surrounding Voivodeships after the German occupation of Poland
=== Auslandsgau ===
There was also an extraterritorial Gau named Auslandsorganisation for party members overseas. Its headquarters were in Berlin. This Auslandsgau was considered to be the 43rd Gau of Nazi Germany.
== See also ==
* Administrative division of Weimar Germany
* Administrative divisions of the Federal Republic of Germany
* Administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic
* Administrative divisions of Germany
* Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
* States of the German Empire
== Sources ==
* Der große Atlas der Weltgeschichte (in German), Historical map book, published: 1990, publisher: Orbis Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3572047552
== References ==
== External links ==
* Shoa.de - List of Gaue and Gauleiter (in German)
 
Category:Nazi Germany
Category:Lists of country subdivisions
Category:Former subdivisions of Germany
 
Administrative division of Nazi Germany
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