Districts of Germany

German districts () are  

administrative units used in Germany for local government. 

The districts are in 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
Most of the districts are rural districts ().  There are 295 Landkreise. 

Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants (and smaller towns in some states) are not usually part of a district, but do the work of a district themselves. These are known as urban districts ( or Stadtkreise)  The equivalent in the United Kingdom is a unitary authority, they do the work of a town and a county.  There are 107 of these Kreisfreie Städte.

This makes a total of 402 districts.

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 belong to a district, but still do so the districts jobs themselves, as though they were independent.

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 every five years, except in Bavaria where it is elected every six years.

District administration

The person in charge of the district's government is the  or . In parts of northern Germany, this is also the name of the district administration, in southern Germany it is known as Kreisverwaltung.

Related pages
 List of German districts
 List of German urban districts
 List of German rural districts


Category:Local government of Germany