Bezirk

From the English Wikipedia page [1] - the German page is [2].

The German term ***Bezirk*** (plural *Bezirke*, derived from Latin: *circulus*, "circle") translated as "district" can refer to the following types of administrative divisions:

* *Stadtbezirk*, a subdivision of a city in the sense of a borough (e.g. in Berlin, Hamburg or Vienna), often again subdivided into several quarters and neighbourhoods. According to German *Gemeindeordnung* codes, the city council resolves upon the implementation by municipal by-law (*Satzung*). In some cities the *Bezirke* have limited powers delegated to them by the city's local government, including an assembly resulting from local elections and an own 'mayor' (*Bürgermeister*). In the German states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate any municipality is authorized to implement *Ortsbezirke* with own advisory councils and local administrators. The state law in North Rhine-Westphalia commits the municipal administration of an independent city to subdivide the urban area into *Stadtbezirke*.
* In Austria, the word *Bezirk* is used with different meanings in three different contexts:
	+ Some of the tasks of the administrative branch of the national and regional governments are fulfilled by the 95 district captaincies (*Bezirkshauptmannschaften*, also translated as *district administrative office*). The area a district administrative office is responsible for is often, although informally, called a district (*Bezirk*). A number of statutory cities, currently 15, are not served by any district administrative office. Their respective municipal bureaucracies handle the tasks normally performed by the district administrative office.
	+ The cities of Vienna and Graz are divided into municipal districts (*Stadtbezirke*), assisting the respective municipal governments.
	+ From the point of view of the judiciary of Austria, the country is subdivided into 115 judicial districts (*Gerichtsbezirke*), each corresponding to one of the country's 115 lowest-level trial courts.
* The Italian autonomous provinces of Trentino and South Tyrol, are divided into *Bezirksgemeinschaften* (Italian: *comunità comprensoriali*).
* The districts of Switzerland are called *Bezirke* in several cantons. In Switzerland as a federal state, every canton is free to implement its own administrative structure. The intermediate administrative level above the Swiss municipalities is also referred to as *Verwaltungsregion* or *Verwaltungskreis*, *Wahlkreis*, *Amtei* or *Amt*, as well as French: *districts* in Suisse romande and Italian: *distretto* in Svizzera italiana. In Schwyz, the six historic *Bezirke* are self-governing bodies, some with regional *Landsgemeinde* assemblies, similar to the municipal *Kreise* of Graubünden. The six *Bezirke* of Appenzell Innerrhoden are identically equal to municipalities.
* Historically the primary administrative divisions of East Germany from 1952 were called *Bezirke*. They were implemented by an administrative reform to supersede the East German federated states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The capital East Berlin was officially equated by resolution of the State Council of East Germany in 1961. Though legislative assemblies (*Bezirkstage*) and executive councils (*Räte*) existed, the *Bezirke* according to the top-down principle of democratic centralism enjoyed no autonomy nor any self-governing rights. They were abolished by law which the East German People's Chamber passed in 1990 on the eve of the German reunification.
* During the Second World War, a special administrative division of Nazi Germany was officially classified as "Bezirk": *Bezirk Bialystok*.