In Germany an **Urban District** (German: *Kreisfreie Stadt or Stadtkreis)* is a large town or city that is responsible for its own local government. Germany is divided into 429 districts. 313 are rural districts (*Landkreise*, see List of German rural districts) and 116 urban districts (*Kreisfreie Städte* / *Stadtkreise*) which are listed below.

It is not part of a rural district, or county (German: *Kreis or Landkreis*).

In some states, there is another level of government, the Regierungsbezirk or governmental district. Several urban and rural districts are joined together to make a regierungsbezirk, which does some of their jobs, especially things in land-use planning which can affect several districts.

They are the equivalent of an independent city in the United States or unitary authority in the United Kingdom.

List by state
-------------

Further information: List of German districts
### Baden-Württemberg

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Baden-Baden
* Freiburg im Breisgau
* Heidelberg
 | * Heilbronn
* Karlsruhe
* Mannheim
 | * Pforzheim
* Stuttgart
* Ulm
 |

### Bavaria

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Amberg
* Ansbach
* Aschaffenburg
* Augsburg
* Bamberg
* Bayreuth
* Coburg
* Erlangen
* Fürth
 | * Hof
* Ingolstadt
* Kaufbeuren
* Kempten (Allgäu)
* Landshut
* Memmingen
* Munich
* Nuremberg
 | * Passau
* Regensburg
* Rosenheim
* Schwabach
* Schweinfurt
* Straubing
* Weiden in der Oberpfalz
* Würzburg
 |

### Berlin

|  |
| --- |
| * Berlin
 |

### Brandenburg

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Brandenburg an der Havel
* Cottbus
 | * Frankfurt (Oder)
* Potsdam
 |

### Bremen

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Bremen
 | * Bremerhaven
 |

### Hamburg

|  |
| --- |
| * Hamburg
 |

### Hesse

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Darmstadt
* Frankfurt am Main
* Kassel
 | * Offenbach am Main
* Wiesbaden
 |

### Lower Saxony

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Braunschweig
* Delmenhorst
* Emden
* Göttingen ¹
* Hannover ²
 | * Oldenburg
* Osnabrück
* Salzgitter
* Wilhelmshaven
* Wolfsburg
 |

¹ *following the "Göttingen Law" of January 1 1964, the town of Göttingen is incorporated into the district (*Landkreis*) of Göttingen, but the rules on urban districts still apply, as long as no other rules exist.*  

² *following the "Law on the region of Hannover", Hannover counts since November 1 2001 as an urban district as long as no other rules apply.*

### Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Rostock
 | * Schwerin
 |

### North Rhine-Westphalia

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Aachen
* Bielefeld
* Bochum
* Bonn
* Bottrop
* Dortmund
* Düsseldorf
* Duisburg
 | * Essen
* Gelsenkirchen
* Hagen
* Hamm
* Herne
* Cologne
* Krefeld
* Leverkusen
 | * Mönchengladbach
* Mülheim an der Ruhr
* Münster
* Oberhausen
* Remscheid
* Solingen
* Wuppertal
 |

### Rhineland-Palatinate

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| * Frankenthal
* Kaiserslautern
* Koblenz
* Landau
 | * Ludwigshafen
* Mainz
* Neustadt an der Weinstraße
* Pirmasens
 | * Speyer
* Trier
* Worms
* Zweibrücken
 |

### Saarland

There are no longer any urban districts. The town of Saarbrücken used to be an urban district but became incorporated into the Saarbrücken Town Federation on January 1 1974.

### Saxony

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Chemnitz
* Dresden
* Leipzig
 | * Görlitz (was merged with Löbau-Zittau and the Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis1)
* Hoyerswerda (was merged with Kamenz Rural District and Bautzen Rural District1)
* Plauen (was merged with the Vogtlandkreis1)
* Zwickau (was merged with the Zwickauer Land and Chemnitzer Land1)
 |

1The urban districts of Görlitz, Hoyerswerda, Plauen und Zwickau lost their status as „Kreisfreie Stadt" on 1st July 2008 in a reform of Saxony's districts.

### Saxony-Anhalt

|  |
| --- |
| * Dessau-Roßlau
* Halle
* Magdeburg
 |

### Schleswig-Holstein

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Flensburg
* Kiel
 | * Lübeck
* Neumünster
 |

### Thuringia

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| * Eisenach
* Erfurt
* Gera
 | * Jena
* Suhl
* Weimar
 |

Related pages
-------------

* Districts of Germany
* List of German districts
* Local government of Germany
* Rural districts of Germany