A German: Regierungsbezirk (pronounced as /de/) means "governmental district" and is a type of administrative division in Germany. Currently, four of sixteen German: Bundesländer (states of Germany) are split into German: Regierungsbezirke. Beneath these are rural and urban districts
German: Regierungsbezirke (pronounced as /de/) serve as regional mid-level local government units in four of Germany's sixteen federal states: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. Each of the nineteen German: Regierungsbezirke features a non-legislative governing body called a German: Regierungspräsidium (governing presidium) or German: Bezirksregierung (district government) headed by a Regierungspräsident (governing president), concerned mostly with administrative decisions on a local level for districts within its jurisdiction.[1] Saxony has German: Direktionsbezirke (directorate districts) with more responsibilities shifted from the state parliament.
German: Regierungsbezirk is a German term variously translated into English as "governmental district",[2] "administrative district"[3] [4] or "province",[5] [6] with the first two being the closest literal translations.
The first German: Regierungsbezirke were established in the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Prussia in 1808. During the course of the Prussian reforms between 1808 and 1816, Prussia subdivided its provinces into 25 German: Regierungsbezirke, eventually featuring 37 such districts within 12 provinces. By 1871, at the time of German unification, the concept of German: Regierungsbezirke had been adopted by most States of the German Empire. Similar entities were initially established in other states under different names, including German: Kreishauptmannschaft (district captainship) in Saxony, German: Kreis (district) in Bavaria and Württemberg (not to be confused with the present-day German: Kreis or German: Landkreis districts), and province in Hesse. The names of these equivalent administrative divisions were standardized to German: Regierungsbezirk in Nazi Germany, but after World War II these naming reforms were reverted.
The German: Regierungsbezirke in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in modern Germany are in direct continuation of those created in the Prussian Rhine and Westphalia provinces in 1816. never existed in Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Saarland.
In 1946, Lower Saxony was founded by the merger of the three former Free States of Brunswick, Oldenburg, Schaumburg-Lippe, and the former Prussian province of Hanover. Brunswick and Oldenburg became German: Verwaltungsbezirke pronounced as /de/(roughly administrative regions of extended competence) alongside six less autonomous Prussian-style German: Regierungsbezirke comprising the Province of Hanover and Schaumburg-Lippe. These differences in autonomy and size were levelled on 1 January 1978, when four German: Regierungsbezirke replaced the two German: Verwaltungsbezirke and the six German: Regierungsbezirke: Brunswick and Oldenburg, Aurich, Hanover (remaining mostly the same), Hildesheim, Lüneburg, Osnabrück and Stade.
Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, the territory of the former East Germany was organized into six re-established new federal states, including a reunified Berlin. Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt established three German: Regierungsbezirke each, while the other new states didn't implement them.
During the 2000s, four German states discontinued the use of German: Regierungsbezirke. On 1 January 2000, Rhineland-Palatinate disbanded its three German: Regierungsbezirke of Koblenz, Rheinhessen-Pfalz and Trier. The employees and assets of the three German: Bezirksregierungen (pronounced as /de/) were converted into three public authorities responsible for the whole state, each covering a part of the former responsibilities of the German: Bezirksregierung (pronounced as /de/).
On 1 January 2004, Saxony-Anhalt disbanded its three German: Regierungsbezirke of Dessau, Halle and Magdeburg. The responsibilities are now covered by a German: Landesverwaltungsamt (county administration office) with three offices at the former seats of the German: Bezirksregierungen. On 1 January 2005, Lower Saxony followed suit, disbanding its remaining four German: Regierungsbezirke of Brunswick, Hanover, Lüneburg, and Weser-Ems.
On 1 August 2008, Saxony restructured its counties (German: Landkreise, pronounced as /de/), changed the name of its German: Regierungsbezirke to German: Direktionsbezirke (directorate districts), and moved some responsibilities to the districts. The German: Direktionsbezirke were still named Chemnitz, Dresden, and Leipzig, but a border change was necessary because the new district of Mittelsachsen crossed the borders of the old German: Regierungsbezirke. On 1 March 2012, the German: Direktionsbezirke were merged into one German: Landesdirektion (county directorate).
Currently, only four German states out of 16 in total are divided into German: Regierungsbezirke; all others are directly divided into districts without mid-level agencies. Those four states are divided into a total of 19 German: Regierungsbezirke, ranging in population from 5,255,000 (Düsseldorf) to 1,065,000 (Gießen):