Regierungsbezirk

Template:Sidebar with collapsible lists A {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}, literally 'governmental district') is a type of administrative division in Germany. Currently, four of sixteen {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (states of Germany) are split into {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. Beneath these are rural and urban districts.

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (plural, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) serve as regional mid-level local government units in four of Germany's sixteen states: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. Each of the nineteen {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} features a non-legislative governing body called a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (governing presidium) or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (district government) headed by a Regierungspräsident (governing president), concerned mostly with administrative decisions on a local level for districts within its jurisdiction.<ref>Regional Governments in France, Germany, Poland and The Netherlands (HTML version of PowerPoint presentation) Template:Webarchive – Cachet, A (coordinator), Erasmus University, Rotterdam Template:Dead link</ref> Saxony has {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (directorate districts) with more responsibilities shifted from the state parliament.

Translations

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is a German term variously translated into English as "governmental district",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "administrative district"<ref>regierung.oberfranken.bayern.de</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or "province",<ref>Jablonsky, David. The Nazi Party in Dissolution: Hitler and the Verbotzeit 1923–25, London: Routledge, 1989, p. 27.</ref><ref>Shapiro, Henry D. and Jonathan D. Sarna, Ethnic Diversity and Civic Identity, Illinois: UIP, 1992, p. 135.</ref> with the first two being the closest literal translations.

History

The first {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, eventually featuring 37 such districts within 12 provinces. By 1871, at the time of German unification, the concept of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} had been adopted by most States of the German Empire. Similar entities were initially established in other states under different names, including {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (district captainship) in Saxony, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (district) in Bavaria and Württemberg (not to be confused with the present-day {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} districts), and province in Hesse. The names of these equivalent administrative divisions were standardized to {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Nazi Germany, but after World War II these naming reforms were reverted.

The {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}}(roughly administrative regions of extended competence) alongside six less autonomous Prussian-style {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} comprising the Province of Hanover and Schaumburg-Lippe. These differences in autonomy and size were levelled on 1 January 1978, when four {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} replaced the two {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and the six {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}: 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 states, including a reunified Berlin. Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt established three {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} each, while the other new states didn't implement them.

2000s disbandment and reorganization

During the 2000s, four German states discontinued the use of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. On 1 January 2000, Rhineland-Palatinate disbanded its three {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} of Koblenz, Rheinhessen-Pfalz and Trier. The employees and assets of the three {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}) were converted into three public authorities responsible for the whole state, each covering a part of the former responsibilities of the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}).

On 1 January 2004, Saxony-Anhalt disbanded its three {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} of Dessau, Halle and Magdeburg. The responsibilities are now covered by a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (state administration office) with three offices at the former seats of the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. On 1 January 2005, Lower Saxony followed suit, disbanding its remaining four {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} of Brunswick, Hanover, Lüneburg, and Weser-Ems.

On 1 August 2008, Saxony restructured its {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}), changed the name of its {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} to {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (directorate districts), and moved some responsibilities to the districts. The {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. On 1 March 2012, the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} were merged into one {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (state directorate).