States of Germany

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Germany is a Federal Republic made up of 16 States, known in German as Länder (transliterated as Laender in English, singular Land). Since Land is also the German word for "country", the term Bundesländer ("states of the federation"; singular Bundesland) is commonly used as it is more specific. Three cities (Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen) have their own states. The remaining 13 states are termed Flächenländer ("area states").

The term "Bundesland" might seem to imply a subordination of the German Länder to the federal Bund, but this does not reflect the autonomy of the Länder in international relations. The correct term, which is also used by the Grundgesetz, is therefore Länder.

This differentiation is important, because after the end of the Second World War, the Länder in the western part of the former Deutsches Reich were constituted as administrative areas first and then federated into the Bund or Federal Republic of Germany. This was in contrast to the post-war development in Austria, where the Bund was erected first, and then the states as units of a federal system followed. In Austria, the states are also referred to as Länder in the constitution.

1 States
2 Structure of government
3 Politics
4 Further subdivisions
5 See also

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States

Each Land is represented at the federal level in the Bundesrat ("Federal Council").

Image:Germany Laender Map.png

The 16 Länder, by reference to the numbers on the map to the right, are:

Image:Flag of Baden-Württemberg.svg Baden-Württemberg
Image:Flag of Bavaria (lozengy).svg Free State of Bavaria (Freistaat Bayern)
Image:Flag of Berlin.svg Berlin
Image:Flag de-brandenburg.png Brandenburg
Image:Flag of Bremen.svg Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen)
Image:Flag of Hamburg.svg Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg)
Image:Flag of Hesse.svg Hesse (Hessen)
Image:Flag of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.svg Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
Image:Flag of Lower Saxony.svg Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen)
Image:Flag of North Rhine-Westphalia.svg North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen)
Image:Flag de-rheinland pfalz 300px.png Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz)
Image:Flag de-saarland 300px.png Saarland
Image:Flag of Saxony.svg Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen)
Image:Flag of Saxony-Anhalt.svg Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt)
Image:Flag of Schleswig-Holstein.svg Schleswig-Holstein
Image:Flag of Thuringia.svg Free State of Thuringia (Freistaat Thüringen)

The description free state / Freistaat is merely used for historical reasons. Legally a Freistaat is not different from the other states.

Prior to Reunification in 1990, West Germany consisted of ten states while in 1952 East Germany reorganized its territory into 15 administrative districts. After Germany reunited on October 3 1990, 14 of these districts were reverted into the five Länder Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Saxony as existed up until 1952. The former district of East Berlin was combined with West Berlin to form the new state of Berlin.

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Structure of government

Image:Deutsches Reich 1925 b.png Image:Prussiamap.gif

The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, the country's federal constitution, stipulates that the structure of each Federal State's government must "conform to the principles of republican, democratic, and social government, based on the rule of law" (Article 28[1]).

Most of the Länder are governed by a cabinet led by a Ministerpräsident (Minister-President), together with a unicameral legislative body known as the Landtag ("State Diet"). The relationship between the legislative and executive branches mirrors that in the federal system: the legislatures are popularly elected for four or five years (depending on the state), and the Minister-President is then chosen by a majority vote among the Landtag's members. The Minister-President appoints a cabinet to run the Land's agencies and to carry out the executive duties of the Land's government. The Gouverment in Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg are called Senate, in the three free states Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia it is called as State Gouverment, in the ten other lands as Land Gouverment.

Prior to January 1 2000, Bavaria had a bicameral parliament, with a popularly elected Landtag, and an appointed Senate made up of representatives of the state's major social and economic groups. The Senate was abolished following a referendum in 1998.

The Länder of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, are governed slightly differently from the other states. In each of these cities, the executive branch consists of a Senate of approximately eight selected by the Land's parliament; the senators carry out duties equivalent to those of the ministers in the larger Länder. The equivalent of the Minister-President is the Senatspräsident ("President of the Senate") in Bremen, the Erster Bürgermeister ("First Mayor") in Hamburg, and the Regierender Bürgermeister ("Governing Mayor") in Berlin. The parliament for Berlin is called the Abgeordnetenhaus ("House of Representatives"), while Bremen and Hamburg both have a Bürgerschaft.

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Politics

Politics at the state level often carry implications for federal politics. Opposition victories in Landtag elections, which take place throughout the federal government's four-year term, can weaken the coalition forming the federal government. This led to all Konrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, and Gerhard Schröder losing the federal chancellorship, in 1963, 1974 and 2005 respectively.

State elections are viewed as a barometer of support for the policies of the federal government. If the parties of the governing coalition lose support in successive Land elections, those results may foreshadow political difficulties for the federal government.

The outcome of Land elections also directly affects the composition of the Bundesrat ("Federal Council"), one of the two bodies of the federal parliament, which can again cause the federal government difficulties. For example, in the early 1990s, the opposition SPD commanded a two-thirds majority in the Bundesrat, making it particularly difficult for the governing CDU/CSU-FDP coalition to achieve the constitutional changes it sought; by 2003 the situation was the reverse, with an SPD-led government being severely hindered by a large CDU majority in the Bundesrat.

The powers of the state governments and legislatures in their own territories have been much diminished in recent decades with an ever-increasing amount of federal legislation. A commission has been formed to examine the possibility of instituting a clearer separation of federal and state powers, to address this issue.

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Further subdivisions

Image:Administrative Divisions in Germany (Deutsch).png The city-states of Berlin and Hamburg are subdivided into boroughs. The state Bremen consists of two urban districts, Bremen and Bremerhaven. In the other Länder there are the following subdivisions:

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Landschaftsverbände

Landschaftsverbände ("area associations"): The most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia is uniquely divided into two Landschaftsverbände, one for the Rhineland, one for Westphalia-Lippe. This was meant to ease the friction caused by uniting the two culturally quite different regions into a single Land after World War II. The Landschaftsverbände retain little power today.

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Regierungsbezirke

Regierungsbezirke ("governmental districts"): The large states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony are divided into administrative regions, or Regierungsbezirke. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Regierungsbezirke were dissolved on January 1 2000, in Saxony-Anhalt on January 1 2004 and in Lower Saxony on January 1 2005.

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Kreise

Kreise (administrative districts): Every state (except the "city states" Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen) consists of rural districts, Landkreise, and urban districts, Stadtkreise (also: Kreisfreie Städte), cities which are districts in their own right. The state of Bremen consists of two urban districts, while Berlin and Hamburg are states and urban districts at the same time.

There are 323 Landkreise and 116 Kreisfreie Städte, making 439 districts altogether. Each consists of an elected council and an executive, who is selected by the council and whose duties are comparable to those of a US county manager, supervising local government administration. The Landkreise have primary administrative functions in specific areas, such as highways, hospitals, and public utilities.

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Ämter

Ämter ("offices"): In some states there is an administrative unit between districts and municipalities. These units are called Ämter (singular Amt), Amtsgemeinden, Samtgemeinden, Verbandsgemeinden or Verwaltungsgemeinschaften.

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Gemeinden

Gemeinden ("municipalities"): Every rural district and every Amt is subdivided into municipalities, while every urban districts constitutes a municipality at the same time; there are 12,320 municipalities (March 1, 2006), which are the smallest administrative units in Germany. Cities are municipalities as well, which have city rights (Stadtrecht). Nowadays this is mostly just the right to be called a city; however, in older times it included many privileges such as to have their own taxes or to allow industry inside cities only.

Gemeinden are ruled by elected councils and an executive, the mayor, who is chosen by either the council or the people, depending on the Bundesland. The "constitution" for the Gemeinden is created by the Länder and is uniform throughout a Land (except for Bremen, which allows Bremerhaven to have its own constitution).

Gemeinden have two major policy responsibilities. First, they administer programs authorized by the federal or Land government. Such programs typically might relate to youth, schools, public health, and social assistance. Second, Article 28(2) of the Basic Law guarantees Gemeinden "the right to regulate on their own responsibility all the affairs of the local community within the limits set by law." Under this broad statement of competence, local governments can justify a wide range of activities. For instance, many municipalities develop the economic infrastructure of their communities through the development of industrial parks.

Local authorities foster cultural activities by supporting local artists, building arts centers, and/or having fairs. Local government also provides basic public utilities, such as gas and electricity, as well as public transportation. Most of these functions are currently (2003) under threat since the communities are notoriously badly financed; the fact that they receive most of their money from the other levels instead of from taxes they themselves set the rates of and collect is a big factor in this.

In five of the German states, there are unincorporated areas, in many cases unpopulated forest and mountain areas, but also four Bavarian lakes, that are not part of any municipality. As of Jan. 01, 2005, there were 246 such areas, most of them in Bavaria, with a total area of 4167.66 km², or 1.2 percent of the total area of Germany. The following table gives an overview.

State	01. Jan. 2004		01. Jan. 2000
State	Number	Area in km²	Number	Area in km²
Bavaria	216	2725,06	262	2992,78
Lower Saxony	23	949,16	25	1394,10
Hesse	4	327,05	4	327,05
Schleswig-Holstein	2	99,41	2	99,41
Baden-Württemberg	1	66,98	2	76,99
Germany	246	4167,66	295	4890,33

The table shows that in 2000 the number of unincorporated areas was still 295, with a total area of 4890.33 km². Unincorporated areas are continually being incorporated into neighboring municipalities, wholly or partially, most frequently in Bavaria.

Only four unincorporated areas are populated, with an aggregate population of about 2000.

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States of Germany

From Free net encyclopedia

Contents

States

Structure of government

Politics

Further subdivisions

Landschaftsverbände

Regierungsbezirke

Kreise

Ämter

Gemeinden

See also

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