Municipalities of Germany

The "pyramid" of German administrative subdivisions

Municipalities (Gemeinden, more accurately translated as "communities") are the lowest level of official territorial division in Germany. This is most commonly the fourth level of territorial division, ranking after the Land (state), Kreis (district) and Samtgemeinde (collective municipality). The Gemeinde which is one level lower in those states also includes Regierungsbezirke (singular: Regierungsbezirk) as an intermediate territorial division. The Gemeinde is one level higher if it is not part of a Samtgemeinde. Only 10 municipalities in Germany have fifth level administrative subdivisions and all of them are in Bavaria. The highest degree of autonomy may be found in the Gemeinden which are not part of a Kreis. These Gemeinden are referred to as Kreisfreie Städte or Stadtkreise, sometimes translated as having "city status". This can be the case even for small municipalities. However, many smaller municipalities have lost this city status in various administrative reforms in the last 40 years when they were incorporated into a Kreis. In some states they retained a higher measure of autonomy than the other municipalities of the Kreis (e.g. Große Kreisstadt). Municipalities titled Stadt (town or city) are urban municipalities while those titled Gemeinde are classified as rural municipalities.

Overview

With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the most populated municipality of Germany is the city of Berlin; and the least populated is Wiedenborstel (8 inhabitants in 2010), in Schleswig-Holstein. The cities of Aachen and Saarbrücken have a special status, which is why the numbers in the respective states North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland appear in brackets in the table.

Municipalities per federal state

List updated on August 1, 2009.

Federal state	Municipalities	Municipalities with city status	Average no. of inhabitants[1]	Average area (km²)[2]	List (Cities, Towns, Municipalities)
Baden-Württemberg	1,101	9	9,764	32.41	C, T, M
Bavaria	2,056	25	6,090	33.03	C, T, M
Berlin	1	1	3,416,255	891.02	Berlin
Brandenburg	419	4	6,052	70.36	C, T, M
Bremen	2	2	331,541	202.14	Bremen, Bremerhaven
Hamburg	1	1	1,770,629	755.16	Hamburg
Hesse	426	5	14,255	48.80	C, T, M
Lower Saxony	1,022	9	7,800	45.25	C, T, M
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	818	2	2,053	28.34	C, T, M
North Rhine-Westphalia	236	22 (23)	45,446	86.08	C, T, M
Rhineland-Palatinate	2,306	12	1,754	8.61	C, T, M
Saarland	52	(1)	19,935	49.40	C, T, M
Saxony	491	3	8,595	37.51	C, T, M
Saxony-Anhalt	851	3	2,835	24.03	C, T, M
Schleswig-Holstein	1,116	4	2,542	14.07	C, T, M
Thuringia	955	6	2,397	16.93	C, T, M
Germany	12,013	108 (110)	6,844	29.35	C, T, M

See also

• List of municipalities in Germany

References

1. Source: Statistisches Bundesamt (as of December 31, 2007)
2. Source: Statistisches Bundesamt (as of December 31, 2006), excluding the municipality-free areas

External links

Media related to Municipalities of Germany at Wikimedia Commons