The mystery of German municipalities explained

[@lol-xs9wz]

Every typical German gemeinde consists of a town hall, a church and two world-leading companies

[@thomasseidel2381]

You forgot the restaurant.

[@bi0530]

@@thomasseidel2381 And an ice cream parlour, run by an Italian family and routinely named "Eiscafé Venezia"

[@uncinarynin]

One Aldi/Lidl or other such supermarket. And sometimes the ruins of a former grocery store in the center that was replaced by the supermarket.

[@bit0159]

@@thomasseidel2381 And the Kebap.

[@hekaidekaeder3567]

And 1 to infinite volunteer fire brigades

[@nur0din]

I had to laugh, when in the Gemeinde Lautertal there is the villiage Hörgenau. Such great names.

[@FranzSdoutz]

Im Bezirk Lärmschutzwall

[@bit0159]

Near Erfurt there's a village called Ohrdruf. Maybe a village for spies? :D

[@HotelPapa100]

That name very likely never meant what you read there. The key component is "Au", Flussniederung, and the first part probably comes from "Höriger", a state of Leibeigenschaft, fiefdom. And "Lauter" in the context means pure water.

[@FranzSdoutz]

@@HotelPapa100 Hochosterwitz ist trotzdem zum Lachen ...

[@HotelPapa100]

@@FranzSdoutz True, dat.

[@FranzMatthias]

You should mention that many Germans take great interest in "their" municipality. Elections for "Gemeinderat" (municipality parliament) and "Bürgermeister" (mayor) have a very high voter turnout. This is due to the fact that the municipality decides over the local gymns, assembly halls, cultural venues, streets, kindergardens etc. It may be boring - but the Germans like it.

[@G4M3R524]

turnout gas been trailing though over the last few years / decades...

[@schmid1.079]

Very true. Those votes directly influence development in your vicinity. Voting plans are often very concrete and you might even know the people you are voting for or some relative of them. Very different than voting for some random politician who you've only seen on posters or on a TV-Show once.

[@javi8714]

Only in rural regions, in Urban areas many don't care and see it just as the lowest administration-office, unfortunately... The state of NRW created much to big Unitary municipalities in the early 70s with sometimes over 20 villages in the Sauerland. Da ist dann nicht mehr so viel mit "Selbst"-Verwaltung. Da wären Verbandsgemeinden deutlich besser

[@Doso777]

Is that so? In my old super rural Gemeinde turnout was so-so, but we generally had barely enough people to fill the positions anyway.

[@felicious6384]

Is that really the case? I don't live in a "Gemeinde", only in a "kreisfreie Stadt" and the last time the turnout on a local election was above 50% was in 1998... So I wouldn't say, that a turnout of around 45% is high.

[@rolandropnack4370]

"The exact details will vary from state to state, so no doubts there will be comments." Oh you know us germans all too well! 🤣

[@imrehundertwasser7094]

Well, after finally realising he could not beat us, he joined us ...

[@maximilianarold]

@@imrehundertwasser7094 Well, now we need to put this mindset on all humans and we won. Even without declaring war to all our neighbours

[@edwardmiessner6502]

@@imrehundertwasser7094 that's because after losing two great wars you guys won the peace

[@SomePotato]

If KZbin taught me anything, it is that pedantic know-it-alls exist in all countries.

[@GeFlixes]

It also gets fun when administrative communities or municipalities centralise or outsource their bureucracy to each other, while the clerical parishes are joined in a wholly diferent matter with different municipalities spanning two distinct districts and the local clubs more often work together with their counterparts on the other side of a border instead of with the ones the next town over. The slogan should be "We maximize your confusion. Sign up now!" or something like that.

[@__christopher__]

On the confusion with ecclesiastical parishes: The German word "Gemeinde" is also used for those.

[@lindacowles756]

G'day, _christopher_! Yes, I discovered this in reading the Luther translation of the Bible. In Revelation, for example, a church to which a letter is written is called a Gemeinde, not a Kirche (church building, e.g. die Thomaskirche in Leipzig).

[@wohlhabendermanager]

Another somewhat interesting Landkreis is the Kreis Harburg. The town of Harburg now is part of the greater area of Hamburg. So, the town the Landkreis is named after doesn't belong to it's "own" Landkreis anymore.

[@Yora21]

In Osnabrück we have the Kreisfreie Stadt Osnabrück and the Landkreis Osnabrück. What makes Harburg even stranger than that is that the Landkreis Harburg and the town Harburg are not even in the same state. (Though Americans probably can relate, with Kansas City being just outside the state of Kansas.) Eberbach in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis has one exclave in another part of the Kreis, and another exclave that is in Hessen and not even in Baden-Würtenberg. And that's just examples from three places in Germany where I lived myself. There's probably so much more even weirder stuff.

[@hadobrockmeyer4650]

Thanks to political reason. Harburg was danish, Hamburg prussia and then reichsfreie Stadt

[@Yora21]

@@hadobrockmeyer4650 Oh yeah. The borders around Hamburg have been redrawn more times than any British colony.

[@martin.brandt]

@@hadobrockmeyer4650 Harburg was Hannoverian and then Prussian from 1866, merged into the State of Hamburg in 1937. Altona and others on the north bank of the Elbe as parts of Holstein were under Danish rule until 1864, then Austrian (sic!) until 1866, then Prussian, until merged into Hamburg also in 1937.

[@__christopher__]

@@Yora21 "Though Americans probably can relate, with Kansas City being just outside the state of Kansas." Not to mention that Washington DC not only is not part of the state Washington, but is located on the other side of the continent.

[@lisamirako1073]

A topic, concerning all and only a few seriously interested, explained clearly, precisely and well understandable. Great!

[@DenisGomesFranco]

In Brazil things are organized just like that. We also have municipalities (called 'municípios') but they are also called cities ('cidades') regardless of their size. Municipalities have a local elected govening body (consisting of 'prefeitos' and 'vereadores'), a town hall ('prefeitura'), and take care of basic services and assess local taxes. Only very small villages or settlements (called 'distritos') are not municipalities on their own and a nearby city takes care of basic services. Fun fact 1: the smallest municipality in Brazil is Borá located in São Paulo state, with a population of 838. Fun fact 2: even the capital cities of each state can be called a município. And very large cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have subdivided their local government in 'subprefeituras' (sub-town halls, kinda like regions).

[@Danny30011980]

These videos are not boring at all. Even though as a German I know what a municipality means and how lots of towns and villages were merged together in the 70's, it is still interesting to someone explaining it to outstanding people. :-)

[@keboma7632]

Das schöne Lautertal im Vogelsberg. Der Faschingsumzug in Hörgenau ist der beste !

[@eisping]

As Gemeine is also the term for a eclesiastical congregation in Germany, maybe parish would be the better word. :D

[@rarbiart]

watch the video first: people from outside UK will get "parish" wrong.

[@badischerheuler5997]

I would be more precisely and call those in German as "Kirchengemeinde" or "Pfarrgemeinde". At least these are the terms that we use here regularly.

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@badischerheuler5997 I'm much more familiar with the naked "Gemeinde" for both variants. Of course, the administrative Gemeinde (just like the parish) grew out of the original ecclesiastical one, over time.

[@renerpho]

Same here (northern Hesse). The meaning is usually apparent from context. Although both can register marriages...

[@karinland8533]

@@badischerheuler5997 are you sure Kirchengemeinde/Pfarrgemeinde has the same borders?

[@toffeeFairy]

In Switzerland cities are always also Gemeinden, but then how those things exactly called differ wildly between cantons. As with all things swiss, the only thing that everyone was able to agree to was that: indeed we dont agree with each other

[@epincion]

Yes having lived for a while in Zollikon I became aware of the Byzantine ways of Swiss Gemeinden!

[@johannesschuh631]

As someone living in a „kreisfreie Stadt“ this was very informative

[@somecrazdude2412]

I was the mega nerd who took AP Government and Politics just because the subject sounds interesting. I'll gladly have more boring videos of government organizational structures of other countries!

[@javi8714]

What does 'AP' stand for?

[@wh44]

@@javi8714 "Advanced Placement" - a program in the US, where students (Schüler) can earn college credits while still in high school (Gymnasium).

[@SnowberryFlavour]

Go for it! There are a lot of 'exciting' organizational topics to be found in Germany :)

[@NicolaW72]

Thank you very much for this very interesting video (the coffee is cold :-)). One little addition: While Berlin and Hamburg are classical City-States where the state is identical with the municipality the third German City-State Bremen is quite different: The German State Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is formed by the City of Bremen and the City of Bremerhaven, both seperated by the State of Lower Saxony from each other. There´s a State Parliament and a State Government (Executive Branch in English) of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the State Government (Executive Branch) represents also the Government (Executive Branch) of the City of Bremen, the President of the State Government is the Mayor of the City of Bremen, too. But the City of Bremen has its own seperate elected City Parliament and its own seperate regulations, it is a distinct seperate entity and not identical with the State as it is in Berlin and Hamburg the case. And the City of Bremerhaven is a normal, usual Urban District like it would be in any German Area State with its own City Parliament and its own Mayor.

[@jehib8533]

In fact, Bremerhaven claims to be Germany's freest municipality, because they've created their "Kommunalverfassung" (municipal code) themselves, unlike the municipalities in other states, where the municipal codes are state laws (obviously, even the Bremerhaven code is subject to state approval, but it wasn't written by the state). However, the Bremen City parliament isn't really elected separately from the Bremen State parliament. The city parliament (Stadtbürgerschaft) used to be formed by the members of the state parliament (Bremische Bürgerschaft) from the city of Bremen just sitting separately from the Bremerhaven colleagues for Bremen City business. Ever since EU citizens have been allowed the vote for municipal parliaments, but not for state parliaments, it has changed a little. The Stadtbürgerschaft is still elected in basically the same ballot as the Bremen city members of the Bremische Bürgerschaft, but their are some additional votes to be counted (EU citizens get a ballot in a different colour), so there can be minor differences in the tally for Bremische Bürgerschaft and Stadtbürgerschaft) and in recent years there have occasionally been people who were members of the Stadtbürgerschaft, but not the Bremische Bürgerschaft (and the other way around), but essentially the members of the Stadtbürgerschaft are still the Bremen City members of the Bremische Bürgerschaft, elected on the same ballot. (I was a candidate for the Bürgerschaft in 2015 myself. I was quite low down on my party's list and I didn't get many personal votes, so I never came anywhere close to being a member, but I did get a fair amount of additional votes from EU citizens, so I was actually ranked a little higher in terms of personal votes for the Stadtbürgerschaft than for the Bremische Bürgerschaft - not that it mattered in any way, though).

[@uprisingsnake7152]

We could add some confusion by mentioning the borrows of Berlin. Each of them with an own Major and a lot of financial and administrative power..... Or admire the beautiful german word "Gebietsreform".

[@juricarmichael2534]

And yet little works in Berlin....

[@buninparadise9476]

@@juricarmichael2534 Let's try BOROUGH However, the word borrow certainly applies to Berlin

[@sk.43821]

including borough assembly and council

[@imrehundertwasser7094]

@@buninparadise9476 Yes. Berlin is big on borrowing (without ever paying anything back) from the rest of Germany, especially the South.

[@Ulkomaalainen]

@@imrehundertwasser7094 Actually (you know I am German after using that word), they borrow from different sources, the money they get from other states via the Länderfinanzausgleich is not a loan but the rich (as of now - and for quite some while already - consisting of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg and Hesse in alphabetical order) helping the poor (the other 12). And yes, Germany is a country where the capital city actually lowers the per capita GDP and similar measures, I don't know about any other where that happens.

[@JPFighter93]

I have no idea why I watch your videos, to be honest 😅 I am German and have always been German. I know almost everything you talk about when you talk about Germany in general.

[@G4M3R524]

You also have "Städte" in some states, with the singular "Stadt" being the literal translation of city/town. Many municipalities with several villages and a rather big center are called "Stadt XYZ". Saying "Village ABC is part of Stadt XYZ" and "XYZ is a Stadt [=town]" are both correct in that sense. The villages belonging to the city are superfluous for the address on letters/postcards: you simply write "[zip code] [XYZ - without "Stadt"]". You may add the name of the village though, like "[zip code] [XYZ-ABC]"

[@naneneunmalklug4032]

So, what is a British parish or an America municipality?

[@germanshepherd6638]

Municipality = a small village or unincorporated town. In America you see a lot of farming communities that are municipalities. Think of the gold rush communities in the old wild west. A town is a municipality with a larger population and is established in a district.

[@glendunzweilerproductions2812]

Thank you! I was told that Dunzweiler was/is a municipality in Germany and now I know that it may have a different title! I enjoy your clear, clean, and concise presentation style.

[@El_Paauwe]

I find these kind of videos super interesting actually

[@keithparker2206]

Thanks - has explained much I have seen on my many trips to Germany. Have now subscribed - bore me more!

[@floriani.228]

In Austria it is so: Ortsteil (part of the Gemeinde) < Gemeinde < Bezirk (many Gemeinden together) < Bundesland < Staat

[@ifzwischendurch]

Yes, and we have no administrative municipalities. That's a German thing.

[@Martin_Siegel]

I think it's also Ortschaft (for the part of a Gemeinde). And @DerKanal yes, and Gemeindezusammenlegungen are a highly emotional topic.

[@ifzwischendurch]

@@Martin_Siegel Gemeindezusammenlegung and administrative municipalities (Verbandsgemeinden) are not the same thing. In a Verbandsgemeinde, every member municipality has its own mayor.

[@Martin_Siegel]

@@ifzwischendurch Yeah, I know but we have Bezirke so no need for another intermediate construction above Gemeinde and below Bezirk, IMO.

[@ifzwischendurch]

@@Martin_Siegel Nope. The German counterpart of our Bezirke is "Landkreise". In Germany, there are more levels of administration than in Austria. The representatives in the "Landkreise" are even elected.

[@johngorentz6409]

As a rural dweller in a part of the U.S. that has strong township government (a type of rural municipality) I find it fascinating to learn how other countries do it (or other parts of the U.S., for that matter).

[@jensschroder8214]

It's funny sometimes. You come to a small village and the town sign says City XX Place YY. When the municipality reaches a certain number of inhabitants, it can be called a city. Even if there are many small villages that together form the "city". There are two types of city. Cities that belong to a district, i.e. the surrounding villages belong to it. And independent cities, where the surrounding villages form their own municipality. Apart from the city-states of Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen (including Bremerhafen). These are a federal state.

[@Andreas-du7eg]

Its Bremerhaven, Bremerhafen. While a harbour is a Hafen in German language, the city of Bremerhaven spells with a 'v'. There is no word Bremerhafen. Of course, there is a harbour in Bremen. That is the 'Bremer Hafen'.

[@Andreas-du7eg]

KZbin does not give me the chance to edit on the smartphone :-( The word *not* is missing.

[@NajwaLaylah]

Louisiana in the USA has parishes, but they're more like counties... I think.

[@Gulitize]

that would be Landkreise in German, it is on level up. for example Schöllkrippen where he lives is part of the Landkreis Aschaffenburg not to be confused with the city itself, he mentioned it in 1:14.

[@Laufbursche4u]

"What an excellent idea for a boring video." LOL.

[@MartinMundorf]

I am very honoured and pleasured to be theexact 1000. like-button-hitting person for that very video :D I appreciate your very efforts as an englishman to explain a "boring topic" like german municipalities! (and, btw, its not that boring at all! ) greetings from Ortsgemeinde Waldorf, which is part of the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Breisig :) [and channel subscribed! :) ]

[@strafrag1]

Never boring, Andrew. We love this stuff. Cheers.

[@MasterCheese43]

I grew up in Alzenau and still needed an english video about german municipalities to learn that there is no actual village of Karlstein (which is a Gemeinde about 5 kilometers away)... Thanks for the enlightenment I guess :D

[@sebh670]

Excellent video :-) I would add two details: 1. A urban municipality can have gemeinden. Usually an urban municipaltiy has an OBER-Bürgermeister and districts have their Bürgermeisters. The rural municpality has a Landrat (which is basically the Oberbürgermeister) and Bürgermeister in each Gemeinde. A Gemeinde in such a case could still have villages, that are too small for having an own Bürgermeister, they than would have a Ortsvorsteher. 2. This all goes to sh*** when you go south to bavaria, because they just make every little Misthaufen into an urban municipality and pump up the amount of "Gemeinden" artificially this way ... thats basically why you need stuff like "Samtgemeinden" - you may as well just consolidate them and safe yourself a couple of Landräte and Oberbürgermeisters ;-)

[@ThomasKnip]

Actually, this was even helpful for me as a German, living in Berlin. ^^

[@rannyacernese6627]

As a frequent traveller to Germany, always wondered what was the reason.

[@NuclearSavety]

Confused the heck out of me why i booked a train to Dettingen and got a Ticket for Karlstein ..

[@Arcturus367]

When you want to visit Weltstadt Welzem better take the bus. Or steal a car.

[@Arcturus367]

Oh, just recognized your nick. I bet you loved your trip to Karlstein ;-)

[@NuclearSavety]

@@Arcturus367 always a joy .. even though the architecture of the Innovationspark could be improved 😉

[@SteelHorseRider74]

Just book a ticket to Wasserburg (am Inn) and you end up in Reitmehring, quite outside, and you'd have to take the bus in addition.

[@philippetering7116]

Sorry, I did not get bored. You cleared up the mystery of small town labeling on maps, Krefeld Traar, for example. Traar, and other small nearby towns, must be in the municipality of Krefeld.

[@NikolausUndRupprecht]

All those educational videos. 🤔 It’s almost as if I was watching the Maus for adults.

[@NicolaW72]

:-)

[@imrehundertwasser7094]

Well, almost. There are cats here instead of the elephant.

[@NicolaW72]

@@imrehundertwasser7094 Yes, indeed. But the cats are also sleepy.

[@jensbaumeister]

Indeed. This is the first time I had someone tell me just what exactly a Samtgemeinde actually is.

[@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041]

A thing you didn't go into detail on but which may be relevant to American viewers is that while not all *territory* of Germany is part of a municipality, all the *inhabited* territory (with two or three exceptions which have less than 500 total inhabitants) is. Unlike in the U.S. where what is commonly thought of as "Las Vegas" is the unincorporated place of "Paradise" largely for tax reasons

[@jdu7729]

4:23 You need an interesting Autobahn? Maybe look at Wiesbaden. First Schiersteiner- now Salzbachtalbrücke, could make up for an intersting video.

[@kacperwoch4368]

It's pretty much the same in Poland, even the Polish names for municipality and town hall ''gmina'' and ''ratusz'' are borrowed from German.

[@imrehundertwasser7094]

Good to know :-)

[@ron9320]

Abonniert! 👍👍 Best regards to Schöllkrippen, or was it Aschebesch!?😂

[@KaisaKylakoski]

Intresting! In Finland municipalities of even 7000 or so residenta are considered too small and in recent decades there has been a big political drive to combine them to bigger entities. This applies especially to municipalities next to a town, so now some towns have very impressive population figures - but also very impressive areas, if you remember to check that.

[@seneca983]

But on mainland there's Luhanka with a population of 695 and in Åland there's Sottunga with a population of 100.

[@barvdw]

we have that same drive in Belgium, although without forcing things for the moment, all recent mergers have been voluntary. There are some exceptions, though, with our 'faciliteitengemeenten/communes à facilités/Fazilitätengemeinden' can't merge with just any neightbouring municipality, less it would change the linguistic status of that municipality. That's why the municipality of Herstappe is still a thing, a small village of 77 inhabitants, but the only one with linguistic facilities in the vicinity. In theory, I think St-Genesius-Rode, Linkebeek and Drogenbos could merge, or Wezembeek-Oppem and Kraainem (not that they seem to be interested). The difference is of course that linguistic status is pretty ironclad in Belgium, the last municipalities I named all have a francophone majority, but their status is linguistically Dutch with facilities for francophones, we don't have municipalities that change status like in Finland... Still, are there places in Finland who withstand amalgamation because they fear for their linguistic status? Like a Swedish-speaking municipality who doesn't want to merge with a unilingual Finnish municipality?

[@wohlhabendermanager]

1:26 Yep. In Lower Saxony we have something called "Samtgemeinde". And no, I don't know what this is either, so I'll just link to Wikipedia instead: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samtgemeinde "A Samtgemeinde is a government body composed of a collective association of gemeinden (municipalities), the lowest level of official territorial division in Germany" Aha! So, just some Gemeinden who thought it would be cool if they unite their municipalities. 3:49 Ah yes. Commented too early. :D

[@JanChrissD]

The responsibilities of the "Gemeinde" are different from stats to state. Where i'm from for example, the "Landkreis" is responsible for the garbage collection. Also most "Gemeinden" here consist of only one village, due to the more clustert structure of settelments in northern germany. The diffenret "Gemeinden" here also are organised in a "Samtgemeinde", (joint municipality), wich has its own "Samtgemeindebürgermeister" (mayor of the joint municipality). So we get to vote for to mayors, "Kreis" government, state government and federal government.

[@eaaaaaaaaaaaaaa5]

btw: What a nice eighties tennis shirt. It reminds me Boris Becker winning Wimbledon 1985.

[@Yora21]

Perfect fit for a German village. They all feel like it's still 1985. The only thing that has changed during my lifetime are the cars in the driveways.

[@edspace.]

A very interesting video, thank you.

[@holidayknife]

As a German who studied administration and geography (yes, indeed..) I can only say "bravo!" there was no way to explain this faster and less boring. It can be useful to know sth about German cities composition though. Some municipalities have incorporated that excessively, that their urban areas are way smaller than the population within the city limits which is in contrast to many other countries. E.g. a German city pop 100,000 might only have an urban core area of around 60,000 whereas a French city with a pop 100,000 is more likely to have an urban area around 300,000. So, if you plan to visit any German city, don't let yourself get fooled by the municipality's pop size only!

[@Germaco]

Lautertal is like 15 km away from me. Nice to see ;)

[@__u__9464]

How are there so many people in the comments knowing Hörgenau, that's so strange.

[@Germaco]

@@__u__9464 Its Lautertal i know. I havent heard about Hörgenau tho

[@1ich_mag_zuege]

2:37 small correction: The ue in “Kues” is pronounced like a long u as in “Wut” with the e denoted a long vowel and not an umlaut.

[@ulliulli]

So like in "Duett"?

[@ospero7681]

@@ulliulli No (unless you pronounce it "Duht"). Germans can figure out the correct pronunciation by mentally replacing the "e" with an "h". Similar to how it works in the city name "Soest".

[@uncinarynin]

Something that Germans frequently get wrong if not from the area. Soest, Buchloe, Coesfeld ...

[@rewboss]

I thought I was very careful with my pronunciation there. I didn't pronounce it as an umlaut, that's for sure.

[@1ich_mag_zuege]

@@rewboss Now that I watched that part again, I also realize that it isn’t an Umlaut although It does sound very similar. I’d guess it’s probably the [ʉ] sound, a sound that is kinda a mix between u and ü.

[@juricarmichael2534]

Hi. The two kinds of "Gemeinde", religious and political / administrative had been one in the beginning, i believe.

[@Yora21]

The word Gemeinde is related to the word "gemeinsam", which means together or communal. I believe Kommune is used as a synonym for administrative Gemeinden.

[@jfly609]

Oh I Never thought about that. That sounds really convincing 😅

[@stefanhennig]

Lautertal! When you mentioned that not all municipalities are named after a town therein, I thought "just like home". There have been quite a few visitors getting lost searching for that town, especially when all they had was the postal address.

[@Andla_2806]

Extremely well explained. Danke schön!!! 😉

[@HerbertLandei]

I live in Sandersdorf, and "we" added village after village to our Gemeinde, until we included the small city of Brehna (which is kind of ironic, given that Sandersdorf was first mentioned as property of the monastery of Brehna). So now we are the "city" of Sandersdorf-Brehna, which has a huge area, about a dozen or so smaller villages, and the two bigger centers of Sandersdorf in the North and Brehna in the South. Listening to the video it occured to me how strange and confusing this construct must look for foreigners.

[@Rebellpfilosuffi]

I like it when a foreigner explains to me how my country works when I only know what my country tells me how it seems to work. This is always enlightening.

[@RhodianColossus]

"By the way your coffee's gone cold" I sure hope so, I put a ton of ice in it

[@lex5353]

Oh lol. This is the first video I saw from this channel and I was surprised because I live near Bernkastel-Kues ^^

[@epincion]

Thanks that was interesting.

[@arnoldhau1]

Austria is very similar (as allways). A Gemeinde has a council and a major, and is part of Bezirk (district) which has a purely administrative function and is part of a Bundesland (state) which has a parliament and government and a "Landeshauptmann/Landeshauptfrau" (governor). The exception is Vienna which is a Bundesland and a Gemeinde at the same time (so the major is also a Landeshauptmann for instance) and is divided into Bezirke (Districts).

[@pavladavlas]

We have municipalities that consist of multiple villages in Slovenia, too. The village I’m from forms a municipality with 6 other villages.

[@orcajorca7215]

good timing for the last video before going to bed

[@torspedia]

How are vehicle number plates organised then, for these rural areas?

[@hubi0079]

They are often organised by the next higher administration level namely the Landkreise and kreisfreie Städte.

[@bi0530]

They go by district (Landkreis) - that's one level up the ladder.

[@uncinarynin]

Often one code stands for both a city and a rural district. For example FR for Freiburg and Landkreis Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald. Freiburg is a "Kreisfreie Stadt". I think the city has two letters after the FR and the district has only one but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

[@puschelhornchen9484]

The 'urban district' or the rural districts issue the numberplates. Up to 3 Letters form the abriviation to identify the district. BUT: a rural district and an urban district can use the same abriviation. And in the history abriviations were phased out when rural districts where fusioned together, but for sentimental reasons some years ago those old abreviations were brought back and can be reissued. But I guess only if they were not 'recycled' after the reunification in 1990. For example in the 70ies the cities of Gießen and Wetzlar(and some more villages) in Hesse were joined together to form an urban district. They got the numberplate identifcation abreviation 'L' for "Lahnstadt". After this had failed and it was reverted to the rural districts of "Gießen" and "Lahn Dill Kreis" in the late 70ies. With reunification 'L' was used as an abreviation for the urban district of Saxony. I guess no sentimental feelings and mourning of failed municipalty bottom down reorganization reforms are allowed 😢😆

[@bit0159]

Usually you get the licence code of the district (Kreis) not the municipallity (Gemeinde) itself. Unless the town used to be the center of a old district before any county reforms. In example: The district of Ansbach has the licence code AN. Since 2014 you can register licence codes from former disctircts that were merged together. Like Dinkelsbühl (DKB), Feuchtwangen (FEU), Rothenburg ob der Tauber (ROT). All three merged with the district of Ansbach, but used to be their own district in the past.

[@MaximilianMieth]

Regarding the city states: In Berlin there are boroughs (Bezirke) with seperate mayors, town halls and certain administrative powers. They even have a parliament. Regarding the political system is is all a bit confusing, though. Wikipedia has a seperate entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boroughs_and_neighborhoods_of_Berlin

[@genesis209_gd]

Municipality has like 12k or 24k depending what postal code i use (border region) my whole village has 250 people but the area i live in has like 30.

[@brittakriep2938]

Usually a Gemeinde has 10000 or lesser inhabitants. With more than 10000 inhabitants and some other things, a Gemeinde can get the rank of Stadt ( town). When you see a Stadt ( town) with fewer than 10000 inhabitants, this town got its town rights in monarchy era, perhaps middle age. Formerly there had been Weiler, Pfarrdorf, Marktflecken, Landstädtchen, Amtsstadt, Residenzstadt etc..

[@ThomasKossatz]

I have been a member of the local council here, but it is only after this video I realy know what I have been doing 🤣

[@COPKALA]

In Italy: we have a 'comune' (it has a mayor[sindaco] and a council[formed by assessori]) which can be formed by different 'frazzioni' (these usually do not have any administrative power). As usual is the case due to history there is no 'minimal' size, indeed Mestre (a frazzione which, at a time, had >300000 inhabitants) is still not a comune, but, due to its size, it has a pro-sindaco (I am not sure exactly what autonomy it has wrt the main mayor, maybe it changes with each mandate).

[@susanne5803]

I understand "Gemeinde" as parish. And I would translate "municipality" as "Kommune" (- "Kommunalverwaltung". Maybe those meanings vary locally in Germany? (Edit: Additionally "Ortschaft (locality)" and "Verwaltungsbezirk (administrative area)" come to mind. But I associate "Gemeinde" really only with "church - parish".) Thank you!

[@Llortnerof]

"Gemeinde" is the more common term, so i'd suggest the opposite. "Kommunalverwaltung" and "Gemeindeverwaltung" are synonymous, and it's quite possible to find a "Gemeinde" with a "Kommunalverwaltung". "Verwaltungsbezirk" is a bit more complicated, but is not a synonym for "Gemeinde". An "Ortschaft" is always a part of a "Gemeinde", not one itself. "Gemeinde" is also used in Austria and Switzerland. Therefore, i'd strongly suggest you re-evaluate your stance, as it is bound to cause you confusion. "Gemeinde" only means curch parish when associated with church. For that matter, church parish translates to "Kirchengemeinde". As far as understanding it as a parish, that's perfectly fine... as long as you realise that parish means all the things "Gemeinde" does, not just church parishes.

[@susanne5803]

@@Llortnerof Thank you very much, interesting answer. But since I am actually German and have lived in various parts of Germany from the north to the south end quite literally - maybe the meaning of "Gemeinde" is changing slowly? I agree with the use of "Gemeindeverwaltung" though. Kind regards! Edit: I would add "Eingemeindung" as a word where I understand "Gemeinde" as a non ecclesiastic description. "Parish" I understand solely as an ecclesiastic description. To refer to the other meaning I would use "civil parish" - which I actually wouldn't use at all because I would prefer "municipality".

[@ccityplanner1217]

Some countries have weirdly big "municipalities". Of the 290 municipalities of Sweden, 246 are bigger than Britain's smallest county. Kleinkahl is a bit like Walsingham: it has a constituent place called Großkahl, but Kleinkahl is the larger & also the capital.

[@rewboss]

Kleinkahl also has a constituent place called Edelbach, which is even bigger.

[@HalfEye79]

It also is weird, that a village starting with "Klein-" is bigger than its companion starting with "Groß-". Same with Klein Berkel and Groß Berkel.

[@sk.43821]

Weirdly big: Guangzhou 3,800 sqkm, 15 million inhabitants.

[@solicitr666]

Garmisch-Partenkirchen: actually, today a single town with one mayor and town council. Its two constituent towns were fused by the (Nazi) government for the 1936 Winter Olympics- something which still rankles some of the locals (especially residents of Partenkirchen)

[@gridlockjoe]

And the landkreis (district) is equivalent to the US/UK county?

[@lol-xs9wz]

Yeah somewhat

[@christiankastorf1427]

Basically yes. In the Middle Ages in England they had a Sheriff to do the King's job there on the spot, where decisons had to be made. That can be compared to what we called a "Amtmann" in Germany. The modern "Landkreis" is a Prussian invention from the early 19th century. At that time the local-self-administration that had suffered from and under absolutism got revived. At first the king appointed the head of administration, the "Landrat", there. That is history. The system got adopted by the other German states. At least where I live the "Landrat" gets elected directly by the people. And in so-caled local elections the legislative chamber of a "Landkreis", the "Kreistag", is elected as well.

[@stevensiegert]

Yes, you can also translate them as counties.

[@Luetzow1]

There is a village called Hörgenau?! LOL. Again what learned.

[@Maximooch]

Where can I learn more about this?

[@sagewerk5025]

what is also an interessting Name is Schwalmstadt witch has stadt (cinty) in its Name but this does not exist, but there are two city like vilagges Trysa and Ziegenheim. it is named for the schwalm river running through it.

[@olik136]

now I only need to know what the difference between Gemeinde, Gemeindeteil, Ortsteil and Gemarkung is.. and most importantly how and where I actually can reliably find out all those things for a given place

[@Kara714]

Coffee doesn’t get cold in just four minutes.

[@cocacraesh]

German spotted

[@OrechTV]

I love municipal and local divisions! Not boring at all. I spent hours coloring all Polish gminas :D

[@kronusexodues7283]

Nice explanation, though I want to address one mistake. You mentioned that the three city states Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin don't contain Gemeinden because they all only contain one city. That is actually only true for Hamburg. Berlin does contain a Gemeinde of the same name (the only Gemeinde in that state) and the federal state Bremen actually contains two Gemeinden: Bremen and Bremerhaven.

[@DeutschFuerEuch]

Muss ja zugeben, dass mir die meisten dieser Informationen maximal schwammig präsent sind. Der Landkreis, aus dem ich komme, existiert in dieser Form gar nicht mehr, das Autokennzeichen richtet sich aber immer noch danach. In einigen Nachbarorten meiner Heimatstadt wird gerne mal ein anderes verwendet (auch wenn Wikipedia das anders sieht). Autos aus zwei Orten, die teilweise nicht einmal einen Kilometer auseinander liegen, sind laut ihrer Nummernschilder also zwei Städten/Kreisen zuzuordnen, die etwa 30 km voneinander entfernt sind. Bürokratie

[@imrehundertwasser7094]

Die Kennzeichenliberalisierung vor einigen Jahren, mit der Wiederbelebung eigentlich schon längst abgeschaffter Kennzeichen, stiftet da bei manchen sicher noch zusätzliche Verwirrung.

[@swanpride]

Geht mir genauso, aber in meinem Fall, weil ich in einer kreisfreien Stadt lebe. Da muss man nicht lange nachdenken, es gibt halt eine Stadt unterteilt in Stadtbezirke.

[@LarsPW]

Thank you for the video. I was straight on my way to use the word "municipality" generally as a translation for "Gebietskörperschaft" what would be wrong.

[@jacquesvoris456]

Hey, some of us find the organization of administrative subdivisions interesting. Let me tell you about "towns" in New England someday

[@NicolaW72]

Indeed.

[@victorselve8349]

On the municipality with a large city and smaller ones, for some time the city Lüdenscheid was not part of the municipality of the same name although the seat of Gouvernement was still in the city of Lüdenscheid

[@rewboss]

You've confused "muncipality" = "Gemeinde" with "Kreis" = "district". Lüdenscheid was until 1968 a "kreisfreie Stadt", but then became part of "Landkreis Altena" and then later "Märkischer Kreis". It is common for a "kreisfreie Stadt" to be the seat of government for a "Kreis" that it's not a part of. Aschaffenburg is an example; it isn't part of "Kreis Aschaffenburg", but it's where the district administration is, and where I had to go to apply for naturalisation.

[@victorselve8349]

@@rewboss yes Lüdenscheid was a Kreisfreie Stadt but it also was not part of the Gemeinde Lüdenscheid-Land which itself was part of the Gemeindeverband Amt Lüdenscheid which was part of the Kreis Altena with the first two having their Amtssitz in the city of Lüdenscheid while the Kreis Altena had its seat of Gouvernement in Altena

[@rewboss]

@@victorselve8349 Ohh... that's interesting.

[@Nikioko]

The German subdivisions are: Federation (Bund) - State (Land) - District (Bezirk, not in all states) - County or City (Landkreis or kreisfreie Stadt) - Community or Town (Gemeinde or Stadt, not in cities) - Hamlet (Ortschaft). Federation and states have their own legislations, parliaments and governments/senates, Districts are local instances of bigger states, counties and cities have their own councils and lord mayors but no legislation. Communities and town have a council and a mayor as well but have very little authority. There are four kinds of elections: EU parliament, federal parliament (Bundestag), State parliament (Landtag/Bürgerschaft/Repräsentantenhaus) and communal (council, mayor).

[@rewboss]

I usually use the following translations: Bundesland = state Regierungsbezirk = region Landkreis = (rural) district kreisfreie Stadt = urban district (from the older term "Stadtkreis") Stadt = city Gemeinde = municipality Ortsteil = village, neighbourhood Weiler = hamlet I don't like to use the term "county" because that is the translation for "Grafschaft", which is a historical territory ruled by a count.

[@Nikioko]

@@rewboss Well, a region normally is a fusion of a Landkreis and a kreisfreie Stadt, such as Hannover, Aachen or Saarbrücken. Which is less than a Regierungsbezirk.

[@JMWZ_E]

1:10 The city-state of Bremen is actually a two-city-state consisting of two urban districts. But the status of these would be a nightmare to explain. 1:15 Aachen and the state capitals Saarbrücken and Hannover have merged with their surrounding rural districts to form 'districts of a special kind' - so they are part of that district while maintaining most of their independence ... 3:48 Being from the most populous state of NRW I haven't heard any of these expressions for a long time. We obviously had "Ämter" in the past until a large wave of redistricting counties and consolidating municipalities in the 70s. Nowadays there are hardly any municipalities below 10.000 inhabitants in NRW - so they all can handle their administrative tasks on their own. The reform was very controversial but there was no need for another one for almost half a century while some East German states are busy planning their third redistricting effort since 1990.

[@schuetzer]

4:05: Nah. Mein Kaffee ist noch warm. Danke für die Erklärung.

[@stroke_of_luck]

It is a bit like the American county. But how that is defined differs from state to state. Counties run the courts, hire rural police forces and jails, keep the marriage records etc. Cities run their own police forces, streets, zoning etc. Coutnties have a minimum size of 400 square miles. Most are a lot larger. In the SE corner of Oregon the counties tend to be very large because their populations are very small.

[@rewboss]

The nearest equivalent to a county would be "Kreis", which I translate as "district". That's one level of government up from "Gemeinde".

[@Thoringer]

Fun fact: Usually, a municipality will fall within only one larger regional government district. In German non-city stes, that would be a Kreis - or in the US usually called county (except some states in the South East). However, in Texas, no joke (pun intended), there is a municipality that is in 3 counties at the same time: The City of Schertz - it is in Guadalupe County, but also in Bexas (the one that is basically San Antonio) and Comal County. And to make matters worse for everyone involved, if you are a Texan online business selling to someone there, you need to look up the address to find out what your tax rate is you are supposed to charge because there is a county part which may vary and you need to name the county to which you sold to so the state can forward that amount to the correct county. Yes, I know, the switch from point-of-sale to point-of-order for sales tax is the most stupid thing the US ever did.

[@chrissi7560]

The municipalities I live in consists of 4 villages. People from each village hate each other passionately and will argue about which town hall/primary school/kindergarten/church/bakery/clubs/public transport stop... is the superior. Especially because some have more power than others, but those have a longer history and should be the leader by "birthright". However, when necessary we will stand together and argue with outsiders. And people from the Neubaugebiet... oh where should I start?! Now that I think of it... It's kind of like Bayern & the areas within. People will always be Franconian until someone insults the whole of Bayern. All of the sudden you fight to be Bavarian.

[@joergsonnenberger6836]

Berlin doesn't have municipalities in the official sense, but the district pretty much are organized the same. There is a local assembly, they have their own district government etc.

[@feynaomi]

11:10 annoyingly one of the City States (Bremen) is actually two spatially seperated municipalities, Bremen abd Bremerhaven. This causes much confusion when people want to interact with Bremen state, but are actually interacting with Bremen municipality and vice versa

[@feynaomi]

(Even more annoyingly a part of Bremerhaven, the international harbour, actually belongs to Bremen municipality rather than Bremerhaven)

[@MegaBanane9]

There is three city states, but they don't all have no extra munipalities - for example Bremen has the munipalities of Bremen and Bremerhaven and Berlin has... funkiness.

[@imrehundertwasser7094]

Berlin has countless financial Bermuda Triangles.

[@HalfEye79]

Same with the Gemeinde Emmerthal, which consits of Amelgatzen, Bessinghausen, Börry, Brockensen, Emmern, Esperde, Frenke, Grohnde, Hagenohsen, Hajen, Hämelschenburg, Kirchohsen, Latferde, Lüntorf, Ohr, Voremberg and Welsede. Btw. Ohr has one of the most stolen place name sign.

[@imrehundertwasser7094]

Right after Fucking probably. Oh wait, they renamed that one to Fugging recently, so Ohr may take the lead :-)

[@HalfEye79]

@@imrehundertwasser7094 Do you talk about these german / austrian cities names Kissing, Petting, Fucking, Wedding?

[@imrehundertwasser7094]

@@HalfEye79 Fucking was an Austrian municipality, but they did rename it to Fugging in 2021 because the Anglo world couldn't get over the name. Kissing and Petting are actually in Bavaria, and Wedding is a borough of Berlin.

[@HalfEye79]

@@imrehundertwasser7094 I knew that. Kind of. Not exactly.

[@gerryphilly53]

Is a Gemeine the same thing as the administrative unit called a Landkreis in Nordrhein Westfallen? In the US, the states are subdivided into counties. The subdivisions below that vary from state to state. In my home state of Pennsylvania, villagesike yours would be grouped into a township, which would be responsible for police services and refuse collection and control of local permitting and zoning. Oddly, in the bulk of these, the fire service is made up of volunteer companies. Issuance of marriage licenses, recording of property deeds are county functions and would be handled at the county seat, the large municipality where the main administrative office is for the county are located. (I think I’ve heard that the term “county town” is used in the UK. Does that correspond to our “county seat”?). The city of Philadelphia forms a special case as its boundary is both the city limit and the boundary of Philadelphia County and city and county administration is merged.

[@gottfriedneuner3721]

no, a Landkreis is closer to a county. a Landkreis has multiple Gemeinden in it.

[@imelimadame9244]

And then there is Hamburg which is a city state, but we still have and use several town halls because having one for the amount of people would be a nightmare.

[@SKy_the_Thunder]

2:20 Yo WTF? I never in my life expected to randomly stumble upon a video using my tiny hometown as an example!

[@jackysack]

Oh! You are living in Kleinkahl? Funny! I grew up in Mömbris OT Schimborn. My Familiy is still living there.

[@omgahandlelol]

this is interesting. thank you.

[@Yora21]

One interesting thing I discovered recently is that in the US, Virgina is the only state that has Kreisfreie Städte.

[@eltfell]

In Lower Saxony, there is also a thing called "Samtgemeinde" (velvet municipality, gnihihihi). But I'm not sure, if there is a "Gemeinde".

[@rewboss]

"Samtgemeinde" is a form of administrative association; yes, the members of a "Samtgemeinde" are "Gemeinden".

[@connectingthedots100]

Cute. It's like " 'luja, sog I"

[@NicolaW72]

@@rewboss Indeed (being from Lower Saxony).

[@eltfell]

@@connectingthedots100 Vaflixt, halleluja!

[@sonkeschluter3654]

Uneducated etymology guess: Its in someway related to "gesamt"

[@unbekannt6505]

Interessant

[@DarkbaseTTV]

Wouldn't the lowest level of local government in Germany be the "Ortschaft" with the "Ortschaftsrat" and "Ortsvorsteher"? These typically still exist within all the villages making up a Gemeinde and will make decisions

[@gegenrechts7286]

Ortschaft bezeichnet in Deutschland sowohl einen organisatorischen als auch den rechtlichen Status einer Siedlung. In Österreich ist die Ortschaft die Grundeinheit des Systems der Siedlungsgliederung. In der Schweiz versteht man unter Ortschaft ein abgegrenztes Siedlungsgebiet innerhalb der Postleit-Struktur. Karlsruhe ist ebenso eine Ortschaft wie Berlin oder Vogelsberg. Ich hoffe du verstehst deutsch, weil mein English für die Erklärung leider nicht gut genug ist.