Germany: administrative division, territorial division

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

Germany is a large European state located in the center and north of Europe. Has access to the B altic, North Sea; the southern part captures the territory of the mountain system of the Alps. The area of this country is 357 thousand 409 km2. The number of inhabitants is about 82 million, which is 17th in the world and second in Europe.

The capital of Germany is the city of Berlin. German is recognized as the main language. Among the religious denominations, Christianity prevails. Germany is an important economic center of Europe and the whole world. Here is a fairly high standard of living (5th place in the world) and GDP. The euro is used as the currency. In Germany, the administrative division is quite complex and varied.

Government

Germany is a federal state consisting of 16 subjects (lands). By type of government it is a parliamentary republic. Angela Merkel has been Federal Chancellor for many years. The position of president in Germany is quite formal.

Economy

Despite the lack of large deposits of natural resources (with the exception of coal), the economy of this state is actively developing and is one of the most developed in the world. Industry and services are of the greatest importance. Moreover, about 54 percent of the economy is made up of services. The role of agriculture is rather insignificant (0.5 - 1.5% of GDP). In terms of gross domestic product, the country is ranked 5th in the world. Ahead of her - only the United States, China, India, Japan. It has a very large export volume.

Unemployment in Germany is around 7%.

Administrative-territorial division of Germany

Is a federal state consisting of 16 states: Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Berlin, Saarland, Thuringia, Hesse, Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hamburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Anh alt, Saxony.

Each of them has some state sovereignty, to which the principles of international law apply.

Land sovereignty level

There is no unambiguous interpretation regarding the independence and sovereignty of the lands. The concept of "federal state" is often used, but in legal documents such as the Basic Law of Germany, this concept is not used. They are not considered asadministrative divisions of the country. Nevertheless, each of these land subjects has its own representative office in the capital of the country - Berlin.

Each land has its own legislative body, which is called the Landtag. The executive body is the state government. It includes the prime minister and ministers.

Administrative structure

The form of administrative-territorial division of Germany is rather complicated. According to the constitution of Germany, each state of the country has full sovereignty regarding local government. This leads to differences in the administrative structure of the various lands.

Smaller territorial units are districts. There are 429 of them in Germany. Of these, 313 are rural and 116 are urban. City districts are Berlin, Hamburg and others.

The five lands have adopted the division of the territory into administrative districts, each of which includes several districts.

Even smaller units of territorial division are the so-called communities. They are also called communes. There is a system of community management. In total, there are 12,141 communities in the country. They are subordinate to the districts of Germany. There is no administrative division of communities, as this is the smallest territorial unit of the country.

In some lands, it is customary to unite several communities into so-called amts. There are 252 of them in the country.

Conclusion

Thus, the administrativeThe division of Germany is a complex historical process, which resulted in a large number of different administrative land units. At the same time, the Germans remain true to the traditions and remnants of the past, and are not yet in a hurry to change the cumbersome zoning system. Sufficient autonomy of regions in Germany can complicate the process of governing this country.

The administrative division of Germany is important to know for tourists who want to spend their holidays in this country. Otherwise, it is of interest to historians, as well as to those who moved there permanently.