{
  "contentStorage": "postgres",
  "title": "Administrative divisions of Germany",
  "description": "The administrative divisions of Germany follow the federal principle with the federation, 16 states and below them government regions, districts and municipalities.",
  "url": "/en/concepts/germany-admin-divisions.html",
  "entity": {
    "id": "concept_germany_admin_divisions",
    "type": "concept",
    "title": "Administrative divisions of Germany",
    "slug": "germany-admin-divisions",
    "summary": "The administrative divisions of Germany follow the federal principle with the federation, 16 states and below them government regions, districts and municipalities.",
    "status": "published",
    "categories": [
      "category-geography"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "tag-admin-division"
    ],
    "sources": [
      {
        "id": "wikipedia",
        "title": "Verwaltungsgliederung Deutschlands — Wikipedia",
        "url": "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verwaltungsgliederung_Deutschlands",
        "locator": "abgerufen 2026-10-28"
      }
    ],
    "createdAt": "2026-10-28T00:00:00+08:00",
    "updatedAt": "2026-10-28T00:00:00+08:00",
    "updatedBy": "user:admin",
    "revision": 3,
    "body": "## Overview\n\nGermany is a federal state: legislation and administration are distributed between the federation and 16 states, which have their own constitutions, parliaments (Landtage) and governments. The states are represented in the Bundesrat; municipal self-government is guaranteed by Article 28 of the Basic Law.\n\n## Levels\n\n- **Federation**: the Federal Republic of Germany as the federal overall state\n- **States (16)**: Baden-Württemberg ([[place_de_baden_wuerttemberg|Baden-Württemberg]]), Bavaria ([[place_de_bayern|Bavaria]]), Berlin ([[place_de_berlin|Berlin]]), Brandenburg ([[place_de_brandenburg|Brandenburg]]), Bremen ([[place_de_bremen|Bremen]]), Hamburg ([[place_de_hamburg|Hamburg]]), Hesse ([[place_de_hessen|Hesse]]), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ([[place_de_mecklenburg_vorpommern|Mecklenburg-Vorpommern]]), Lower Saxony ([[place_de_niedersachsen|Lower Saxony]]), North Rhine-Westphalia ([[place_de_nordrhein_westfalen|North Rhine-Westphalia]]), Rhineland-Palatinate ([[place_de_rheinland_pfalz|Rhineland-Palatinate]]), Saarland ([[place_de_saarland|Saarland]]), Saxony ([[place_de_sachsen|Saxony]]), Saxony-Anhalt ([[place_de_sachsen_anhalt|Saxony-Anhalt]]), Schleswig-Holstein ([[place_de_schleswig_holstein|Schleswig-Holstein]]), Thuringia ([[place_de_thueringen|Thuringia]])\n- **Government regions**: only in four territorial states – Baden-Württemberg (4), Bavaria (7), Hesse (3) and North Rhine-Westphalia (5). Rhineland-Palatinate dissolved its regions in 2000, Saxony-Anhalt in 2004, Lower Saxony on 1 January 2005; Saxony merged its government regions into three directorates in 2008 and combined them into the Landesdirektion Sachsen on 1 March 2012. Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Thuringia established no regions in 1990; Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland never had any.\n- **Districts**: Germany is divided into 400 districts – 294 rural districts (in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein \"Kreise\") and 106 urban districts (as of end of 2024).\n- **Municipalities**: around 10,800 municipalities (about 10,786, as of 2024) as the lowest municipal level, partly organised in administrative associations and Ämter.\n\n## City states\n\nBerlin, Hamburg and Bremen are city states: they form both state and municipality and have no rural districts. Berlin is divided into 12 boroughs, Hamburg into 7 boroughs; Bremen consists of the two urban municipalities of Bremen and Bremerhaven.",
    "url": "/concepts/germany-admin-divisions.html",
    "lang": "en",
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  "tags": [
    {
      "id": "tag-admin-division",
      "slug": "admin-division",
      "name": "行政区划",
      "description": "省、地、县各级行政区及其历史沿革。",
      "names": {
        "zh": "行政区划"
      },
      "descriptions": {
        "zh": "省、地、县各级行政区及其历史沿革。"
      },
      "count": 4403
    }
  ],
  "versions": [
    {
      "revision": 3,
      "updatedAt": "2026-10-28T00:00:00+08:00",
      "message": "当前版本",
      "hasSnapshot": true,
      "url": "/en/concepts/germany-admin-divisions/at/3.html"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "en",
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