Districts of Germany
The NUTS code scheme was revised in 2003. The digit '0' was appended to the codes for Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thüringen, at the NUTS-2 level. In most cases, the NUTS-2 level is used to represent German districts.
For states that were divided into districts until recently - Niedersachsen, Rheinland-Pfalz, and Sachsen-Anhalt - the former NUTS-2
district codes were retained, even though they no longer represent districts. Brandenburg is split into two NUTS-2 areas which are not
administrative divisions. Therefore, for those four states, NUTS-1 codes provide the only representation in the NUTS system.
Germany is divided into sixteen Länder (states). Five of the states - generally, the larger ones - are subdivided into
Regierungsbezirke (sing. Regierungsbezirk: administrative district). All of the states and districts are subdivided into Kreise (sing.
Kreis: county), which are further subdivided into Gemeinden (sing. Gemeinde: commune). The Kreise are of two kinds: Landkreise (rural
counties) and kreisfreie Städte (urban counties). The districts are shown below.
| Name | HASC | NUTS | Population | Area(km.²) | Capital |
|---|
| Arnsberg | DE.NW.AR | DEA5 | 3,815,118 | 8,002 | Arnsberg |
| Berlin | DE.BE.BE | DE30 | 3,398,822 | 890 | Berlin |
| Brandenburg | DE.BB.BB | DE4 | 2,590,375 | 29,476 | Potsdam |
| Bremen | DE.HB.HB | DE50 | 667,965 | 405 | Bremen |
| Chemnitz | DE.SN.CH | DED1 | 1,654,765 | 6,097 | Chemnitz |
| Darmstadt | DE.HE.DA | DE71 | 3,703,089 | 7,445 | Darmstadt |
| Detmold | DE.NW.DM | DEA4 | 2,041,343 | 6,518 | Detmold |
| Dresden | DE.SN.DR | DED2 | 1,735,992 | 7,930 | Dresden |
| Düsseldorf | DE.NW.DU | DEA1 | 5,269,171 | 5,290 | Düsseldorf |
| Freiburg | DE.BW.FR | DE13 | 2,114,486 | 9,347 | Freiburg im Breisgau |
| Gießen | DE.HE.GI | DE72 | 1,060,951 | 5,381 | Gießen |
| Hamburg | DE.HH.HH | DE60 | 1,700,089 | 755 | Hamburg |
| Karlsruhe | DE.BW.KR | DE12 | 2,666,127 | 6,919 | Karlsruhe |
| Kassel | DE.HE.KS | DE73 | 1,271,097 | 8,289 | Kassel |
| Köln | DE.NW.KL | DEA2 | 4,249,413 | 7,365 | Köln |
| Leipzig | DE.SN.LE | DED3 | 1,098,658 | 4,386 | Leipzig |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | DE.MV.MV | DE80 | 1,798,689 | 23,171 | Schwerin |
| Mittelfranken | DE.BY.MF | DE25 | 1,678,535 | 7,245 | Ansbach |
| Münster | DE.NW.MU | DEA3 | 2,600,471 | 6,905 | Münster in Westfalen |
| Niederbayern | DE.BY.NI | DE22 | 1,162,972 | 10,330 | Landshut |
| Niedersachsen | DE.NI.NS | DE9 | 7,865,840 | 47,614 | Hannover |
| Oberbayern | DE.BY.OB | DE21 | 3,996,043 | 17,529 | München |
| Oberfranken | DE.BY.OF | DE24 | 1,113,790 | 7,230 | Bayreuth |
| Oberpfalz | DE.BY.OP | DE23 | 1,069,121 | 9,692 | Regensburg |
| Rheinland-Pfalz | DE.RP.RL | DEB | 4,018,228 | 19,857 | Mainz |
| Saarland | DE.SL.SL | DEC0 | 1,074,223 | 2,570 | Saarbrücken |
| Sachsen-Anhalt | DE.ST.SA | DEE | 2,674,490 | 20,447 | Magdeburg |
| Schleswig-Holstein | DE.SH.SH | DEF0 | 2,766,057 | 15,769 | Kiel |
| Schwaben | DE.BY.SC | DE27 | 1,736,688 | 9,992 | Augsburg |
| Stuttgart | DE.BW.ST | DE11 | 3,898,171 | 10,558 | Stuttgart |
| Thüringen | DE.TH.TH | DEG0 | 2,462,836 | 16,172 | Erfurt |
| Tübingen | DE.BW.TU | DE14 | 1,747,256 | 8,918 | Tübingen |
| Unterfranken | DE.BY.UF | DE26 | 1,329,399 | 8,529 | Würzburg |
- Name: These are Regierungsbezirke (administrative districts), except for nine
states, which don't have any subdivisions at
the district level. The states have
NUTS codes that are three characters or that end in 0.
- HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. The middle two letters identify
the
state. For key, see "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries". The last two
letters are based on the AKZ (Autokennzeichen, identifying
letters on license plates).
- NUTS: Codes from Nomenclature for Statistical Territorial Units (European standard).
- Population: 1998-12-31 data from StBA, Landesämter für Statistik.
- Area: Corresponds to boundaries as of 1998-12.
|
Change history (incomplete):
- 1815: According to Wikipedia
, the Kingdom of Prussia was the first to divide
its provinces into Regierungsbezirke. Twenty-five of them were created in 1815-1816. Other states had similar divisions with different
designations.
- 1945: Hesse state created and subdivided into Darmstadt, Kassel, and Wiesbaden districts.
- 1946: Rheinland-Palatinate state created and subdivided into Koblenz, Montabaur, Pfalz (capital Speyer), Rheinhessen (capital Mainz),
and Trier districts.
- 1946-11-01: Lower Saxony state created and subdivided into Aurich, Braunschweig, Hannover, Hildesheim, Lüneburg, Oldenburg (v), Osnabrück,
and Stade districts (some of them Regierungsbezirke, and others Verwaltungsbezirke (v)).
- 1947: Minden district merged with the former state of Lippe to form Detmold district.
- 1952: Baden-Württemberg state created, and subdivided into Nordbaden district (formerly part of Württemberg-Baden
state; capital Karlsruhe), Nordwürttemberg (formerly part of Württemberg-Baden state; capital Stuttgart), Südbaden (formerly
Südbaden state; capital Freiburg im Breisgau), and Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern (formerly Württemberg-Hohenzollern state;
capital Tübingen).
- 1968: Montabaur district merged with Koblenz. Rheinhessen-Pfalz district (capital Neustadt an der
Weinstrasse) formed by merging Rheinhessen with Pfalz. Wiesbaden district merged with Darmstadt.
- 1972: Aachen district merged with Köln.
- 1973-01-01: Territory was transferred between Nordbaden and Nordwürttemberg districts, and they were renamed Karlsruhe
and Stuttgart, respectively. Territory was transferred between Südbaden and Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern districts,
and they were renamed Freiburg and Tübingen, respectively.
- 1978: Weser-Ems district formed by merging Aurich, Oldenburg, and Osnabrück. Hildesheim district split
between Braunschweig and Hannover. Stade district merged with Lüneburg.
- 1981-01-01: Gießen district formed from parts of Darmstadt and Kassel.
- 1990-10-03: When Germany was reunified, it had 29 districts, and nine states that were not divided into districts.
- ~1993: Saxony state, which had not had any districts, was split into three districts.
- 2000-01-01: The three districts of Rheinland-Palatinate state were dissolved. They were Koblenz (former HASC code
DE.RP.KB,
NUTS code DEB1, population 1,508,795, area (km.²) 8,072, capital Koblenz), Rheinhessen-Pfalz (DE.RP.RP,
DEB3, 2,000,111, 6,852, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse), and Trier (DE.RP.TR, DEB2, 509,322,
4,923, Trier).
- 2004-01-01: The three districts of Saxony-Anhalt state were dissolved. They were Dessau (former HASC code
DE.ST.DS, NUTS
code DEE1, population 558,911, area (km.²) 4,280, capital Dessau), Halle (DE.ST.HL, DEE2, 885,661,
4,430, Halle), and Magdeburg (DE.ST.MA, DEE3, 1,229,918, 11,737, Magdeburg).
- 2005-01-01: The four districts of Lower Saxony state were dissolved. They were Braunschweig (former HASC code
DE.NI.BR,
NUTS code DE91, population 1,669,708, area (km.²) 8,098, capital Braunschweig); Hannover (DE.NI.HN,
DE92, 2,148,713, 9,046, Hannover); Lüneburg (DE.NI.LU, DE93, 1,645,896, 15,505, Lüneburg); and
Weser-Ems (DE.NI.WE, DE94, 2,401,523, 14,965, Oldenburg in Oldenburg).
Other names of subdivisions:
- Berlin: Berlim (Portuguese); Berlín (Spanish)
- Brandenburg: Brandeburgo (Portuguese); Brandebourg (French); Brandemburgo (Spanish)
- Braunschweig: Brunswick (English, French, Spanish)
- Bremen: Brema (Portuguese); Brême (French)
- Dresden: Dresda (Portuguese); Dresde (French, Spanish)
- Düsseldorf: Dusseldórfia (Portuguese)
- Freiburg: Friburgo (Portuguese, Spanish); Fribourg (French)
- Gießen: Giessen (variant)
- Hamburg: Hamburgo (Portuguese, Spanish); Hambourg (French)
- Hannover: Hanover (English); Hanôver (Portuguese); Hanovre (French)
- Koblenz: Coblença (Portuguese); Coblence (French); Coblenza (Spanish)
- Köln: Cologne (English, French); Colonia (Spanish); Colónia (Portuguese)
- Lüneburg: Lunebourg (French); Luneburgo (Spanish)
- Magdeburg: Magdeburgo (Portuguese, Spanish); Magdebourg (French)
- Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Mecklemburgo-Pomerania Occidental (Spanish); Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (English); Meclemburgo-Pomerânia Ocidental
(Portuguese); Mecklembourg-Poméranie occidentale, Mecklembourg-Poméranie antérieure (French)
- Mittelfranken: Franconia Central (Spanish); Middle Franconia (English); Média Francónia (Portuguese); Moyenne-Franconie (French)
- Niederbayern: Lower Bavaria (English); Baixa Baviera (Portuguese); Baja Baviera (Spanish); Basse-Bavière (French)
- Oberbayern: Upper Bavaria (English); Alta Baviera (Portuguese, Spanish); Haute-Bavière (French)
- Oberfranken: Upper Franconia (English); Alta Franconia (Spanish); Alta Francónia (Portuguese); Haute-Franconie (French)
- Oberpfalz: Upper Palatinate (English); Alto Palatinado (Portuguese, Spanish); Haut-Palatinat (French)
- Rheinhessen-Pfalz: Hesse Renano-Palatinado (Spanish); Rhenish Hesse-Palatinate (English); Rheinhessen-Palatinado (Portuguese); Hesse
Rhénane-Palatinat (French)
- Saarland: Sarre (French, Portuguese, Spanish)
- Schwaben: Swabia (English); Suabia (Spanish); Suábia (Portuguese); Souabe (French)
- Stuttgart: Estugarda (Portuguese)
- Thüringen: Thuringia (English); Turingia (Spanish); Turíngia (Portuguese); Thuringe (French)
- Trier: Tréveris (Spanish); Trèves (French)
- Tübingen: Tubinga (Portuguese, Spanish)
- Unterfranken: Lower Franconia (English); Baixa Francónia (Portuguese); Baja Franconia (Spanish); Basse-Franconie (French)
The Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie has a map of the
districts as of 1999.