What Are The Administrative Divisions Of Germany?

There are in all 440 administrative divisions in 16 states in Germany. After the reunification of Germany in 1990 much of the administrative divisions were officially created.

The 16 states are Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hassia, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-West Pommerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Sachsen-Anhalt, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia. The states of Bavaria, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thuringia are free states; Bavaria is the largest state in terms of land area while Bremen is the smallest.

There are 439 districts in Germany with 323 rural districts known as Landkreise and 116 urban districts known as Stadtkreise or Kreisfreie Stadte. The urban districts are in fact cities which have a status of a district; most of the important cities including the capital Berlin are districts in their own right.

Some of the major city districts in Germany are Stuttgart, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Bonn, Cologne, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, and Berlin. Some of the important rural districts that can be named are Aachen, Coburg, Kaiserslautern, Oldenburg, Potsdam-Mittelmark and Verden among others.