Municipalities of Germany


Municipalities are the lowest level of official territorial division in Germany. This is most commonly the third level of territorial division, ranking after the Land and Kreis. A Gemeinde is one level lower in those states which also include Regierungsbezirke as an intermediate territorial division. The Gemeinde is one level higher if it is not part of a Samtgemeinde. Only 10 municipalities in Germany have fifth level administrative subdivisions and all of them are in Bavaria. The highest degree of autonomy may be found in the Gemeinden which are not part of a Kreis. These Gemeinden are referred to as Kreisfreie Städte or Stadtkreise, sometimes translated as having "city status". This can be the case even for small municipalities. However, many smaller municipalities have lost this city status in various administrative reforms in the last 40 years when they were incorporated into a Kreis. In some states they retained a higher measure of autonomy than the other municipalities of the Kreis. Municipalities titled Stadt are urban municipalities while those titled Gemeinde are classified as rural municipalities.

Overview

With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the most populated municipality of Germany is the city of Berlin; and the least populated is Gröde in Schleswig-Holstein. The cities of Aachen and Saarbrücken have a special status, which is why the numbers in the respective states North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland appear in brackets in the table.

Municipalities per federal state

''List updated on August 1, 2009.
Federal stateMunicipalitiesMunicipalities
that are
urban districts		Average no. of
inhabitants		Average
area 		List
Baden-Württemberg1,10199,76432.41:Category:Cities in Baden-Württemberg|C, :Category:Towns in Baden-Württemberg|T, :Category:Municipalities in Baden-Württemberg|M
Bavaria2,056256,09033.03:Category:Cities in Bavaria|C, :Category:Towns in Bavaria|T, :Category:Municipalities in Bavaria|M
Berlin113,416,255891.02Berlin
Brandenburg41946,05270.36:Category:Cities in Brandenburg|C, :Category:Towns in Brandenburg|T, :Category:Municipalities in Brandenburg|M
Bremen22331,541202.14Bremen, Bremerhaven
Hamburg111,770,629755.16Hamburg
Hesse426514,25548.80:Category:Cities in Hesse|C, :Category:Towns in Hesse|T, :Category:Municipalities in Hesse|M
Lower Saxony1,02297,80045.25:Category:Cities in Lower Saxony|C, :Category:Towns in Lower Saxony|T, :Category:Municipalities in Lower Saxony|M
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern81822,05328.34:Category:Cities in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern|C, :Category:Towns in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern|T, :Category:Municipalities in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern|M
North Rhine-Westphalia39622 45,44686.08:Category:Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia|C, :Category:Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia|T, :Category:Municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia|M
Rhineland-Palatinate2,306121,7548.61:Category:Cities in Rhineland-Palatinate|C, :Category:Towns in Rhineland-Palatinate|T, :Category:Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate|M
Saarland5219,93549.40:Category:Cities in Saarland|C, :Category:Towns in Saarland|T, :Category:Municipalities in Saarland|M
Saxony49138,59537.51:Category:Cities in Saxony|C, :Category:Towns in Saxony|T, :Category:Municipalities in Saxony|M
Saxony-Anhalt85132,83524.03:Category:Cities in Saxony-Anhalt|C, :Category:Towns in Saxony-Anhalt|T, :Category:Municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt|M
Schleswig-Holstein1,11642,54214.07:Category:Cities in Schleswig-Holstein|C, :Category:Towns in Schleswig-Holstein|T, :Category:Municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein|M
Thuringia95562,39716.93:Category:Cities in Thuringia|C, :Category:Towns in Thuringia|T, :Category:Municipalities in Thuringia|M
Germany12,013108 6,84429.35:Category:Cities in Germany|C, :Category:Towns in Germany|T, :Category:Municipalities of Germany|M