Large community
Großgemeinde is a name for a municipality that consists of several districts and was often formed from several independent municipalities as part of a regional reform .
Germany
Just like the municipalities consisting of only one district, large municipalities have a uniform municipality administration and management ( municipality council and mayor ). Insofar as they arose from mergers, they are the legal successors of their previously independent parts of the municipality and, with the merger, take over all rights and obligations of the previous municipalities. In parts of Germany , large municipalities are legally unitary municipalities . In special cases, large communities was also awarded the right to the city to be able to call. This depends on the respective municipal constitution or the municipal code of the state and is often based on the existing city rights of one or more previous municipalities. However, new large municipalities, whose districts did not have city rights, can also be elevated to cities, such as Rheinstetten in Baden-Württemberg.
In Germany, the term is used colloquially and has become naturalized in many places, because it is mostly about communities with a large area , such as Am Mellensee in Brandenburg. In some cases, however, derogatory terms such as “test tube community” or “art community” appear, especially when the population does not want several communities to be grouped together and is perceived as unnatural. Occasionally, such communities were dissolved again, for example in the case of the city of Lahn ( Gießen / Wetzlar and others), which was repealed in 1979 after violent protests by the population (especially those from Wetzlar).
Austria
In Austria , too, there is the form of large municipalities, which are formed on the one hand in terms of area from individual cadastral municipalities , on the other hand from individual localities with regard to the settlements. In some cases, this can be about congregations that have grown together for many years. Numerous community reforms took place in the 1970s. Some of these communities, which were merged in the course of community reforms, were later divided up again, for example Stratzing and Lengenfeld in Lower Austria. The last municipal reform was in Styria in 2015 ( Styrian municipal structural reform ).
Finland
In other countries, large municipalities with several districts were formed from the outset, for example Anttola in Finland , which has now merged into the more than 2000 km² Mikkeli .
China
In the People's Republic of China , the term stands for the municipality's own administrative unit , for example Humen .
