Territorial reform

Under municipal reform (including municipal reorganization ; English local government reorganization ) refers to the national communal rights over a large area and not limited only to neighboring communities reform that touches the child in a middle management level.

A state has the autonomy to change the original boundaries of its subdivisions within its state borders. The aim of such a municipal territorial reform is to strengthen the planning , administrative and political performance of individual municipalities. A municipality area should be dimensioned in such a way that the local ties of the residents are preserved and the ability of the municipality to fulfill its tasks is ensured (§ 15 GemO NRW). The regional reform should therefore take into account the different population distribution and population density , strengthen local self-government and “create the conditions for modern service administration”. Territorial reforms can be caused by changes in the number of inhabitants , sociodemographics or infrastructure in the affected areas.

The respective administrative structure must take into account the current or future living , settlement and movement areas of the population. Territorial reforms are subject to special laws and can only be implemented through border changes. However, these border changes also affect the municipal boundaries of neighboring municipalities, so that these will also be affected by a regional reform. Territorial reforms therefore take place through the withdrawal of a whole or part of a municipality, for example by amalgamation ( municipality merger ) or incorporation and simultaneous expansion of another existing municipality.

A local reorganization is always associated with a regional reform. The usage of the new structure designates with community merger the amalgamation of communities or cities of the same size and close together ( city merger ), whereby the new regional authority is often given a double name or a new name. Congregation mergers exist as a merger to form a new congregation or as incorporation in the form of the admission of a congregation into another congregation.

The regional reform redefines the boundaries of a large number of municipalities, districts, etc. on a large scale and at the same time. A municipality merger, on the other hand, is the amalgamation of at least two neighboring municipalities into one, whereby the new municipality takes over all public tasks of the previous municipalities. That can be done through

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In the case of incorporation, a municipality gives up its legal independence, in the first case this is the municipality , in the second case the municipality . The real congregation merger creates a new congregation from two previously independent congregations, which receives a new congregation name . ${\ displaystyle B}$ ${\ displaystyle A}$ ${\ displaystyle C}$

Community reform

Germany

In Art. 29 para. 1 GG is for the federal territory reorganization provided that these may be made to the size and performance if doing which the countries incumbent public tasks can be effectively met. This principle of federal law can also be applied to regional law reforms.

The municipal reform is not a municipal law term. Rather, § 16 HessGemO provides that, for reasons of public welfare, municipal boundaries can be changed, municipalities dissolved or newly formed. The participating municipalities and districts are to be heard beforehand. If the change in municipal boundaries affects the boundaries of rural districts, the change in the municipal boundaries also changes the county boundaries. Municipal boundaries can be changed voluntarily by agreement of the municipalities involved with the approval of the responsible supervisory authority. The agreement must be passed by the municipal councils of the municipalities involved with a majority of the legal number of municipal representatives. According to Section 16 (4) HessGemO, municipal boundaries can only be changed by law against the will of the municipalities involved. This also applies to the formation of a new community from parts of one or more communities. Territorial reform extends the local law of the receiving municipality and repeals that of the removed municipality.

execution

The incorporation or unification of communities began as early as the end of the 19th century , when many cities grew in connection with industrialization and needed new space. This was mainly the case in the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial region ( Ruhr area ), where communities had meanwhile grown to a size of more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Between 1967 and 1978 the federal states reduced the number of their municipalities. This was achieved partly through agreements between the municipalities on a voluntary basis, that is, the municipalities decided how they wanted to work together in the future, and partly through acts of sovereignty . While in some federal states incorporations and community associations predominated, in Lower Saxony , Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein new community associations were established at an intermediate level (integrated communities , association communities , offices ).

Before the reform, there were around 24,000 municipalities in the Federal Republic, of which 10,760 had fewer than 500 inhabitants, as well as 139 independent cities and 425 (rural) districts . After the reform, there remained 8505 municipalities, 91 independent cities and 237 (rural) districts.

After a transition phase that varied from country to country, the legislators completed the municipal reform by the end of the 1970s by adopting a law to reorganize the municipalities. These reorganizations did not always meet with approval from the citizens; in individual cases they were reversed by the courts.

After German reunification , the East German states also started to reform their communities. In individual countries, they are still ongoing, so that the number of municipalities in Germany (spring 2003: over 13,000 / October 2006: 12,315 / December 2015: 11,092) is likely to decrease further.

Science sees the municipal reform in some cases as successful, in some cases as a form of technocracy owed to the zeitgeist , which is based on democratic theory - especially in connection with the principle of local self-government , which the state does not grant, but only confirms - not justify it. The improvement in efficiency and effectiveness is also often doubted; an automatic connection cannot be verified empirically. Critics complain that in many smaller communities the “we feeling” has been lost, and with it the willingness to stand up for “one's own village”.

Baden-Württemberg

In Baden-Württemberg the number of municipalities decreased from 3379 to 1110 in 1975. Of these, 165 have given themselves new names. The newly named municipalities include Albstadt , Ammerbuch , Filderstadt , Gäufelden , Grafenau , Karlsbad , Keltern , Kernen im Remstal , Neulingen , Ostfildern , Riesbürg , Starzach and Weinstadt . Examples of controversial reorganizations are the reorganization of the city of Villingen-Schwenningen , the incorporation of the community of Menzenschwand into the city of St. Blasien and the amalgamation of the communities of Leutershausen and Großsachsen to form the community of Hirschberg an der Bergstrasse .

Bavaria

The village of Ermershausen with around 800 inhabitants in the Haßberge district achieved some fame in 1978 . It vehemently opposed integration into the Maroldsweisach community . This culminated in an occupation of the town hall and the erection of barricades by citizens of Ermershausen with the aim of preventing the relocation of the municipal administration to Maroldsweisach. The village was eventually stormed by hundreds of riot police and the town hall was evacuated. In 1994, however, Ermershausen and four other municipalities became independent again.

The municipality of Horgau achieved through a judgment of the Bavarian Constitutional Court in 1983 that the incorporation to Zusmarshausen was repealed.

Berlin

After the reunification of Germany and Berlin in 1990, all districts were initially continued unchanged and again consistently called district . Until 2000, the now 23 districts had very different sizes and populations. As part of the administrative reform in 2001, twelve new districts were created through the amalgamation of districts, which - similar to the method of counting according to the Greater Berlin Act ( see above ) - were numbered using a so-called district key. Usually two previously independent districts were merged into a new district, only the districts of Neukölln, Reinickendorf and Spandau remained unchanged.

In the case of the Berlin administrative reform 2001, however, it was not a question of municipal reforms, as the Berlin districts do not have their own legal personality and are therefore not comparable with municipalities in the legal sense. According to Art. 1 I of the Berlin Constitution, Berlin as a whole is a city and thus also a single municipality. Nevertheless, the Berlin districts have tasks that are quite comparable to those of a municipality.

Brandenburg

With effect from October 26, 2003, 62 offices and 302 municipalities were dissolved. There were incorporations, other communities changed to retained offices and new municipalities free from office were formed. In the run-up to the community reform, there were also voluntary amalgamations to form new large communities and voluntary connections to existing communities. There were also numerous communities that had tried in vain to defend themselves against the community reform through legal means (see VfGBbg 95/03, VfGBbg 96/03, VfGBbg 152/03). The municipality of Quappendorf most recently failed in 2006 before the Federal Constitutional Court, which did not accept the communal constitutional complaint against the decision of the State Constitutional Court.

Hesse

While the rebuilding of the city of Lahn failed, the municipal reform of the cities of Treysa and Ziegenhain in Northern Hesse can be cited as a successful example. The new town of Schwalmstadt with 20,000 inhabitants was formed from the towns that were only 5 km apart, making it the largest town in the newly founded Schwalm-Eder district . After more than thirty years, the former cities have grown together structurally.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

Lower Saxony

The expansion of the city of Papenburg to include the former district town of Aschendorf was particularly controversial .

In 1990 the Lower Saxony state parliament decided to correct the municipal reform: the city of Aschendorf and the municipalities of Langförden , Vörden and Mulsum should be restored to local self-government. However, this law was deemed unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court .

After the municipal elections in 2011 in Lower Saxony, the district assemblies in Göttingen and Osterode decided on a large district merger to form a larger district of Göttingen on November 1st, 2016. Citizens forums advocated active participation in the form of a referendum.

In February 2014, the district councils of the districts of Hildesheim and Peine decided to start negotiations on a merger of the two districts. A merger of the districts was planned for November 1, 2016. In July 2015, the desired merger failed in a vote in the Hildesheim district council.

North Rhine-Westphalia

The following were particularly controversial:

the incorporation of the cities of Rheinhausen , Homberg and Walsum into the independent city of Duisburg

the incorporation of the cities of Eiserfeld and Hüttental into the city of Siegen

the incorporation of the city of Hohenlimburg into the independent city of Hagen

the incorporation of the city of Monheim into the independent city of Düsseldorf

the incorporation of the city of Porz into the independent city of Cologne

the incorporation of the city of Wesseling into the independent city of Cologne

the expansion of the independent city of Bochum to include the formerly independent city of Wattenscheid

the expansion of the city of Bottrop with the municipality of Kirchhellen, which formerly belonged to the Recklinghausen district , and for a short time also with the formerly independent city of Gladbeck ( Glabotki for short )
the expansion of the independent city of Essen to include the city of Kettwig
the separation of the district Mintard from Kettwig and the integration into the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr .
the incorporation of the independent city of Wanne-Eickel into the city of Herne
the incorporation of the independent city of Rheydt into the city of Mönchengladbach
the incorporation of the former district town of Opladen into the independent city of Leverkusen
the amalgamation of the towns of Heimbach and Nideggen in the Düren district
the incorporation of the formerly independent city of Lünen into the district of Unna , whereby Lünen, although it is by far the largest city in the district in terms of population, did not receive the district seat

the incorporation of the formerly independent city of Witten into the Ennepe-Ruhr district , whereby Witten, although it is the largest city in the district in terms of population, did not receive the district seat

In the Münster administrative district, based on the Münster / Hamm law of July 9, 1974, the regional reform in the region around the Westphalian regional centers of Münster and Hamm took place at the municipal level. The law came into force on January 1, 1975.

The communal reorganization also made negative headlines in Gronau (Westf.) : Epe , which was not in debt until 1975 , became deeply in debt almost overnight as a result of the reorganization with Gronau and thus unable to act.

The city of Wesseling successfully sued against the incorporation into the city of Cologne and became independent again on June 1, 1976 after almost one and a half years. The city of Monheim also became independent again on June 1, 1976. Gladbeck succeeded in doing this on December 6, 1975 when the city's lawsuit against the incorporation into Bottrop was approved.

The town of Heimbach in the northern Eifel, which was enlarged in the early stages of the communal restructuring measures by merging the municipalities of Hausen , Hergarten and Vlatten with the town of Heimbach in the former Schleiden district , was merged with the town of Nideggen on January 1, 1972 . On August 4, 1972, however, the Higher Administrative Court ruled that Heimbach would become its own municipality again after many citizens protested vehemently. This also explains why Heimbach retained its town charter despite its small size.

Rhineland-Palatinate

Saarland

With the law on the reorganization of the districts and municipalities of December 19, 1973, with effect from January 1, 1974, 50 new municipalities were formed from the 345 municipalities in Saarland. The former municipalities are included in the new municipalities as districts with their own local councils . The new communities all have more than 6,000 inhabitants. The largest incorporation concerned the city of Dudweiler (approx. 30,000 inhabitants), which has since been part of the state capital of Saarbrücken as a district .

Saxony

Saxony-Anhalt

The most extensive change to the municipal structures so far took place in the years from 2008 to 2011 in accordance with the law on the principles of the reorganization of the municipalities in the state of Saxony-Anhalt (Municipal Reorganization Principles Act). The aim was the dissolution of the administrative communities and the formation of sustainable unified communities and association communities with at least 10,000 inhabitants. Priority was given to the formation of unified congregations. While 8,000 inhabitants were sufficient as the size of unitary communities with a population density of less than 70 inhabitants per square kilometer and the formation of localities is possible, for the formation of association communities only a slight drop below the minimum size of 10,000 inhabitants was permitted.

Association communities consist of three to eight member communities, each of which must have at least 1,000 inhabitants at the time of their formation; this can also be slightly deviated from in individual cases. Localities are not permitted in a municipality.

The municipal area reform was divided into a voluntary and a statutory phase. In the voluntary phase, which lasted until June 30, 2009, municipalities were able to conclude territorial change agreements for the formation of unitary or association municipalities in accordance with the legal requirements.

129 municipalities that had not voluntarily participated in the formation of a unified municipality or an association municipality were assigned a structure according to the model by law.

As a result of this regional reform, the number of municipalities fell from 1033 on July 1st, 2007 to 218 on January 1st, 2014. 114 of the municipalities are member municipalities of a total of 18 association municipalities.

Schleswig-Holstein

North of Hamburg , on January 1, 1970, the Schleswig-Holstein communities of Garstedt and Friedrichsgabe (both Pinneberg district ) with Harksheide and Glashütte (both Stormarn district ) were combined to form the new town of Norderstedt and assigned to the Segeberg district . This created the fifth largest city in Schleswig-Holstein , which with over 50,000 inhabitants was already significantly larger than the district town of Bad Segeberg . In addition, on March 1, 2008, the communities of Handewitt and Jarplund-Weding were merged to form the new municipality Handewitt and the communities of Raisdorf and Klausdorf to form the new town of Schwentinental . On January 1, 2009, the city of Westerland and the communities of Sylt-Ost and Rantum merged to form the new community of Sylt .

Thuringia

A first regional reform after reunification took place between 1993 and 1997, which reduced the number of municipalities from 1657 to 1063 and the number of rural districts (1994) from 35 to 17. Since 2007 the number of parishes has been slowly decreasing (from then 992 to 849 at the end of 2013). The state governments rely on voluntary mergers that are financially supported and negotiated independently among the municipalities, with the governments only stipulating minimum sizes. At first it was emphasized that the central locations should be strengthened by the reform, but this was not always implemented in practice, for example the enlarged municipality of Nobitz now surrounds the city of Altenburg in a collar-like manner . The state government of the legislative period until 2014 called on all municipalities with their own administration (outside administrative communities and fulfilling municipalities ) and fewer than 3,000 inhabitants to look for merger partners; the minimum size for administrative communities, as well as the desired minimum size for newly merged communities, was 5,000 inhabitants.

The state government elected in 2014 planned a second district reform, which had already taken place in the other new federal states, but failed with its project due to the bitter resistance of the district administrators concerned, so that it abandoned the project in 2017, which will leave the small-scale administrative structure of the state untouched for the time being. According to the current population forecast by the State Statistical Office, only three of the 17 districts will have more than 100,000 inhabitants by 2030. Merged and newly founded municipalities were originally supposed to have a forecast population of over 6,000 in 2035, but the Interior Ministry approved almost all voluntary mergers that the municipalities negotiated with one another, so that numerous smaller mergers also received merger premiums from the country. Compared to the voluntary nature of the process, longer-term spatial planning and structural policy considerations took a back seat, so that these were largely disregarded when the municipalities were redesigned.

Belgium

From the founding of Belgium (2739 parishes) to 1961 (2663 parishes) the number of parishes has hardly changed. The first noteworthy community mergers initially took place in 1964, 1969 and 1970. In 1965 there were 2586 and in 1971 finally 2359 parishes. On January 1, 1977, many Belgian parishes were merged into new, larger parishes. The total number of Belgian municipalities was reduced radically from 2359 to 596 as a result of this municipal area reform. As a result of the reorganization in the area of the city of Antwerp , which came into force on January 1, 1983, a municipality number of 589 was reached. Of these, 308 municipalities belong to the Flanders region , 262 municipalities to the Wallonia region and 19 municipalities to the Brussels-Capital Region .

Denmark

In 1965 there were 1,345 parishes in Denmark . Through voluntary associations, this number decreased to 1,098 by 1970. The number of independent municipalities was drastically reduced in two steps:

During the first major local government reform on April 1, 1970, the number of municipalities was reduced from 1,098 to 277. In the most recent municipal regional reform on January 1, 2007, the number of municipalities was reduced to 98. The municipalities on the island of Bornholm had already merged on January 1, 2003 to form a single municipality.

Greece

The Kapodistrias program , decided in 1997 and completed by 2002, is considered to be the most comprehensive community reform in the country to date. It abolished the former provinces and reduced the number of previous cities and rural communities from a total of 5775 to just 1033. Against the background of the Greek sovereign debt crisis , the country's administrative structure was then further reduced in 2010. The Kallikratis program further drastically reduced the number of municipalities to 325. In addition, the previous 54 prefectures were reduced to 13 autonomously administered regions . The Kallikratis program halved the number of elected representatives, aiming at savings of 1.8 billion euros.

Netherlands

Since 1970 there have been regular regroupings in the Netherlands . Since 1989 there has hardly been a year in which no territorial reforms have taken place.

This overview is intended to clarify the situation in the Netherlands since 1971:

1970 - Zeeuws Vlaanderen and Zuid-Beveland ( Zeeland ), Waterland ( Zuid-Holland )

1971 - Tholen (Zeeland)

1973 - the north-western area (Kop) of Overijssel

1974 - Zaanstreek ( Noord-Holland )

1979 - West Friesland (North Holland)

1980 - Voorne-Putten (Zuid-Holland)

1982 - South Limburg

1984 - Province of Friesland , Hoeksche Waard (Zuid-Holland)

1984 and 1985 - Rijk van Nijmegen ( Gelderland )

1985 - Krimpenerwaard (Zuid-Holland)

1986 - Alblasserwaard and Vijfheerenlanden (Zuid-Holland)

1989 - Western part of the province of Utrecht

1990 - Groningen , northern tip (Kop) of Noord-Holland

1991 - Central Holland (Zuid-Holland), Central Limburg

1993 to 1997 - Province of Noord-Brabant

1995 and 1997 - Province of Zeeland

1998 - Drenthe Province

1999 - Bommelerwaard (Gelderland)

2001 - Overijssel Province , The Hague (Noord-Holland) and Utrecht ( Utrecht ) regions

2001 and 2002 - Eastern Betuwe (Gelderland)

2003 - Zeeuws Vlaanderen (Zeeland)

2004 - Westland (Zuid-Holland)

2005 - Achterhoek and Liemers (Gelderland)

2006 - Utrecht ridge ( Utrecht ), Leiden region (Zuid-Holland)

2006 and 2007 - West Friesland (Noord-Holland)

2007 - Central Limburg

2009 - Noord- and Zuid-Holland border

2010 - Region Venlo ( Limburg ), East Groningen and Zuidplas (Zuid-Holland)

2011 - Utrecht and 4 municipalities in other provinces

2012 - North of North Holland

2013 - Zuid-Holland and Schagen (Zuid-Holland)

2014 - Friesland and Alphen aan den Rijn (Zuid-Holland)

2015 - Noord-Holland , Gelderland , Noord-Brabant and Zuid-Holland

2016 - Noord-Holland

2017 - Meierij ( Noord-Brabant )

2018 - Friesland , Groningen and Gelderland

2019 - 7 provinces, several in West- Groningen and Zuid-Holland , change of the border between Zuid-Holland and Utrecht

Austria

In 2011, the state government in Styria committed itself to considerably reducing the number of districts and municipalities as part of an administrative reform. The trigger for these efforts is the high level of debt in the federal state and the public sector's need to make substantial savings.

Portugal

In connection with Portugal's rigid austerity policy , a comprehensive, controversially discussed territorial reform was decided in 2012. Against strong resistance in the country, this was implemented with the administrative reorganization in 2013 . The 4,259 municipalities were reduced to 3,091. This reform only affected continental Portugal; implementation in the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the Autonomous Region of the Azores is entrusted to the two autonomous island parliaments.

The municipalities ( freguesias ) represent the lowest level of the administrative division of Portugal , while the districts ( concelhos ) represent the subsequent second level of local self-government in Portugal . The law passed in 2012 made the reform of the municipalities mandatory, but also suggested a reform of the 308 districts, which, however, did not become a political issue (as of February 2015).

Switzerland

Mutations in the existence of the municipalities can occur through incorporation, municipality merger, municipality separation, settlement, exchange of territory or change of the municipality name. Further changes that only indirectly affect the area of the municipality can result from changing the canton and / or district membership, changing the district name or renumbering ( municipality number ).

Average number of inhabitants per municipality in some countries

country	Number of municipalities	Residents	Population per municipality on average	year
Germany	11,114	80,716,000	7,263	2014
Greece	6,000	10,815,197	1,803	1997
Greece	325	10,815,197	33,278	2011
Netherlands	443	16,730,632	37,767	2014
Austria	2,354	8,507,786	3,614	2013
Austria: Lower Austria	573	1,625,485	2,837	2014
Austria: Upper Austria	444	1,425,422	3.210	2014
Austria: Styria	539	1,215,246	2,255	2013
Austria: Styria	285	1,215,246	4,264	2015
Sweden	290	9,573,466	33,012	2013
Switzerland	2,408	8,609,000	3,575	2013

District reform

Germany

Principles

For the territorial reform of the (rural) districts, urban districts or urban districts, a number of principles were developed that aimed to enlarge the existing units.

In North Rhine-Westphalia the minimum size was 150,000, and in densely populated areas even 200,000. Otherwise, the principles of the state development plan had to be taken into account, according to which the districts should represent economic spatial units and within their boundaries should have a balanced diversity of municipalities of type A ( sub-centers ) and B ( medium-sized centers ). Development axes were not allowed to be borders, but should be cut across because of the interdependence of mutual use.

execution

The Kingdom of Prussia divided its national territory into provinces and administrative districts on April 30, 1815 and into districts on April 23, 1816. The first “district reforms” were carried out just a few years later, in which individual districts were dissolved and merged with neighboring districts. Examples: 1819 the correction of the district division in the Westphalian administrative district of Arnsberg , 1823 the union of the districts Dinslaken and Essen to the new district Duisburg and the amalgamation of the districts Rheinberg and Geldern , 1832 the union of the district Bünde with the district Herford and the union of the district Brakel with the Höxter district .

Major regional reforms were carried out during the Weimar period . In the Ruhr area in particular , a major district reform was carried out in three steps on April 1, 1926, April 1, 1928 and August 1, 1929. At that time u. a. the Ennepe-Ruhr district and the urban districts of Castrop-Rauxel and Lünen . On August 1, 1929 and October 1, 1932, district boundaries were also changed in the Rhine Province . So z. B. the Rheinisch-Bergische Kreis , the now disbanded Rhein-Wupper-Kreis (initially as the Solingen-Lennep district ) and the Oberbergische Kreis . However, the largest district reforms in West Germany were carried out in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of them have been supplemented by functional reforms.

The district reform completed in Lower Saxony on August 1, 1977 had to be corrected by a decision of the Lower Saxony State Court in Bückeburg. The dissolved district of Friesland and the city of Jever had filed a lawsuit against the reform law, through which the communities were incorporated into two different districts ( district Ammerland and the new district of Friesland with the district administration in Wittmund ), and received justice. In 1980, the district of Friesland regressed from the communities that existed until the district reform. Incorporation in the course of the municipal reform in 1972 were not reversed. So Gödens , which had belonged to the Wittmund district until 1972 , remained with Sande and thus with the Friesland district.

The eastern German states also carried out district reforms after reunification . However, after the dissolution of the federal states in 1952 , the GDR was divided into 14 districts (excluding East Berlin) and 217 rural districts. Before that, there were only 132 rural districts in the GDR. In this respect, the newer reforms are initially a kind of reversal of the former GDR district reform.

After completion of all district reforms in Germany, the total number of (rural) districts was initially reduced from 614 to 323. In Saxony-Anhalt , the number of districts was significantly reduced to eleven with effect from July 1, 2007. In Saxony , the number of districts was reduced to ten on August 1, 2008. Since September 4, 2011 there are only six districts in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , five of which are the largest districts in Germany by area.

Denmark

The 16 offices in Denmark (comparable to the German districts), which existed from 1970 to 2006 and of which two - from 2003 three - consisted of only one municipality, were dissolved with effect from January 1, 2007 and reclassified into five regions.

Austria

The 95 political districts of Austria , which only exist as pure executive bodies (district administration) without parliaments, have an average size of around 69,000 inhabitants (as of 2011).

For the first time in the Second Republic , there was a first single reorganization of district authorities in the state of Styria . On January 1, 2012, the Murtal district was created through merger, and in 2013 a further six districts were merged into three larger ones.

Historical data

Germany

Baden-Württemberg

October 1, 1953 - Reduction of the number of urban districts from 10 to 9
January 1, 1973 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 63 to 35

Bavaria

July 1, 1972 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 143 to 71 and the number of independent cities from 48 to 25

Brandenburg

December 6, 1993 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 38 to 14 and the number of independent cities from 6 to 4

Hesse

August 1, 1972, January 1 and July 1, 1974, January 1, 1977 and August 1, 1979 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 39 to 21 and the number of independent cities from 9 to 5

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

June 12, 1994 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 31 to 12
September 4th, 2011 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 12 to 6 and urban districts from 6 to 2

Lower Saxony

1964 to 1980 in several steps; Focus: August 1, 1977 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 60 to 38 and the number of independent cities from 16 to 9
November 1, 2001 - Formation of the Hanover region from the city and the previous Hanover district

North Rhine-Westphalia

January 1, 1955 - Formation of an additional independent city
from 1966 to 1976 in several steps; Focus: January 1, 1975 - Reduction of the number of districts from 57 to 31 and the number of independent cities from 38 to 23
October 21, 2009 - Formation of the Aachen city region from the city and the previous Aachen district

Rhineland-Palatinate

June 7, 1969 to March 16, 1974 in several steps - reduction of the number of counties from 39 to 24

Saarland

January 1, 1974 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 7 to 6 and integration of the independent city of Saarbrücken into the new Saarbrücken city association, since 2008 the Saarbrücken regional association

Saxony

August 1, 1994 - Reduction of the number of administrative districts from 48 to 28
January 1, 1996 - Reduction of the number of administrative districts from 28 to 22 and increase of the number of independent cities from 6 to 7
August 1, 2008 - Reduction of the number of administrative districts from 22 to 10 and urban districts from 7 to 3

Saxony-Anhalt

July 1, 1994 - Reduction of the number of counties from 37 to 21
July 1, 2007 - Reduction of the number of counties from 21 to 11

Schleswig-Holstein

1970 to 1974 in several steps; Focus: April 26, 1970 - Reduction of the number of districts from 17 to 11 (see also Schleswig-Holstein # Verwaltungsgliederung )

Thuringia

July 1, 1994 - Reduction of the number of rural districts from 35 to 17
January 1, 1998 - Increase of the number of independent cities from 5 to 6

Effects

Economic and social impact

The geographer Gerhard Henkel arrives at a critical assessment of the consequences of the German territorial reform, which he considers dramatic: the territorial reforms imposed "from above" made many villages powerless districts. They lost the local self-government, which had been built up over centuries, with a mayor and municipal council. Throughout Germany, the regional reforms have eliminated the tasks of over 300,000 voluntary local politicians; The democratic basis was dissolved in over 20,000 villages and small towns. The territorial reforms have not saved any money and have caused devastating democratic and infrastructural losses. Centralization often results in the loss of other local activities such as that of the voluntary fire brigade , more journeys to get in touch with the administration and increased emigration.

Legal implications

Territorial reforms can affect place of residence and business , constituencies , schools , local taxes or savings banks . What they all have in common is their dependence on a municipality area, so that a change in a municipality area automatically results in a change in these geographically oriented legal institutions . For example, changes in area due to the regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia led to significant transfers from Sparkasse branches. As a result of the regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia of January 1975, the Kreissparkasse Köln (KSK) lost 26 branches to the Stadtsparkasse Köln ; this " Cologne Law " brought about the dissolution of the former districts of Cologne and Bergheim, which were absorbed into the Erftkreis . The transfer of the branches of KSK, which are now outside the guarantor area , was ordered by the Sparkasse supervisory authority on June 30, 1983. In January 1985, the Oberbergische Kreis became a member of the Sparkassenzweckverband, whereby the Kreissparkasse Waldbröl became part of the KSK Cologne; In December 1988 the KSK Cologne received eight branches of the Kreissparkasse Euskirchen .

literature

Glabotki comes . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1975 ( online - on the 1975 regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia).
Philipp Hamann: Municipal area reform in Bavaria. Development history, balance sheet and perspectives . Utz, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8316-0528-9 .
Martin TW Rosenfeld; Winfried Kluth ; Peter Haug; Gerhard Heimpold; Claus Michelsen; Jana Nuckelt: On the economic efficiency of municipal administrative structures in Saxony-Anhalt. Expert opinion on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior Saxony-Anhalt ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.4 MB). Hall 2007.
Christiane Büchner, Jochen Franzke: District reform in Brandenburg. A balance after 8 years. Evaluation of interviews with actors at the municipal level . (= Workbooks / Municipal Science Institute, Potsdam; 2). Publication Office of the University Library, Potsdam 2001 ( full text )
Wolfgang Drechsler : Local self-government and local government reform. German experiences, general considerations, Estonian perspectives . In: Wolfgang Drechsler (ed.): The self-administered community. Contributions to their past, present and future in Estonia, Germany and Europe (= publications on public law; vol. 784). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999 ISBN 3-428-09619-3 , pp. 119-135.
Jan Esterhues: The municipal area reform in the Münster area of 1975. A contribution to action-oriented political-geographical conflict research . (= Westphalian geographic studies; 51). Aschendorff, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-402-06287-9 .
Gerhard Henkel and Rolf Tiggemann (eds.): Municipal regional reform - balance sheets and assessments (= Essen Geographical Works; Vol. 19). Paderborn 1990 (no ISBN).
David King: A Model of Optimum Local Authority Size . In: Giancarlo Pola u. a. (Ed.): Developments in local government finance. Theory and Policy . Elgar, Cheltenham 1996, ISBN 1-85898-377-0 , pp. 55-76.
State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia: The feat. Local regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia (= series of publications of the Landtag; vol. 16). Düsseldorf 2005.
Wolfgang Loschelder : Municipal self-administration guarantee and municipal area design , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-428-03723-5 (also dissertation, University of Bonn).
Sabine Mecking : Citizens will and regional reform. Democracy development and reorganization of state and society in North Rhine-Westphalia 1965-2000 (= Studies on Contemporary History, Vol. 85). Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70314-6 .
Sabine Mecking and Janbernd Oebbecke (eds.): Between efficiency and legitimacy. Local area and functional reforms in the Federal Republic of Germany from a historical and current perspective (= research on regional history, vol. 62). Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn u. a. 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76852-0 .
Hans Joachim von Oertzen, Werner Thieme (ed.): The communal territorial reform . Series of publications. Nomos, Baden-Baden 1980–1987.
Günter Püttner: Local government reform in the new federal states? - Introductory remarks . In the S. and Wolfgang Bernet (ed.): Administrative structure and administrative reform in the new federal states. Contributions to the German-German administrative law colloquium on June 21 and 22, 1991 in Tübingen , Heymann, Cologne a. a. 1992, ISBN 3-452-22418-X , pp. 1-5.
Detlev Vonde: Territory of the large villages. Industrialization and urban development in the Ruhr area . Klartext, Essen 1994, ISBN 3-88474-123-3 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Territorial reform - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Local territorial reform, mainly through the dissolution of the Moers district

Individual evidence

↑ Dieter Nohlen / Florian Grotz (eds.): Kleines Lexikon der Politik , 2011, p. 305

^ The municipal and state restructuring of North Rhine-Westphalia, report A: Restructuring in the rural zones , 1966, p. 11

↑ Günter Püttner (Ed.): Handbook of communal science and practice , Volume 1, 1981, p. 161

↑ Christian Münzer: Legal protection of the municipalities in the procedure for the municipal area change according to North Rhine-Westphalian law , 1971, p. 6 ff.

^ Eva Siebenherz: Lowered Places: Disappeared Villages in Germany , 2016, p. 4

↑ Reto Steiner: Cooperations and mergers of the municipalities in Switzerland , 1999, p. 31

^ Adelmann, Franziska Gräfin: "Disappeared - Forgotten?" In: Ludwigsburger Geschichtsblätter 36/1984 .

↑ VfGBbg 95/03 . Constitutional Court of Brandenburg. December 8, 2003. Retrieved April 17, 2019.

↑ VfGBbg 96/03 . Constitutional Court of Brandenburg. December 18, 2003. Retrieved April 17, 2019.

↑ VfGBbg 152/03 . Constitutional Court of Brandenburg. June 24, 2004. Retrieved April 17, 2019.

^ Website of the district of Göttingen on the district merger ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

↑ kreisfusion-göttingen.de, website of the community forum Kreisfusion Göttingen, 2011, meanwhile inactive.

^ Website of the district of Hildesheim on the district merger

↑ Website of the district of Peine on the district merger ( memento of the original from March 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ Standoff in the district assembly. Merger with Peine rejected , website of the district of Hildesheim on the district merger , accessed on October 12, 2015

^ Thuringian State Office for Statistics: Expected population development 2014 to 2035 by districts

↑ Scoop.at: Styria with currently 539 municipalities will have 254 fewer municipalities in 2015 ( Memento from August 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Scoop.at, November 18, 2013

↑ Nine reasons for saving the villages , in: deutschland.de , 7 August 2018.

^ Hans Pohl, Wirtschaft, Unternehmen, Kreditwesen , 2005, p. 1105.

[1] Dieter Nohlen / Florian Grotz (eds.): Kleines Lexikon der Politik , 2011, p. 305

[2] The municipal and state restructuring of North Rhine-Westphalia, report A: Restructuring in the rural zones , 1966, p. 11

[3] Günter Püttner (Ed.): Handbook of communal science and practice , Volume 1, 1981, p. 161

[4] Christian Münzer: Legal protection of the municipalities in the procedure for the municipal area change according to North Rhine-Westphalian law , 1971, p. 6 ff.

[5] Eva Siebenherz: Lowered Places: Disappeared Villages in Germany , 2016, p. 4

[6] Reto Steiner: Cooperations and mergers of the municipalities in Switzerland , 1999, p. 31

[7] Adelmann, Franziska Gräfin: "Disappeared - Forgotten?" In: Ludwigsburger Geschichtsblätter 36/1984 .

[8] VfGBbg 95/03 . Constitutional Court of Brandenburg. December 8, 2003. Retrieved April 17, 2019.

[9] VfGBbg 96/03 . Constitutional Court of Brandenburg. December 18, 2003. Retrieved April 17, 2019.

[10] VfGBbg 152/03 . Constitutional Court of Brandenburg. June 24, 2004. Retrieved April 17, 2019.

[11] Website of the district of Göttingen on the district merger ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

[12] reisfusion-göttingen.de, website of the community forum Kreisfusion Göttingen, 2011, meanwhile inactive.

[13] Website of the district of Hildesheim on the district merger