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Germany

Jurisdictions

Historical Jurisdictions in Germany

German Empire

The following jurisdictions apply to Germany during the time of the German Empire (1871-1918).

Each of the 26 member states of the German Empire had been independent countries and had their own jurisdiction names and sizes. For example, a Regierungsbezirk in Bayern (Bavaria) is many, many times the size of a Kreis in Baden, and both are level one jurisdictions (largest size). Level one jurisdictions are the largest, while level two jurisdictions are smaller. For a very rough equivalent to the United States, think of states (level one) and counties (level two).

German Jurisdictions

Member state	Level one (largest)	Level two	Level three (if applicable)
Duchy of Anhalt	Kreis
Grand Duchy of Baden	Kreis	Amtsbezirk
Kingdom of Bayern (Bavaria)	Regierungsbezirk	Bezirksamt
Duchy of Braunschweig (Brunswick)	Kreis
Free City of Bremen
Imperial territory of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine)	Bezirk	Kreis
Free City of Hamburg
Grand Duchy of Hessen (Hesse)	Provinz	Kreis
Principality of Lippe	Verwaltungsamt	Amt
Free City of Lübeck
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin	Ritteramt	Amt
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz	Domänenamt	Amt
Grand Duchy of Oldenburg	Amt
Kingdom of Preussen (Prussia)	Provinz	Regierungsbezirk	Kreis
Principality of Reuss-ältere-Linie (Reuss-Greiz)	Verwaltungsamt	Landratsamt
Principality of Reuss-jüngere-Linie (Reuss-Gera)	Verwaltungsamt	Landratsamt
Kingdom of Sachsen (Saxony)	Kreishauptmannschaft	Amtshauptmannschaft
Duchy of Sachsen-Altenburg (Saxe-Altenburg)	Verwaltungsamt	Landratsamt
Duchy of Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (Saxe-Coburg and Gotha)	Verwaltungsamt	Landratsamt
Duchy of Sachsen-Meiningen (Saxe-Meiningen)	Verwaltungsamt	Landratsamt
Grand Duchy of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach)	Verwaltungsamt	Landratsamt
Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe	Kreis
Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt	Verwaltungsamt	Landratsamt
Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen	Verwaltungsamt	Landratsamt
Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont
Kingdom of Württemberg	Kreis	Oberamt