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Higher Communal Associations (Germany)

Höhere Kommunalverbände

Introduction
Overview by States
Higher Communal Associations (Höhere Kommunalverbände, including Bezirke, Bezirksverbände, Kommunalverbände, Landesverbände, Landeswohlfahrtsverbände, Landschaften and Landschaftsverbände)

See also:

Subnational Flags (Germany)
Germany

Introduction

The Federal Republic of Germany consists of 16 Länder (states) as the top level of political subdivision. Below the Länder level there is the communal level, which is organised by the Länder themselves, so that the communal organization differs somewhat in the different Länder. The communal entities are Selbstverwaltungskörperschaften, self governing bodies. The communal level itself consists of one to three sublevels, depending on the Land:

The first (lowest) level is the municipality (Gemeinde), bigger municipalities are called Markt (market-town) or Stadt (city).
The municipal level can be found in all German Länder — though in two of them, namely Berlin and Hamburg, the territorial boundaries of the Land and of the city converge).
The second (intermediate) level is the Landkreis, sometimes also called Kreis (county). Each Landkreis contains several municipalities. There are also kreisfreie Städte, cities that do not belong to a Landkreis, and having the competences of both communal levels.
The county level is established in 13 of the 16 Länder, the exceptions being Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen.

A third, highest, communal level can be found in seven of the Länder: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony. These communal entities are called as a whole the Höhere Kommunalverbände, higher communal associations. The history, the tasks and the organization of these differ widely. Their main tasks contain social and cultural competences, that cannot be handled by the lower communal levels. As other communal entities, higher communal associations have an elected assembly, and use their own symbols, mostly logos, but also coats-of-arms and flags