Types of Districts
The majority of the districts are rural districts (Landkreise) of which there are 295. Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants (and smaller towns in some states) do usually not belong to a district, but take over district responsibilities themselves, similar to the concept of independent cities. These are known as urban districts (Kreisfreie Städte / Stadtkreise)—cities which constitute a district in their own right—and there are currently (2011) 107 of them, bringing the total number of districts to 402.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, there are some cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants which are not urban districts, for example Recklinghausen, Siegen, Paderborn, Bergisch Gladbach, Neuss and Moers. These cities, however, take over many district responsibilities themselves although belonging to a district. Moers is the biggest city in Germany (and at present time the only one with more than 100,000 inhabitants) that is neither an urban district, nor takes over district responsibilities.
There are also three so-called Kommunalverbände besonderer Art (Municipal unions of special kind, a fusion of a district and a district-free town: Besides the Regionalverband Saarbrücken (Saarbrücken regional association), 1974–2007: Stadtverband Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken town association), there is the Region Hannover since 2001 and the Städteregion Aachen (Aachen region of towns) since 2009.
Read more about this topic: Districts Of Germany
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