A (plural ) was an administrative subdivision created in a number of

areas annexed by Nazi Germany There were many areas annexed by Germany both immediately before and throughout the course of World War II. Territories that were part of Germany before the annexations were known as the "Altreich" (Old Reich). Fully annexed territories Ac ...

between 1938 and 1945.

Overview

The term was formed from the words (realm, empire) and , the latter a deliberately medieval-sounding word with a meaning approximately equivalent to '' shire''. The were an attempt to resolve the administrative chaos resulting from the mutually overlapping jurisdictions and different boundaries of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

Party , placed under a Party , and the

federal states A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governi ...

, under a responsible to the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

(in the Prussian provinces, the equivalent post was that of ). Interior Minister

Wilhelm Frick Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), who served as Reich Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate ...

had long desired to streamline the German administration, and the were the result: the borders of party and those of the federal states were to be identical, and the party also occupied the post of . Rival interests and the influence the wielded with Hitler prevented any reform from being undertaken in the " Old Reich" (german: Altreich), which meant Germany in its borders of 1937 before the annexation of other territories like Austria, the , and Bohemia, and the scheme was therefore implemented only in newly-acquired territories. There were several : * (German: ''Ostmark'') formed from the formerly independent

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

* , formed from a substantial part of the German-speaking outer rim areas of the former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

occupied in 1938 * (German: ''Danzig-Westpreußen'') and , formed from the Free City of Danzig and areas annexed from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

The East March was subsequently subdivided into seven smaller , generally coterminous with the former Austrian (federal provinces).

List of

in Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia established in 1938

established during the Second World War

(partly) formed out of pre-existing

Planned that were never established

References

Citations

Sources

* , Historical map book, published: 1990, publisher: Orbis Verlag - Munich,
Shoa.de - List of Gaue and Gauleiter

website {{Authority control Sudetenland Subdivisions of Nazi Germany Types of administrative division