A ''Samtgemeinde'' (; plural: ''Samtgemeinden'') is a type of

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. ''Samtgemeinden'' are

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loc ...

associations of

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

, equivalent to the '' Ämter'' in Schleswig-Holstein,

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

, and

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 squ ...

, and the ''

Verbandsgemeinden A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns. Rhineland ...

'' in

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

Function

A ''Samtgemeinde'' is a government body composed of a collective association of '' gemeinden'' (

), the lowest level of official territorial division in Germany. ''Samtgemeinden'' were introduced in Lower Saxony on 4 March 1955 upon the adoption of the Lower Saxony Municipal Code (''Niedersächsische Gemeindeordnung''), which was based on British administrative structures at the time. According to §71 paragraph 1 Lower Saxony law on local government, a ''Samtgemeinde'' should have at least 7,000 inhabitants. Approximately 80% of the municipalities in Lower Saxony have united to ''Samtgemeinden''. The ''Samtgemeinde'' executes many

administrative duties for its member municipalities, including land use planning, wastewater disposal, social security, organisation of cemeteries and fire stations, sponsorship of elementary schools, the construction of local connecting roads, equipment and entertainment of libraries, sports sites and other

public utilities A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and ...

. ''Samtgemeinden'' can take over other tasks of the member municipalities, for instance,

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

Etymology

The term ''Samtgemeinde'' (plural: ''Samtgemeinden'') is a

neologism A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...

consisting of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

s ''gesamt'' (whole, entire, all, complete, total, aggregate, collective, overall, general, joint, united) or ''zusammen'' (together, jointly) and the

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, ...

''Gemeinde'' (municipality). ''Samtgemeinde'' can be translated into English as "joint municipal association" or "collective municipal association" but one-to-one translation is hardly possible. The term ''Sammtgemeinden'' (at that time written with double m) was originally used for low-level administrative units in

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

during a short-lived reform that saw the reorganization of

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

es between 1850 and 1853.

Organs

''Samtgemeinden'' have three organs: * The ''Samtgemeinde'' mayor (german: Samtgemeindebürgermeister), elected directly every five years. * The ''Samtgemeinde'' council, (german: Samtgemeinderat) elected every five years. * The ''Samtgemeinde''

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

(german: Samtgemeindeausschuss). The ''Samtgemeinde'' committee consists of the ''Samtgemeinde'' mayor (the chairman of the committee), and according to size of the council from four to ten assistants and the council can decide a rise by two (§56 paragraph 2 local government law). These positions are distributed among the factions and groups in the council according to the

largest remainder method The largest remainder method (also known as Hare–Niemeyer method, Hamilton method or as Vinton's method) is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with variou ...

Historical

{{Authority control Collective municipalities in Germany Types of administrative division German words and phrases