Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany
The Gaue (singular: Gau) were the main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.
The Gaue were formed in 1926 as
Germany consisted of 32 Gaue in 1934, eventually peaking at 42 Gaue with regions occupied in 1938 to early 1939 (
Etymology
Gaue, Reichsgaue and Länder
The Gaue existed parallel to the German states, the Länder, and Prussian provinces throughout the Nazi period. Pro forma, the
Gaue established in 1934
English name | German name | Headquarters | Established | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Baden | Baden | Karlsruhe | 1934 | Formed from the state of and was renamed Baden-Elsaß |
Bayreuth | Bayreuth | Bayreuth | 1934 | Formed from the eastern part of the state of Bavaria; originally named Bayrische Ostmark, renamed Gau Bayreuth in 1942; also incorporated parts of Czechoslovakia from 1938 |
Cologne-Aachen | Köln-Aachen | Cologne | 1934 | Formed from the north-central part of the Prussian province of the Rhine |
Düsseldorf | Düsseldorf | Düsseldorf | 1934 | Formed from the northern half of the Prussian province of the Rhine |
East Prussia | Ostpreußen | Königsberg | 1934 | Formed from the Prussian Province of East Prussia; from 1939 also included territories annexed from Poland
|
Eastern Hanover | Ost-Hannover | Lüneburg | 1934 | Formed from the northern, central, and eastern parts of the Prussian Province of Hanover |
Electoral Hesse | Kurhessen | Kassel | 1934 | Formed from the northern half of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau
|
Essen | Essen | Essen | 1934 | Formed from the northern tip of the Prussian province of the Rhine |
Franconia | Franken | Nuremberg | 1934 | Formed from the central part of the state of Bavaria |
Greater Berlin
|
Groß-Berlin | Berlin | 1934 | Formed from the Prussian province of Greater Berlin
|
Halle-Merseburg | Halle-Merseburg | Halle | 1934 | Formed from the southern half of the Prussian Province of Saxony |
Hamburg | Hamburg | Hamburg | 1934 | Formed from the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg |
Hesse-Nassau | Hessen-Nassau | Frankfurt am Main
|
1934 | Formed from the Hesse-Nassau
|
Koblenz-Trier
|
Koblenz-Trier | Koblenz | 1934 | Formed from the southern half of the Prussian province of the Rhine; renamed Gau Moselland in 1942, following the incorporation of the formerly independent country of Luxembourg |
Magdeburg-Anhalt | Magdeburg-Anhalt | Dessau | 1934 | Formed from the Free State of Anhalt and the northern half of the Prussian Province of Saxony |
Main-Franconia
|
Mainfranken | Würzburg | 1934 | Formed from the northwestern part of the state of Bavaria |
March of Brandenburg | Mark Brandenburg | Berlin | 1934 | Formed from the Prussian province of Province of Brandenburg |
Mecklenburg | Mecklenburg | Schwerin | 1934 | Formed from the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin |
Munich-Upper Bavaria | München-Oberbayern | Munich | 1934 | Formed from the southeastern part of the state of Bavaria |
Pomerania | Pommern | Stettin
|
1934 | Formed from the Prussian Province of Pomerania |
Saar-Palatinate
|
Saarpfalz | Neustadt an der Weinstraße | 1934 | Formed from the Bavarian Lorraine
|
Saxony | Sachsen | Dresden | 1934 | Formed from the state of Saxony |
Schleswig-Holstein | Schleswig-Holstein | Kiel | 1934 | Formed from the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein, the Free City of Lübeck and territory belonging to the Free State of Oldenburg |
Silesia | Schlesien | Breslau
|
1934 | Formed from the Prussian provinces of Upper Silesia (with annexed parts of Poland since 1939) and Lower Silesia. In 1938 the provinces were also united into one; in 1941 both the province and the Gau were split in two. |
Southern Hanover-Brunswick | Südhannover-Braunschweig | Hanover | 1934 | Formed from the Free State of Brunswick and the southern and western parts of the Province of Hanover |
Swabia | Schwaben | Augsburg | 1934 | Formed from the southwestern part of the state of Bavaria |
Thuringia | Thüringen | Weimar | 1934 | Formed from the state of Thuringia and adjacent territory from the Prussian Province of Saxony |
Weser-Ems | Weser-Ems | Oldenburg | 1934 | Formed from the Free State of Oldenburg (excluding outlying territories), the state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and the far western part of the Prussian Province of Hanover |
Westphalia-North | Westfalen-Nord | Münster | 1934 | Formed from the Free State of Lippe, the Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe and the northern half of the Prussian Province of Westphalia |
Westphalia-South | Westfalen-Süd | Dortmund | 1934 | Formed from the southern half of the Prussian Province of Westphalia |
Württemberg-Hohenzollern | Württemberg-Hohenzollern | Stuttgart | 1934 | Formed from the Free People's State of Württemberg and the Prussian Province of Hohenzollern |
Reichsgaue established in the 1930s
New Reichsgaue were established after the Anschluss of Austria and the incorporation of Sudetenland following the Munich Agreement. Southern parts of Czechoslovakia also gained by the Munich Agreement were not made part of Reichsgau Sudetenland, but incorporated into the northern Reichsgaue of former Austria.
English name | German name | Headquarters | Established | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Carinthia | Kärnten | Klagenfurt | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of |
Lower Danube | Niederdonau | Krems an der Donau | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Niederösterreich and northern Burgenland; included from 1939 were parts of southern Moravia. In 1943 Hitler toured the Gau and told Gauleiter Hugo Jury that the capital would be Brünn (Brno) in the near future.[4] |
Salzburg | Salzburg | Salzburg | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Salzburg
|
Styria | Steiermark | Graz | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Lower Styria , Slovenia.
|
Sudetenland | Sudetenland | Reichenberg | 1938 | Formed from the predominantly German speaking parts of Czechoslovakia which were ceded to Germany after the Munich Agreement |
Tyrol-Vorarlberg | Tirol-Vorarlberg | Innsbruck | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Tyrol
|
Upper Danube | Oberdonau | Linz | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Oberösterreich and Ausseerland, a part of Styria; included from 1939 were parts of southern Bohemia |
Vienna | Wien | Vienna | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Vienna and surrounding parts of former Niederösterreich |
Reichsgaue established during the Second World War
Of the
English name | German name | Headquarters | Established | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Danzig–West Prussia | Danzig–Westpreußen | Danzig
|
1939 | Formed in the Governorate of West Prussia within then East Prussia
|
Wartheland | Wartheland | Posen | 1939 | Formed primarily in the Polish region of the Voivodeships after the German occupation of Poland. Called Reichsgau Posen until January 1940, when it was renamed for the Warthe (Warta) river.
|
Auslandsgau
There was also an extraterritorial Gau named
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
On 15 March 1939, German troops invaded and occupied the rump state of
Two separate structures for its territorial administration existed within the
General Government
Following the German invasion and conquest of Poland, Hitler signed a decree on 12 October 1939, declaring that the Polish territories occupied by the Germans would be placed under the administration of a Governor-General and would be known as the General Government of the Occupied Polish Territories. This came into effect on 26 October. On 22 July 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the occupation of Eastern Galicia, Hitler signed a decree declaring that the region would be administered by the Governor-General of Poland from 1 August.[7]
While theoretically outside the boundaries of the Reich proper, the General Government was considered part of "Greater Germany" by Nazi officials as an "autonomous" region (i.e., not directly subordinated to the Berlin government).[8] It was not a protectorate, but a colony, outside the Reich and its law. Its Polish inhabitants were effectively stateless and without rights.[9]
It was sub-divided into four Distrikte (districts).
After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, a fifth district was added, created out of former territories of
- Distrikt Galizien.[10]
Operational Zones
After the overthrow of
English name | German name | Headquarters | Established | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral | Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland (OZAK) | Triest
|
1943 | Formed out of the Reichsgau Carinthia .
|
Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills | Operationszone Alpenvorland (OZAV) | Bozen
|
1943 | Formed out of former South Tyrol, Italian Trentino, and adjacent smaller parts of northeastern Italy. Attached (not incorporated) to Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg. |
In a supplementary OKW order dated 10 September 1943, Hitler decrees on the establishment of further Operational Zones in Northern Italy, which were to stretch all the way to the French border.
Planned future districts
The Nazi government openly pursued and practiced aggressive territorial expansionism, intending to further extend the already greatly increased territorial base of the German state.[13] In anticipation of these expected future territorial enlargements, potential new districts were theorized upon at length by Nazi ideologists, government officials, and territorial planning departments. These expansions were intended to take place in two distinct ways:
Territorial expansion into Eastern Europe
To expand the
In a conference on July 16, 1941, discussing the future organization of the conquered Soviet territories, Hitler stated his intention to turn not only the areas mentioned above but also the entire Baltic region (
In the eastern territories I will replace the Slavic geographic names with German names. The Crimea could, for instance, be called Gotenland. [...] We need names that will confirm our rights which go back for two thousand years.
— Adolf Hitler, [18]
The central and upper
Annexation of the Germanic countries
The Nazi
Afterwards the very notion of these countries ever having been independent or separate from the rest of the Reich was to be suppressed indefinitely.
In addition it was intended to revert the western borders of Germany with
See also
- Administrative divisions of Germany
- Administrative divisions of East Germany
- Areas annexed by Nazi Germany
- Gausturm
- List of Gauleiters
- States of the German Empire
References
- ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum, accessed: 25 June 2008
- ^ The Organization of the Nazi Party & State Archived November 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine The Nizkor Project, accessed: 25 June 2008
- ^ (in German) Gau (NSDAP) - Kontinuität der Gaugliederung nach 1933 Archived November 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, accessed: 25 June 2008
- ISBN 0-674-02451-6, p. 125
- ^ Decree of 16 March 1939 establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
- ^ a b c Teigh, Mikulas (1998). Bohemia in History. Cambridge University Press, p. 274. [1]
- ISBN 978-0-306-80793-0.
- ^ Majer, Diemut (1981). Non-Germans under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland. Harold Bold Verlag, p. 343. [2]
- ISBN 978-1-594-20206-3.
- ^ Magocsi, Paul Robert (1996). A History of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press, p. 627. [3]
- ^ ISBN 0-19-820873-1
- ^ a b Wedekind 2003, Nationalsozialistische Besatzungs- und Annexionspolitik in Norditalien 1943 bis 1945, pp. 100-101
- ^ Kallis, Aristotle (2000). Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945. Routledge. [4]
- ^ Gumkowski, Janusz; Leszczyński, Kazimierz (1961). Poland under Nazi Occupation. Polonia Pub. House. "Hitler's War; Hitler's Plans for Eastern Europe". Archived from the original on 2011-04-09. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
- ^ a b Wasser, Bruno (1993). Himmler's Raumplanung im Osten: Der Generalplan Ost im Polen. Birkhäuser. [5]
- ^ Lumans, Valdus O. (2006). Latvia in World War II, Fordham University Press, p. 149. [6]
- ^ Martin Bormann’s Minutes of a Meeting at Hitler’s Headquarters (July 16, 1941) [7]
- ISBN 1-929631-05-7.
- ^ German Military History Research Office (2003). Germany and the Second World War. Volume 5 part 2: Organization and Mobilisation in the German Sphere of Power. War Administration, Economy, and Manpower Resources 1942-1944/5. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt GmbH (1999), p. 16. [8]
- ^ Burleigh, Michael (1988). Germany Turns Eastwards: A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich. Cambridge University Press, p. 142.[9]
- ^ Manoschek, Walter (1995). "Serbien ist judenfrei": militärische Besatzungspolitik und Judenvernichtung in Serbien 1941/42. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, p. 27.[10]
- ^ MacDonald, Michael H. (1996). Europe: A Tantalizing Romance. Past and Present Europe for Students and the Serious Traveller. University Press of America, p. 128. [11]
- ^ Strobl, Gerwin (2000). The Germanic Isle: Nazi Perceptions of Britain. Cambridge University Press, p. 36-60. [12]
- ^ Rich, Norman (1974). Hitler's War Aims: The Establishment of the New Order. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., p. 26.
- ^ Rich 1974, pp. 401-402.
- ISBN 978-965-229-397-8.
- ^ Louis de Jong (1969). Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de tweede wereldoorlog: Voorspel. M. Nijhoff, p. 97. [13]
- ^ Rich (1974), pp. 19-20, 139-140, 168-169, 195-196.
- ^ De Jong, L. (1974). The Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Second World War: March '41 – July '42. Volume 5 part 1. Martinus Nijhoff, p. 245. [14] (in Dutch)
- ^ J.Th. Leerssen, Joseph Theodoor Leerssen, Manet van Montfrans (1993). Borders and territories. , pp. 38-39. [15] (in French)
Sources
- Der große Atlas der Weltgeschichte (in German), Historical map book, published: 1990, publisher: Orbis Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3-572-04755-2