Gau (country subdivision)

Gau was the name for a scenic closed and certain natural limits of political settlement community of Germans. The word was used as a general designation of regions as a landscape or management unit.

• 3.1 local name components
• 3.2 Landscape name
• 3.3 Regional groups of clubs
• 3.4 districts

Etymology

Gouwe About the etymology of the Old High German word, gouwi ( land ) worked intensively and without a final interpretation that would refute all other proposals convincing, could be presented. The word is attested in Gothic, Old High German, Old Frisian in and in Old English as neuter. For a long time it was interpreted the waterfront ( land ) with a meaning extension open landscape, farming area, settlement landscape from Germanic * ga - agwia. Currently, there are two new proposals for discussion:

• The derivation of the Primitive Indo-European root * ghew ( yawn, yawn ), what would have become of importance to expansion of free space, area, landscape
• Traceability to proto-Germanic * ga -aw -ja as the totality of homes or villages, a general education to Germanic * Awja ( home, village ) with an Old High German derivation inouwa for apartment, residence.

A decision for the derivation of the moment does not seem possible. The Duden defines the Germanic word * awjo in meaning island, Au, belonging to the water based, from the collective form of the common Germanic * gaawja, land on the water, emerged.

The name of the district, without umlaut, for a specific landscape is a historian of education of the 17th - 19th Century, which is discredited by its inclusion in the terminology of the Third Reich, but lives on in the ( place names as additives also official ) names of the Salzburg districts. In German dialects and therefore also in the name of tradition that's rarely the Gaeu use, such as in the compound word Allgäu. The umlaut is explained by the old locative case (local case ), OHG waxed ( in the district). In the Bavarian dialects, there is also the use go into Gei for going to the country or driving in the rural area around.

Conceptual history

Gaugrafschaft in the Middle Ages

There is no evidence for the assumption that the word Gau would have met already in Germanic times a territorial organization. It is also likely to be a misinterpretation of historical research of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Charlemagne established after the defeat of the native population of the Southeast of his kingdom there, the county principle, but took over most existing regional frameworks. The new central ruler sat Count one as his deputy on site. To support his reign, he introduced the Roman law, the legitimate central authority and central jurisdiction. In the Frankish Empire of the comitatus referred mainly to the administrative district of a count ( comes, grafio ), the so-called Gaugrafen. This was also the supreme judge and leader of an army bans. Assigned to the Gau were centering trademarks or hundreds, which were often administered by Zentgrafen. In the center ( earl ) this court acted as jurors. The South German courts corresponded center in northern Germany Montgoger the gel density, where similarity of the terms ' Gau ' and ' Go' only random in nature.

The Latin name of pagus, which has become the latest with the Late Antiquity became an integral part of the Roman regional administration, is traditionally played with Gau. This equation is already on the Merovingian - Frankish administrative practice back ( as an example: 768 pagus Aregaua, today the canton of Aargau ).

Districts as districts of the NSDAP

The districts of the NSDAP in the German Empire 1925-1945 were divided into provinces, led by a Gauleiter, see Structure of the NSDAP. The German Reich 1938-1939 incorporated territories of Austria ( Ostmark → Act), the Sudetenland and western Poland were managed as Reichsgaue.

Today's use of the term

Place-name elements

• Rodgau, Bad Saulgau, Warngau, Oberammergau, Wollgau, Schongau, Regau in Upper Austria, OHG repagoue Rebengau for wine-growing region
• Gau- is also a prefix in the name of seven Rhinehessen localities: Gau- Algesheim Gau- Bickelheim, Gau- Bishop Home, Gau- Heppenheim, Gau- Köngernheim, Gau- Home, Gau -Weinheim
• Landscape or district name as a distinctive addition for multiple -occurring place names ( for example, Freiburg im Breisgau, Eben im Pongau, Conters in Prättigau )

In the hallway and settlement names the etymology of a word end - gau is unclear, and may also depend -au ( Aue ) come with a belonging to the previous root g:

• Burgau to Burg- Gau (administrative area of a castle lord ) or Burg- Aue ( the nearby castle belonging to Lord Auland )
• Lengau in Upper Austria could to OHG * are bi zuo demo Langin / Lengin gouue in elongated Gau (place) or OHG * bi zuo dero Langin / Lengin OHDP in the elongated Au

Landscape name

In the following states, - gau, Allgäu has received as part of designations of landscapes:

• Germany: Albgau, Allgaeu, Ambergau, Oberammergau, Argengau, Auelgau, Bachgau, Bliesgau, Breisgau, Chattengau, Chiemgau, Dreingau, Gaeu ( landscape in Baden -Württemberg), Gäuboden, Gollachgau, Grönegau, Heckengäu, Hegau, Hörselgau, Inngau, Keldachgau, Unterklettgau, Knetzgau, Korngäu, Kraichgau, Linzgau, Lobdengau, Mistelgau, Nibelgau, Ochsenfurter Gau, Pfinzgau, Rangau, Rheingau, Ringwood, Rupertigau, Saargau, Stevergau ( Südmünsterland ) Strohgäu, Ufgau, Wasgau, Wonnegau, Zabergäu
• Austria: Attergau ( im Salzkammergut ), Nibelungengau ( re-creation in the Danube valley ), Strudengau

• Switzerland: Aargau, Elsgau, Solothurnisches Gaeu, Surseer Gaeu, Unterklettgau, Prättigau, Thurgau

• Luxembourg: Wavergau
• Italy: Val Venosta ( South Tyrol )
• France: Sundgau ( Sundgau = south of Ensisheim ) ( Nordgau = north of Ensisheim )
• Belgium: Ardennengau, Brabantgau, Haspengau, Hainaut, Lommegau, Lüttichgau, Mepsegau, Methingau
• Netherlands: Gorecht, Fivelgo, Hunsingo, Ostergau, Westergau ( in Frisian areas Gau is equal to Go)

Regional groups of clubs

Turner frets (see Turngau ) groups of the Bund Youth and the Scout Movement, costume dressings and protecting societies (for example, Gaumeisterschaften ) use the term. Even when he finds ADAC gem use for regional clubs. Statutes of 2012 in § 8). In Austria, the Austrian Gymnastics Federation ( ÖTB ) has partly a breakdown in Turngaue, the German Gymnastics Federation speaks of Gau.

Districts

Although the districts of the province of Salzburg officially called after their chief town, but they are generally named after their old designation districts, about Gebirgsgaue for Innergebirg ( Pongau, Pinzgau, Lungau, Flachgau, Tennengau ). These terms are also used as a distinguishing additive in the official place names for multiple occurrences of names, such as in St. Johann im Pongau.

Gau for foreign-language terms

The word is also used for the following foreign-language terms:

• Ancient Egyptian sp3.t ( Sepat ), prefectures in ancient Egypt, see Gau (Egypt)
• Former administrative units at the Pacific island of Nauru (now independent Republic of ) before 1968, see Administrative divisions of Nauru
• Tikina, traditional administrative units in Fiji