Gemeindeverband

A community association is in Germany organized as a corporation under public law, support of local self-government tasks at a level above the community. The community association is mentioned several times in the Basic Law, however, there is an indeterminate legal concept.

Typing

Community associations to type in three ways:

• First, it must be distinguished between local and federal government entities. The community association 's authority, if its members are individual citizens of a given area. The membership rights of individual citizens manifests itself in particular in the choice of a representative body for the area of community association. The local authority has territorial sovereignty, that is, the immediate pass-through to a particular area.
• The community association 's covenant body if its members are municipalities or other local government associations of a particular district. The governing body of a covenant body is elected by the member bodies. The federal government corporation has no territorial jurisdiction.

• Second, a distinction must be made between community associations below the county level, local government associations at the district level and community organizations above the county level (higher municipal association ).
• Third, it must be distinguished between voluntary associations and duty ( statutory ) Forced associations and directly created by the state associations.

Demarcation

The community association is to delineate particular of those forms of cooperation between municipalities, which, as such, plays no independent legal status. Example of this in North Rhine- Westphalia, the public law agreement or in Baden- Württemberg Agreed administrative community between communities.

It should be noted that not every community association is a form of ( voluntary ) cooperation of communities. In particular, the counties ( districts) are created by the state institutions with their own, not derived from the communities rights.

Examples

Based on the above distinctions, the following instances of associations of municipalities (local authorities, federal government bodies) as well as other forms of local cooperation can specify:

• District ( in Bavaria) with a directly elected County Council
• Bezirksverband Pfalz ( Rhineland -Palatinate ) with a directly elected County Council
• Historical: Provincial Association in the Free State of Prussia with a directly elected Provincial Parliament

• Landeswohlfahrtsverband (eg in Hesse )
• Regional Association ( in North Rhine -Westphalia)
• Purpose association (if above the county level )

• Public service agreement ( in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern North Rhine- Westphalia and, if above the county level )

• Circle ( in North Rhine -Westphalia and Schleswig -Holstein ) or district directly elected ( in the other area countries ) with a district council
• Region Hannover ( Lower Saxony )
• Aachen region ( in North Rhine -Westphalia)
• Regional Saarbrücken ( Saarland )

• Samtgemeinde ( in Lower Saxony)
• Municipality ( in Rhineland -Palatinate and Saxony- Anhalt)

• Office ( in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg -Western Pomerania, Schleswig -Holstein, historically also in Prussia, North Rhine -Westphalia and other German states )
• Gemeindeverwaltungsverband ( in Baden- Württemberg and Hesse )
• Management community of communities ( in Bavaria and Thuringia and Saxony- Anhalt yet )
• Management Association ( in Saxony )
• Purpose association (if below the county level )

• Agreed administrative community of communities ( in Baden- Württemberg)
• Management community of communities ( in Hesse, Saxony and Schleswig -Holstein)
• Administrative community (Mecklenburg- Vorpommern)

Municipalities and associations of municipalities by country

Source of community figures: below lists (as of January 1, 2012)

* Own town administration - no membership in an association of municipalities below the county level. (Official (BB, MV, SH), Gemeindeverwaltungsverband (BW, HE), Samtgemeinde (NI), municipality (RP, ST ), Management Association ( SN), administrative community (BY, SA, TH ), special-purpose associations below the county level ). ** In Hesse, North Rhine -Westphalia and Saarland there are no associations of municipalities below the county level. ° In the counties column, the three municipal associations special kind, Hannover Region, the Regional Association Saarbrücken and the Aachen region, belonging to the German County Association are included. The cities of Hanover, Saarbrücken and Aachen have special rights that are similar to the rights of cycle-free cities.