Amt (subnational entity)

From Freepedia

An Amt is a subnational administrative unit common in some northern European countries. It is generally larger than a municipality, and is often comprised of one or more municipalities.

The amt in Germany

The Amt (plural, Ämter) is unique to the German Bundesländer (federal states) of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg. Other German states had this subdivision in the past. Some states have similar administrative units called Samtgemeinde (Lower Saxony), Verbandsgemeinde (Rhineland-Palatinate) or Verwaltungsgemeinschaft (Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt).

An amt, as well as the other above-mentioned units, is subordinate to a district, and is subdivided into municipalities. Normally it consists of very small municipalities; larger municipalities do not belong to an amt, and are called "Amt-free municipalities" (amtsfreie Gemeinden).

The amt in Denmark

The Amt (plural, Amter; English, "County") is also an administrative unit in Denmark (and, historically, of Denmark-Norway), and is comprised of one or more municipalities. See Counties of Denmark for more information about the Danish usage of the term.

The Danish Municipal Reform will create five future administrative regions to replace the traditional 13 counties ("amter"). At the same time, smaller municipalities will be merged into larger units, cutting the number of municipalities from 271 to 98. The reform will be implemented on January 1, 2007.