Amt (country subdivision)

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An Amt is a name for subnational administrative units used in some northern European countries. It is generally larger than a municipality, and the term is thus roughly equivalent to "county".

[edit] 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).

[edit] 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 of January 1, 2007 created five administrative regions to replace the traditional 13 counties ("amter"). At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, cutting the number of municipalities from 271 to 98. The counties were established by royal decree in 1662.

[edit] The amt in Norway

From 1662 to 1919, the counties of Norway were called amter. They are now referred to as fylker.