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Amt is a type ofadministrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries ofNorthern Europe.[1] Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to a British or U.S.county.
TheAmt (plural:Ämter) is unique to the GermanBundesländer (federal states) ofSchleswig-Holstein,Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania andBrandenburg.[1]
Other German states had this division in the past. Some states have similar administrative units calledSamtgemeinde (Lower Saxony),Verbandsgemeinde (Rhineland-Palatinate) orVerwaltungsgemeinschaft (Baden-Württemberg,Bavaria,Saxony,Saxony-Anhalt,Thuringia).[1]
AnAmt, as well as the other above-mentioned units, is subordinate to aKreis (district) and is a collection of municipalities. The amt is lower than district-level government but higher than municipal government, and may be described as a supra-municipality or "municipal confederation". Normally, it consists of very small municipalities (Gemeinden, plural ofGemeinde).
Larger municipalities do not belong to anAmt and are calledamtsfreie Gemeinden (independent municipalities); some of these municipalities might also not be governed by or linked with aKreis (district) and are calledkreisfreie Gemeinden, and when they do also not belong to any otherLand they are also calledStadtstaaten (plural ofStadtstaat), i.e. city-states (Berlin andHamburg).
These large municipalities (cities, in GermanStädte, plural ofStadt) may be further divided into local offices namedOrtsämter (plural ofOrtsamt), each of them possibly grouping several suburbs (or small townships in rural areas) of the municipality namedOrtsteile (plural ofOrtsteil), named from small villages or hamlets or localities. TheOrtsteil (suburb or township) may have been a former parish, but today it is meant only for civil purpose and essentially used for planning within the municipality; theOrtsamt (sometimes just named informally but confusingly as anAmt, or informally translated as an "urban district") is used to offer decentralized services of the municipality within local administrative offices for the residents in neighbouring suburbs. TheOrtsteil itself may also be confusingly translated as a "municipality", but it is incorrect because it belongs to a city which is the only effective municipality (Gemeinde).
Theamt (plural,amter; translated as "county") was an administrative unit ofDenmark (and, historically, ofDenmark-Norway).[2] The counties were established by royal decree in 1662 as replacements for the former fiefs (Len). Theamter were originally composed ofmarket towns (købstæder) andparishes, and held only small areas of responsibility. There were some changes to the borders of these counties over time, most notably when Roskilde County (da) was merged into Copenhagen County (da) in 1808, and when Skanderborg County (da) was periodically merged into Århus County Skanderborg County (da). AfterSouthern Jutland was returned to Denmark after the1920 Schleswig plebiscites, four new counties were created in the area.
During the 20th century, the powers of the counties were expanded, when they were granted responsibility for the hospital service. Thekøbstæder, which by this time had been separated from the counties and were overseen by theInterior Ministry, assumed the same responsibility. As the population became increasingly urbanized, and many rural communities came to rely on the hospital services of thekøbstader without paying taxes for them, it became evident that reform was necessary. In 1958, interior ministerSøren Olesen set in motion administrative reforms that would culminate in 1970.
Themunicipal reform of 1 April 1970 reduced the number of counties to fourteen and eliminated the administrative distinction between (rural) parish and town. From then on, theamter were composed of a number of municipalities (kommuner). The reform granted the counties wider areas of responsibility, most notably running the national health service and thegymnasium secondary schools.[3]
Themunicipal reform of 1 January 2007 abolished theamter and replaced them with five administrativeregions, now mainly charged with running the national health service. In contrast to theamter, the regions hold no authority to levy taxes. The reform re-delegated all other areas of responsibility to either the municipalities or the state. At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, cutting the number of municipalities from 270 to 98.
In Germany anAmt was a medieval administrative district covering a manorial estate or the land owned by a castle or village. It was headed by anAmtmann, usually a lesser nobleman or cleric, appointed by aterritorial lord to administer and dispense justice within theAmt.
While Iceland was a territory of the Danish-Norwegian realm, amts (singular:amt; plural:ömt) were established in the country on top of the existingcounties. From 1684 to 1770, Iceland as whole was a single amt in the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway but was then split into two amts: North and East Amt (Norður- og Austuramt) and South and West Amt (Suður- og Vesturamt). The latter was in 1787 split into a West Amt (Vesturamt) and South Amt (Suðuramt). Iceland was thus divided into three amts until 1872, when the South and West amts were again merged. Amts were abolished in 1904, when Iceland gainedhome rule from Denmark.
Amts are not used to denote a geographical region in Iceland but the name lives on in the names of two public libraries in Iceland that were established during the amt era. The Amts libraries inAkureyri andStykkishólmur which were established as the designated archives for the North and East Amt and the West Amt respectively.
Ambacht can be seen as theDutch equivalent toamt.Ambachten existed inHolland,Zeeland andFlanders up to about 1800.
From 1662 to 1919, thecounties of Norway were calledamter. They are now referred to asfylker, a term revived from the Middle Ages.[2]
