Amt (administrative division)

""Amt" is a type of administrative division of some northern European countries. It is generally larger than a municipality, and the term is thus roughly equivalent to a U.S. "township" or "county."

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, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia).

An "amt", as well as the other above-mentioned units, is subordinate to a district, and is subdivided into municipalities. The amt is lower than county-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; 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") was a former administrative unit in Denmark (and, historically, of Denmark-Norway). The counties were established by royal decree in 1662 as replacements for the former "Len" (fiefs). The "amter" were originally composed of independent towns ("købstæder") and parishes, and held only small areas of responsibility. During the 20th century, they were granted responsibility for the hospital service for the non-urban population. A 1970 administrative reform reduced the number of countries to fourteen and eliminated the administrative distinction between (rural) parish and town. From then on, the "amter" were composed of a number of municipalities (Danish: "kommuner"). The reform granted the counties wider areas of responsibility, most notably running the national health service and the "gymnasium" secondary schools.

The Danish Municipal Reform of January 1, 2007 abolished the "amter" and replaced them with five administrative regions, now solely charged with running the national health service. In contrast to the "amter" 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. See Counties of Denmark for more information about the Danish usage of the term.

The "amt" in the Netherlands and Flanders

"Ambacht" can be seen as Dutch equivalent to "amt". "Ambachten" existed in Holland, Zeeland and Flanders up to about 1800.

The "amt" in Norway

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