Große Kreisstadt

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Große Kreisstadt is the German term for a district town in Germany with some greater significance despite its rather small size as measured by population. It is used for towns which are administration centers in their area. These district towns mostly have around 40,000 inhabitants, in Baden-Wurttemberg only 20,000.

[edit] Administration rules

The term is officially used and quoted, so it has some meaning. In different German federal states there are different laws and administration rules about when exactly a town can become a "Große Kreisstadt" but they do not differ very much. In some German states other terms are used, for example "Große selbständige Stadt". At the moment reforms are discussed in some states. It is not a main goal of these reforms to make the rules more similar, in opposite, the district towns are thought to be important to keep the existing diversity of regions. In Germany federal states have very similar administration rules, so the states (Bundesland) are not always comparable to US states for example.