A Reichsgau (plural Reichsgaue) was an administrative subdivision created in a number of the areas annexed to Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945. It should not be confused with the Gau, an administrative region of the NSDAP (Nazi Party).
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The term was formed from the words Reich and Gau, the latter a deliberately medieval-sounding word with a meaning approximately equivalent to "shire". The Reichsgaue were an attempt to resolve the administrative chaos resulting from the mutually overlapping jurisdictions and different boundaries of the NSDAP Party Gaue, placed under a Party Gauleiter, and the federal states, under a Reichsstatthalter responsible to the Ministry of the Interior (in the Prussian provinces, the equivalent post was that of Oberpräsident). Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick had long desired to streamline the German administration, and the Reichsgaue were the result: Party Gau and state administrative borders were to be identical, and the Party Gauleiter also occupied the post of Reichsstatthalter. Rival interests and the influence the Gauleiters wielded with Hitler prevented any reform from being undertaken in the "Old Reich" itself, and the Reichsgau scheme was therefore implemented only in newly acquired territories.
There were several Reichsgaue:
The Ostmark was subsequently subdivided into seven smaller Reichsgaue, generally coterminous with the former Austrian Länder (states).
| Gau name | German name | Capital | Established | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carinthia | Kärnten | Klagenfurt | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Carinthia and Eastern Tyrol, included from 1941 on parts of Slovenia. |
| Lower Danube | Niederdonau | Krems *However, in 1943 Hitler toured the Gau and assured Gauleiter Hugo Jury that the capital will be Brünn (Brno) in the near future.[1] |
1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Lower Austria and northern Burgenland; included from 1939 on parts of southern Moravia. |
| Salzburg | Salzburg | Salzburg | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Salzburg. |
| Sudetenland | Sudetenland | Reichenberg | 1938 | Formed from the predominantly German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia that were ceded to Germany after the Munich Agreement. |
| Styria | Steiermark | Graz | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Styria and southern part of Burgenland; included from 1941 on parts of Slovenia. |
| Tyrol-Vorarlberg | Tirol-Vorarlberg | Innsbruck | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg and the northern part of Tyrol; Kleinwalsertal became part of the Gau Swabia. |
| Upper Danube | Oberdonau | Linz | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Upper Austria and Ausseerland, a part of Styria; included from 1939 on parts of southern Bohemia. |
| Vienna | Wien | Vienna | 1938 | Formed from the former Austrian federal state of Vienna and surrounding parts of former Lower Austria. |
| Gau name | German name | Capital | Established | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danzig - West Prussia | Danzig - Westpreußen | Danzig | 1939 | Formed in the Free City of Danzig and the Polish region of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, which were both occupied by Germany in 1939. |
| Flanders | Flandern | Antwerp | 1944 | Formed in the Flemish Region of Belgium, comprising the Dutch-speaking provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, East Flanders, West Flanders, the arrondissement of Brussels (except the city of Brussels itself), and the arrondissement of Leuven in the then-province of Brabant (the present-day province of Flemish Brabant). |
| Wartheland | Wartheland | Poznań (Posen) | 1939 | Formed primarily in the Polish region of the Poznań Voivodeship and incorporated areas of surrounding Voivodeships after the German occupation of Poland. |
| Wallonia | Wallonien | Namur | 1944 | Formed in the Belgian region of Wallonia, comprising the Francophone provinces of Hainaut, Liège but the cantons of Eupen, Malmedy and Sankt Vith, Luxembourg, Namur, and the arrondissement of Nivelles in the contemporary province of Brabant (now part of the separate province of Walloon Brabant). |
| Gau name | German name | Capital | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| West March | Westmark | Saarbrücken | Formed out of the Bavarian Rhine Palatinate, the former Territory of the Saar Basin, and parts of Lorraine that were a component of Alsace-Lorraine. |
| Upper Rhine | Oberrhein | Strassbourg (Straßburg) | Formed out of the Gau Baden and Alsace, formerly part of Alsace-Lorraine. |
| Moselland | Moselland | Koblenz | Formed out of the pre-war Gau Koblenz-Trier, and Luxembourg. |
| Gau name | German name | Capital | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banat/Prince Eugene | Banat/Prinz-Eugen | Belgrade (Belgrad, or to be renamed to Prinz-Eugen-Stadt) | To be formed out of the Yugoslavian territories of Bačka, Syrmia, and Banat, parts of Transylvania (Siebenbürgen) and Baranya. |
| Beskidland | Beskidenland | Kraków (Krakau) | To be formed out of the southern parts of conquered Poland between the area west of Kraków to the San river in the east. It was to substantially correspond to the upper Vistula river basin. It was to be almost identical in size to Weichselland and Galizien. |
| Brabant | Brabant | ||
| Burgundy | Burgund | Nancy (Nanzig) or Geneva (Genf)[2] or Dijon[3] |
To be formed out of the territories of eastern France (excluding Alsace Lorraine and Nord-Pas-de-Calais) that were to be annexed into Germany after the war. Also to be included to the Reichsgau were parts of Western Switzerland. |
| Galicia | Galizien | Lviv (Lemberg) | Corresponding to the Podolian plain. It was to be almost identical in size to Beskidenland and Weichselland. |
| Gothland | Gotenland | Simferopol (to be renamed to Gotenburg) | To be formed out of the Crimean peninsula and large parts of mainland Ukraine. |
| Northern march | Nordmark | Not specified. | To be formed out of Denmark. |
| Vandalland | Vandalenland | Not specified. | To be formed out of part or all of the area of the General Government. |
| Vistula land | Weichselland | Warsaw (Warschau) | To be formed out of the middle Vistula river basin. It was to be almost identical in size to Beskidenland and Galizien. |
| Westland/Holland | Westland/Holland | Not specified. | To be formed out of the Netherlands after its intended annexation into Germany. |
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