Districts of Austria
Austria is divided into 84
political districts (
Politische Bezirke), and 15
Statutarstädte which form their own districts.
The Austrian
Bezirk is roughly equivalent to the
Landkreis in
Germany. The administrative office of a district, the
Bezirkshauptmannschaft is headed by the
Bezirkshauptmann. It is in charge of the administration of all matters of federal and state
administrative law and subject to orders from the higher instances, usually the
Landeshauptmann (governor) in matters of federal law and the
Landesregierung (state government) in state law. Thus, the district is the basic unit of general administration in Austria.
Officials on the district level are not elected, but appointed by the state government.There are also
independent cities in Austria. They are called
Statutarstadt in Austrian administrative law. These
urban districts do have the same tasks as a normal district.
Vienna, which is both a state and a
Statutarstadt is also subdivided into districts, however with a different function that the ones here (see
Districts of Vienna).
For more information on Austrian administration, see
States of Austria.
