This article is about the "Districts" (Kreise) of Germany.

For "Government Districts"

(Regierungsbezirke), see Regierungsbezirk.

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In most German states, the primary administrative subdivision is a Landkreis ("rural district"); the
exceptions are the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, where the term is
simply Kreis.[1] Most major cities in Germany are not part of any Kreis, and perform, themselves,
functions like those of Kreisen; such a city is referred to as a Kreisfreie Stadt (literally "district-free
city") or Stadtkreis ("urban district").
Kreise stand at an intermediate level of administration between each German state (s. Land,
p. Länder) and the municipal governments (s. Gemeinde, p. Gemeinden) within it.[2] These
correspond to level-3 administrative units in the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics(NUTS
3), and are roughly equivalent to counties in the United States.
Previously, the similar title Reichskreis (Imperial Circle) was given to groups of states in the Holy
Roman Empire. The related term Landeskommissariat was used for similar administrative divisions in
some German territories until the 19th century