The Regionalverband Saarbrücken is a ''Kommunalverband besonderer Art'', an integration of a

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

(''Kreis'') and a district-free town. It is located in the south of the

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Neighboring districts are

Saarlouis Saarlouis (; , ; formerly Sarre-Libre and Saarlautern) is a town in Saarland, Germany, capital of the district of Saarlouis (district), Saarlouis. In 2020, the town had a population of 34,409. Saarlouis is located on the river Saar (river), Saar. ...

, Neunkirchen, Saar-Pfalz, and Forbach-Boulay-Moselle and Sarreguemines in the French ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

History

The district Saarbrücken was originally created in 1816. In 1974, the district and the district-free city Saarbrücken were merged, and the new administrative body was named ''Stadtverband Saarbrücken''. Although it's not a district like others, most of its administrative tasks are the same as those of a district. On November 21, 2007, the governing majority of the CDU in the parliament of Saarland passed a law which transformed the ''Stadtverband Saarbrücken'' into the ''Regionalverband Saarbrücken'' on January 1, 2008. The most striking change by this transformation was the introduction of the ''Kooperationsrat'', a council of officials of the towns and municipalities which exercises some of the powers of

Municipal corporation Municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally o ...

alongside the district council (''Regionalversammlung'', the local equivalent of the Kreistag). As the directly elected ''Regionalversammlung'' represents the population, while the members of the ''Kooperationsrat'' are picked by the towns or municipalities which they represent, there is a debate whether the competences of the not-directly-elected ''Kooperationsrat'' infringe on the constitutional right of the directly elected ''Regionalversammlung'' to exert all powers of Municipal corporation. Regionalverband Saarbrücken#Geschichte (in German), Retrieved July 12, 2013

Geography

The river

Saar Saar or SAAR has several meanings: People Given name * Sarr Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player * Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist * Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor Surname * Ain Saar (born 1968), E ...

flows through the district, through the city

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

in the center of the district.

Coat of arms

The original district had no coat of arms, the Regionalverband uses a coat derived from that of the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken. The silver lion is taken from the County of Saarbrücken, the golden lion is the lion of Nassau.

Towns and municipalities

Politics

The bodies of the district ''Regionalverband'' are the administrator ''Regionalverbandsdirektor'', the district council ''Regionalversammlung'' and the additional council ''Kooperationsrat'', which is mainly composed of officials of the towns and municipalities. Regionalverband Saarbrücken#Politik (in German), Retrieved July 12, 2013

District administration

On January 1, 2008, Ulf Huppert ( FDP) became ''Beauftragter für das Amt des Regionalverbandsdirektors'', temporarily acting as Regionalverbandsdirektor. Regionalverband Saarbrücken#Regionalverbandsdirektor (in German), Retrieved July 12, 2013 The first ever election of the Regionalverbandsdirektor was held on June 7, 2009. As no candidate gained an absolute majority in the first round, run-off elections were held On June 21, 2009, which were won by Peter Gillo ( SPD) with 60.22%, with Rainer Grün ( CDU) taking 39.78% of the votes. Gillo beat Grün in all towns and municipalities except Püttlingen. The turnout rate of the run-off elections was just 21.2%.

District council (''Regionalversammlung'')

(Result of the elections of 2014)Kreisergebnis RV Saarbrücken -- Endgültiges Ergebnis der Kreistagswahlen 2014
(in German), Retrieved September 9, 2015

International relations

Saarbrücken is a fellow member of the ''Eurodistrict SaarMoselle''.

International partnerships

Saarbrücken has a

partnership A partnership is an agreement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments or combinations. Organizations ...

with:

References

;Notes ;Non-English Wikipedia links

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saarbrucken (District) Districts of Saarland Urban districts of Germany