Gau (country subdivision)

A "Gau" (plural "Gaue") is a German term for a region within a country, often a former or actual province. It was used in medieval times, when it can be seen as roughly corresponding to an English shire, and was revived as an administrative subdivision during the period of Nazi rule in Germany.

The "Gau" in the medieval period

Originally a "Gau" was an old Frankish term for a politico-geographical division of a nation. The word is the German gloss of the Latin "pagus"; hence the "Gau" is analogous with the "pays" of feudal France. In Middle High German it was "gou" and in Gothic "gawi". Cognate equivalents are "Gouw" in Dutch (as Hetware / 'Hettergouw'), "Go" in Frisian, "Gô" in Old Saxon and possibly "*Ge" in Old English surviving in names such as Vange, Essex ('fenn-*ge', fen district), or as Surrey; Sutherge = 'southern land'. The term for a region or Gau or Gäu is related to another German geological term and placename "Au" or "Aue", Old High German "ouwe".

In the German-speaking lands east of the Rhine, the "Gau" formed the unit of administration of the Carolingian empire during the ninth and tenth centuries. Many such a territory evolved into what would become known as a "Grafschaft", the territory of a "Graf" or count; the count was originally an appointed governor, but the position became in time a hereditary vassal princedom, or fief.

See:
* [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_mittelalterlicher_Gaue Liste mittelalterlicher Gaue]
* [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gau_%28Landschaft%29 Gau (Landschaft)]

The "Gau" during the Nazi period

The term "Gau" was revived in the 1920s as the name given to the administrative regions of the Nazi Party. The "Gau" was the main administrative region of the NSDAP (Nazi Party), created by a party statute dated May 22, 1926. Each "Gau" was headed by a "Gauleiter". The original 32 "Gaue" were generally coterminous with the pre-existing "Länder" and Prussian provinces.

By 1938 all of Germany was divided into around thirty "Gaue". Following the suppression of the political institutions of the "Länder" (states) in 1934, the "Gaue" had become the "de facto" administrative region of government, and each individual "Gauleiter" had considerable power within his territory.

With Germany's annexation of neighbouring territories beginning in the late 1930s, a new unit of civil administration, the "Reichsgau", was also created. After the successful invasion of France in 1940, the Alsace-Lorraine was re-annexed by Germany. The former "département" of Moselle was incorporated into the "Gau" of Saar-Palatinate, while Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin were incorporated into Baden "Gau". Similarly, the formerly independent state of Luxembourg was annexed to Koblenz-Trier, and the Belgian territories of Eupen and Malmedy were incorporated into Cologne-Aachen.

The "Reichsgaue"

:"Main article: Reichsgau"

German-speaking territories annexed to Germany from 1938 were generally organised into "Reichsgaue". Unlike the pre-existing "Gaue", the new "Reichsgaue" formally combined the spheres of both party and civil administration.

Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, the country, briefly renamed "Ostmark", was sub-divided into seven "Reichsgaue". These had boundaries broadly the same as the former Austrian "Länder" (states), with the Tyrol and Vorarlberg being merged as "Tyrol-Vorarlberg", Burgenland being divided between Styria and "Lower Danube" (the re-named Lower Austria). Upper Austria was also re-named "Upper Danube", thus eliminating the name of "Austria" from the official map. A small number of boundary changes were also made, the most significant of which was the massive expansion of Vienna's official territory, at the expense of "Lower Danube".

Northern and eastern territory annexed from the dismembered Czechoslovakia were mainly organised as the "Reichsgau" of Sudetenland, with territory to the south annexed to the "Reichsgaue" of Lower and Upper Danube.

Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, territories lost at the Treaty of Versailles, together with some adjacent territory, were re-annexed to Germany as the Reichsgaue of Danzig-Westpreussen (which also incorporated the former Free City of Danzig) and Wartheland.

Legacy in topography

The medieval term "Gau" (sometimes "Gäu"; "gouw" in Dutch) has survived as (second, more generic) component of the names of certain regions -some named after a river- in Germany, Austria, Alsace, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Notably, the German translation of The Lord of the Rings opted not to use "Gau" for the translation of the Shire, due to its Nazi associations.

* Aargau
* Allgäu
* Breisgau
* Buchsgau
* Chiemgau
* Eastergoa and Westergoa in Friesland, Fivelgo around the Fivel in Groningen
* Elsgau
* Flachgau
* Gau Algesheim
* Gäuboden
* Haistergäu
* Haspengouw
* Hegau
* Hennegau/ (Dutch) Henegouwen (French: Hainaut)
* Illergäu
* Kraichgau
* Linzgau
* Lungau
* Pinzgau
* Pongau
* Rammachgau
* Rheingau
* Prättigau
* Tennengau
* Torgau
* Thurgau
* Sisgau
* Sundgau
* Wasgau
* [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormsgau Wormsgau]
* Zabergäu

ources

* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Belgium.html WorldStatesmen - see various present countries once under Nazi rule] "(here Belgium)"
* [http://www.shoa.de/content/view/544/41/ Shoa.de - List of Gaue and Gauleiter] (in German)
* "Der große Atlas der Weltgeschichte" (in German), Historical map book, published: 1990, publisher: Orbis Verlag - Munich, ISBN 3572047552

ee also

* List of Gaue of Nazi Germany"