The Gaue (singular: Gau) were the main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.

The Gaue were formed in 1926 as Nazi Party regional districts in Weimar Germany based on the territorial changes after the First World War.^[1] The Gau system was established in 1934 as part of the Gleichschaltung process, replacing the de jure system of Länder (states) and Prussian provinces, which held no administrative purpose since the Enabling Act of 1933 and were reduced to rudimentary bodies. Each Gau was headed by an administrative leader, the Gauleiter, a high-ranking Nazi Party official with near-autocratic powers.

Germany consisted of 32 Gaue in 1934, eventually peaking at 42 Gaue with regions occupied in 1938 to early 1939 (Austria, Sudetenland, Memelland) and conquered during the Second World War incorporated into existing Gaue or organised as Reichsgaue, a special type of Gau where the Gauleiter also carried the position of Reichsstatthalter.^[1][2] The Gaue system was dissolved on May 8, 1945, following the surrender of Nazi Germany.

Gau is an archaic Germanic term for a region within a country, often a former or actual province, and used in Medieval times as roughly corresponding to an English shire. The term was revived by the Nazi Party in the 1920s as the name given to the regional associations of the party in Weimar Germany, based mainly along state and district lines.

The Gaue existed parallel to the German states, the Länder, and Prussian provinces throughout the Nazi period. Pro forma, the Administrative divisions of Weimar Germany were left in place. The plan to abolish the Länder was ultimately given up because Hitler shrank away from structural reforms, a so-called Reichsreform, fearing it would upset local party leaders. For the same reason, the borders of the Gaue remained unchanged within Germany throughout this time. The Gaue were only enlarged through the adding of occupied territories after 1938.^[3] While the Länder continued to exist, the real power on local level did lie with the Gauleiters, not the Minister Presidents of the German states. The Gauleiters were directly appointed by Hitler and only answerable to him. In practice, interference from above was rare and their power almost absolute.^[1]

On 15 March 1939, German troops invaded and occupied the rump state of Czechoslovakia that had existed after the Sudetenland had been annexed by Germany following the Munich Conference. On 16 March, Hitler signed a decree declaring the German-occupied territories of Bohemia and Moravia to be incorporated into "Greater Germany". They were not formally annexed, but were placed under the protection of Germany as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Ethnic Germans living in the area became citizens of Germany. A separate native government was retained, but a German Reichsprotektor was appointed who wielded effective executive control over the territory.^[5]

Two separate structures for its territorial administration existed within the protectorate.^[6] Administration of the government of the protectorate was divided into two Länder (states): Bohemia and Moravia, which were in turn sub-divided into a number of smaller units. The Nazi Party divided the area into four separate party districts but, instead of creating four new Gaue, they were assigned organizationally to the surrounding Party districts: Gau Bayreuth, Reichsgau Sudetenland, Reichsgau Lower Danube and Reichsgau Upper Danube.^[6] These two separate government and party divisions continued to co-exist in the protectorate for the entire duration of its existence.^[6]

Following the German invasion and conquest of Poland, Hitler signed a decree on 12 October 1939, declaring that the Polish territories occupied by the Germans would be placed under the administration of a Governor-General and would be known as the General Government of the Occupied Polish Territories. This came into effect on 26 October. On 22 July 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the occupation of Eastern Galicia, Hitler signed a decree declaring that the region would be administered by the Governor-General of Poland from 1 August.^[7]

While theoretically outside the boundaries of the Reich proper, the General Government was considered part of "Greater Germany" by Nazi officials as an "autonomous" region (i.e., not directly subordinated to the Berlin government).^[8] It was not a protectorate, but a colony, outside the Reich and its law. Its Polish inhabitants were effectively stateless and without rights.^[9]

It was sub-divided into four Distrikte (districts).

• Distrikt Krakau;
• Distrikt Warschau;
• Distrikt Lublin;
• Distrikt Radom.

After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, a fifth district was added, created out of former territories of Austrian Galicia:

• Distrikt Galizien.^[10]

After the overthrow of Benito Mussolini, the Italian government secretly began negotiations with the Allies about Italy switching sides to the Allied camp. In retaliation the Germans occupied large parts of Italy, freed Mussolini, and re-installed him as the puppet ruler of a new fascist state in those parts that were occupied by the German Army. While officially in control over all the areas held by erstwhile Fascist Italy, large parts in the northeast located between Switzerland and the Adriatic were re-organized as Operational Zones (Operationszonen). These were informally annexed by Germany, and attached to adjacent Gaue of the Reich. There were two such Operational Zones:

In a supplementary OKW order dated 10 September 1943, Hitler decrees on the establishment of further Operational Zones in Northern Italy, which were to stretch all the way to the French border.^[11] Unlike Alpenvorland and Küstenland, these zones did not immediately receive high commissioners (oberster kommissar) as civilian advisors, but were military regions where the commander was to exercise power on behalf of Army Group B.^[11] Operation zone Nordwest-Alpen (Northwest Alps) or Schweizer Grenze (Swiss Frontier) was located between the Stelvio Pass and Monte Rosa and was to contain wholly the Italian provinces of Sondrio and Como and parts of the provinces of Brescia, Varese, Novara and Vercelli.^[12] The zone of Französische Grenze (French Frontier) was to encompass areas west of Monte Rosa and was to incorporate the province of Aosta and a part of the province of Turin, and presumably also the provinces of Cuneo and Imperia.^[12]

The Nazi government openly pursued and practiced aggressive territorial expansionism, intending to further extend the already greatly increased territorial base of the German state.^[13] In anticipation of these expected future territorial enlargements, potential new districts were theorized upon at length by Nazi ideologists, government officials, and territorial planning departments. These expansions were intended to take place in two distinct ways:

• Administrative divisions of Germany
• Administrative divisions of East Germany
• Areas annexed by Nazi Germany
• Gausturm
• List of Gauleiters
• States of the German Empire