View source for Gau (territory)

{{Short description|German term for a region within a country}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Heiliges Römisches Reich 1000.PNG|thumb|upright=1.4|Medieval duchies (in colour) and ''gaue'' in the [[Holy Roman Empire]] around year [[AD 1000|1000]]]]
'''''Gau''''' ([[German language|German]]: {{IPA|de|ɡaʊ||de-Gau.ogg}}; {{langx|nl|gouw}} {{IPA|nl|ɣʌu||nl-gouw.ogg}}; {{langx|fy|gea}} {{IPA|fy|ɡɪə|}} or {{lang|fy|goa}} {{IPA|fy|ɡoə|}}) is a [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] term for a region within a country, often a former or current [[province]]. It was used in the [[Middle Ages]], when it can be seen as roughly corresponding to an [[England|English]] [[shire]]. The administrative use of the term was revived as a subdivision during the period of [[Nazi Germany]] in 1933&ndash;1945. It still appears today in regional names, such as the [[Rheingau]] or [[Allgäu]].

==Middle Ages==
===Etymology===
The Germanic word is reflected in [[Gothic language|Gothic]] ''gawi'' (neuter; genitive ''gaujis'') and early [[Old High German]] ''gewi, gowi'' (neuter) and in some compound names ''-gawi'' as in Gothic (e.g. ''Durgawi'' "[[Canton of Thurgau]]", ''Alpagawi'' "[[Allgäu]]"), later ''gâi, gôi'', and after loss of the stem suffix ''gaw, gao'', and with motion to the feminine as ''gawa''<ref>numerous variant spellings;  ''gauwa, gowa, gouwa, geiwa, gauia, gawia, gowia, govia, gaugia''</ref> besides ''gowo'' (from ''gowio''). [[Old Saxon]] shows further truncation to ''gâ, gô''.<ref>''[[Deutsches Wörterbuch]]''</ref> As an equivalent of [[Latin]] ''[[pagus]]'', a ''gau'' is analogous with a [[pays (France)|''pays'']] of the [[Kingdom of France]], or of [[Lotharingia]].

[[Old English]], by contrast, has only traces of the word, which was replaced by ''scire'' (modern English ''shire'') from an early time, in names such as ''Noxga gā, Ohtga gā'' and perhaps in ''gōman, ġēman'' "[[yeoman]]", which would then correspond to the Old High German ''gaumann''.<ref>''Deutsches Wörterbuch''</ref> However, the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' connects the etymology of ''yeoman'' to ''young'' instead.

===Conceptual history===
{{Further|List of medieval Gaue|List of Alamannic pagi}}
In the [[Carolingian Empire]],  a ''Gau'' was a subdivision of the realm, further divided into [[Hundred (county division)|Hundred]]s.{{cn|date=January 2023}} The Frankish ''gowe'' thus appear to correspond roughly to the ''civitas'' in other barbarian kingdoms ([[Visigoths]], [[Kingdom of the Burgundians|Burgundians]], or the Italian [[Kingdom of the Lombards]]).{{cn|date=January 2023}} After the end of the [[Migration Period]], the Hundred (''centena'' or ''hunaria'', Old High German  ''huntari'') had become a term for an administrative unit or jurisdiction, independent of the figure hundred. The Frankish usage contrasts with Tacitus' [[Germania (book)|''Germania'']], where a ''pagus'' was a subdivision of a tribal territory or ''civitas'', corresponding to the Hundred, i.e. areas liable to provide a hundred men under arms, or containing roughly a hundred homesteads each, further divided into ''vici'' (villages or farmsteads).<ref>''[[Meyers Konversations-Lexikon]]'', Fourth Edition, 1885&ndash;1892.</ref> [[Charlemagne]], by his [[capitulary]] legislation, adopted the ''comitatus'' subdivision and appointed local rulers as deputies of the central Imperial authority.

In the German-speaking lands of [[East Francia]], the ''{{lang|de|Gau}}'' formed the unit of administration of the realm during the 9th and 10th centuries and ruled by a [[gaugrave]] (''Gaugraf'' i.e. "gau count"). Similar to many shires in England, during the Middle Ages, many such ''{{lang|de|Gaue}}'' came to be known as counties or ''[[Grafschaft]]en'', the territory of a ''[[Graf]]'' ([[count]]) within the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Such a count or ''{{lang|de|Graf}}'' would originally have been an appointed [[governor]], but the position generally became an hereditary [[vassal]] princedom, or [[fief]] in most of continental Europe.

==Nazi period==
{{Main|Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany}}
[[File:NS administrative Gliederung 1944.png|thumb|400px|'' [[De facto]]'' administrative divisions of [[Nazi Germany]] in 1944]]
The term ''Gau'' was revived in German historical research in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was considered an ancient administration structure of [[Germanic peoples]]. It was adopted in the 1920s as the name given to the regional associations of the [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP). Each ''Gau'' denoted an administrative region, created by a party statute dated 22 May 1926.  Each ''Gau'' was headed by a ''[[Gauleiter]]''. The original 33 ''Gaue'' were generally coterminous with the ''[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]'' election districts of the [[Weimar Republic]], based on the [[States of the Weimar Republic|constituent states]] (''Länder'') and the [[provinces of Prussia]]. Following the suppression of the political institutions of the ''Länder'' in the course of the Nazi ''[[Gleichschaltung]]'' process and the appointment of [[Reichsstatthalter]] (Reich Governors) in 1933, the ''Gaue'' became the ''[[de facto]]'' administrative regions of the government and each individual ''Gauleiter'' had considerable power within his territory.

===''Reichsgaue''===
{{Main|Reichsgau}}
With the beginning of the [[areas annexed by Nazi Germany|annexation of neighbouring territories]] by [[Nazi Germany]] in the late 1930s, a new unit of civil administration, the {{Lang|de|Reichsgau}}, was established. German-speaking territories annexed to Germany from 1938 were generally organised into {{Lang|de|Reichsgaue}}.  Unlike the pre-existing ''Gaue'', the new {{Lang|de|Reichsgaue}} formally combined the spheres of both party and state administration.

Following the annexation of [[Austria]] in 1938, the country, briefly renamed "[[Ostmark (Austria)|Ostmark]]" between 1938 and 1942, was sub-divided into seven {{Lang|de|Reichsgaue}}.  These had boundaries broadly the same as the former Austrian ''Länder'' (states), with the [[Tyrol (state)|Tyrol]] and [[Vorarlberg]] being merged as "Tyrol-Vorarlberg", Burgenland being divided between [[Styria]] and "Lower Danube" (''Niederdonau'', the renamed [[Lower Austria]]). [[Upper Austria]] was also renamed "Upper Danube" (''Oberdonau''), thus eliminating the name of "Austria" (''Österreich'' in German) from the official map.  A small number of boundary changes also took place, 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 {{Lang|de|Reichsgau}} of [[Sudetenland]], with territory to the south annexed to the {{Lang|de|Reichsgaue}} of Lower and Upper Danube.

Following the Axis invasion of [[Poland]] in 1939, territories of the [[Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Pomeranian]] and [[Poznań Voivodeship (1921–1939)|Poznań]] voivodeships as well as the western half of [[Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Łódź voivodeship]] [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|were reannexed to Germany]] as the {{Lang|de|Reichsgaue}} of [[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia|Danzig-Westpreussen]] (which also incorporated the former [[Free City of Danzig]]) and [[Reichsgau Wartheland|Wartheland]]. Other parts of Nazi-occupied Poland were incorporated to pre-existing bordering gaus of [[East Prussia]] (as in the case of [[Zichenau (region)|Zichenau]]) and [[Upper Silesia]] (as in the case of the [[Silesian Voivodeship (1920–39)|Silesian voivodeship]] with the counties of [[Oświęcim]] and [[Bielsko-Biała|Biała]]).

After the successful invasion of France in 1940, Germany re-annexed [[Alsace-Lorraine]].  The former [[departments of France|''département'']] of [[Moselle]] was incorporated into the ''Gau'' of Saar-Palatinate, while [[Bas-Rhin]] and [[Haut-Rhin]] became part of the [[Gau Baden]]. Similarly, the formerly independent state of [[Luxembourg]] was annexed to Koblenz-Trier, and the [[Belgium|Belgian]] territories of [[Eupen]] and [[Malmedy]] were incorporated into Cologne-Aachen.

==Legacy in topography==
The medieval term ''Gau'' (sometimes ''Gäu''; {{lang|nl|gouw}} in [[Dutch language|Dutch]]) has survived as (second, more generic) component of the names of certain regions &ndash; some named after a river &ndash; in Germany, Austria, [[Alsace]], [[Switzerland]], Belgium, [[South Tyrol]], and the [[Netherlands]].

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
* [[Aargau]], Switzerland
* [[Allgäu]], Germany
* [[Breisgau]], Germany (<sup>h/e</sup> English [[Exonym and endonym|exonym]]s: Brisgaw/Brisgow)
* [[Buchsgau]], Switzerland
* [[Chiemgau]], Germany
* [[Eastergoa]] and [[Westergoa]] in Friesland, Netherlands
* [[Elsgau]], Switzerland
* [[Fivelgo]] around the [[Fivel]] in Groningen, Netherlands
* [[Flachgau]], Austria
* [[Gau Algesheim]], Germany
* [[Gäuboden]], Germany
* [[Haistergau]], Germany
{{col-break|gap=4em}}
* [[Haspengouw]], Belgium
* [[Hegau]], Germany
* [[Hainaut (province)|Hennegau]] ([[Dutch language|Dutch]]: {{lang|nl|Henegouwen}}; [[English language|English]]: ''Heynowes''), [[French language|French]]: {{lang|fr|Hainaut}}), Belgium
* [[Hunsingo]] around the [[Hunze]] in Groningen, Netherlands
* [[Bliesgau]], Germany
* [[Huosigau]], Germany
* [[Illergau]], Germany
* [[Kraichgau]], Germany
* [[Linzgau]], Germany
* [[Lungau]], Austria
* [[Oberammergau]], Germany
* [[Pinzgau]], Austria
* [[Pongau]], Austria
* [[Prättigau]], Switzerland
{{col-break|gap=4em}}
* [[Rammachgau]], Germany
* [[Rheingau]], Germany
* [[Rupertigau]], Germany
* [[Saargau]], Germany
* [[Sisgau]], Switzerland
* [[Sundgau]], in the southeastern corner of [[Alsace]] (Suntgow - <sup>h/e</sup> English exonym)
* [[Tennengau]], Austria
* [[Thurgau]], Switzerland
* [[Ufgau]], Germany
* [[Unterammergau]], Germany
* [[Vinschgau]], Italy
* [[Wasgau]], Germany
* [[:de:Wormsgau|Wormsgau]], Germany
* [[Zabergäu]], Germany{{col-end}}

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
* ''Der große Atlas der Weltgeschichte''. Munich: Orbis Verlag, 1990. {{ISBN|3-572-04755-2}} (book of historical maps)

==External links==
* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Belgium.html WorldStatesmen &ndash; see various present countries once under Nazi rule] ''(here Belgium)''
* [http://www.shoa.de/content/view/544/41/ Shoa.de &ndash; List of Gaue and Gauleiter] {{in lang|de}}
* [[:de:Liste mittelalterlicher Gaue|Liste mittelalterlicher Gaue]], a listing of medieval ''gau.'' {{in lang|de}}

{{Terms for types of country subdivisions}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Nazi Gaue| ]]
[[Category:German words and phrases]]
[[Category:Nazi terminology]]
[[Category:Types of administrative division]]
[[Category:Former subdivisions of Germany]]