Landrat

[1][2] The title Landrat was adopted for the lowest administrative authorities in individual small German states, namely in Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, as well as in the Imperial County of Reuss and in the Schwarzburg principalities (Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen).

In Mecklenburg, the eight representatives of the native or received nobility in the ständisches Direktorium were called Landrats.

In Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, according to the old legal situation, the Oberkreisdirektor (OKD) was the main administrative official.

The honorary Landrat performed only representative duties (so-called "Zweigleisigkeit" or "Doppelspitze").

[5] The Kreisordnung in North Rhine-Westphalia stipulated that from the municipal election of 1999, the Landräte should be full-time Wahlbeamter [de] and thus also principal administrative officials.