"Amt" is a name for subnational administrative units used in some northern European countries. It is generally larger than a municipality, and the term is thus roughly equivalent to "county". The Amt in Germany The Amt (plural, Ämter) is unique to the German Bundesländer (federal states) of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg. Other German states had this subdivision in the past. Some states have similar administrative units called Samtgemeinde (Lower… (More on Verwaltungsgemeinschaft)