German National District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the fifty-nine in Altai Krai, Russia. It is located in the northwest of the krai. The area of the district is 1450 km2. Its administrative center is the rural locality (a selo) of Galbshtadt. Population: The population of Galbshtadt accounts for 9.9% of the district's total population.

History

The official name of that area is "Deutscher Nationalkreis im Altai-Gebiet" (German national rayon in the Altai District). The district was established on July 4, 1927 and abolished on November 5, 1938 by Stalin. On July 4, 1991 it was resurrected by special orders of President Boris Yeltsin. Bonn and Moscow also agreed to the foundation of another German rayon: Asowo in the district of Omsk. Halbstadt, however, had already existed as a German village between 1927 and 1938, before Stalin put an end to it.

Economy

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Germany actively aided the development of the economy and social services in the district. In the period between 1991 and 2006, the German government subsidized construction of 168 apartments (1-, 2-, 6- and 9-apartment houses) with a total area of 17400 sqm.

Transportation

The "Pavlodar - Tomsk" highway (including the "Slavgorod - Kamen-na-Obi" section) runs through the district.

Sources