Template:Infobox German place/Instructions

The template Infobox_German_location is meant for cities, towns and municipalities in Germany, and their subdivisions. It makes it possible to copy town-data from other infoboxes, such as:
 * from German wiki de:Vorlage:Infobox Ort in Deutschland;
 * from English wiki.

For many fields, a simple copy-and-paste will suffice. But this template contains a few extra fields, and there are a number of translation issues that you must be aware of.

Parameters
Parameters with German names (plus geographical co-ordinates parameters) are the same names used in the German wiki infobox. Parameters with only English names are only used in the English wiki. There are English-name aliases for many of the German-name parameters (more in the future), so either the German or English parameter name can be used, depending on copying infobox data from other sources.

Required parameters are displayed in orange.

Delete any unneeded fields when using the full template syntax.

Name
English name of location. Use only if name is different from article name.

German_name or local_name
German name of location. Use only if name is different from English name.

Art or type
Needed. Type of location. Also used for article categorisation. Accepts German and English names. Accepted values:
 * Municipality / Gemeinde - default
 * Town / Stadt - if the municipality has town-rights (ie. it appears on this list)
 * City - towns with more than 100,000 people (ie. it appears on this list)
 * Amt / Gemeindeverwaltungsverband / Samtgemeinde / Verbandsgemeinde / Verwaltungsgemeinschaft / Verwaltungsverband  - collective municipality
 * Ortsteil / Stadtteil / Borough / Quarter etc. - subdivision of a city, town or municipality

City or Town or Municipality
Used for places that are subdivisions of cities, towns or municipalities. Use the field name that corresponds with the higher administrative unit (e.g. "City = Berlin" for parts of Berlin, "Town = Memmingen" for parts of Memmingen, "Municipality = Sassenburg" for parts of Sassenburg).

borough
Used for places that are subdivisions of boroughs of cities. A borough (German: Stadtbezirk, Ortsbezirk, Bezirk) is a subdivision of a large city. Boroughs are subdivided into quarters (German: Stadtteil).

image_photo or repres_image
The top image, a representative photo of the location: skyline, notable landmark, etc. The image used should be wider than it is tall, to keep the infobox as compact as possible. No wikilinks.

imagesize
Avoid. Use only when it is necessary to reduce the size of the above image from its default value of 268px. Tall images could be reduced, such as 220px, to balance the infobox appearance.

image_caption
Caption underneath representative image. Keep as short as possible. Allows wikilinks.

Wappen or image_coa
Coat of arms image. No wikilinks. Leave blank if image is unknown or unavailable. If the location simply does not have a coat of arms, put:.

lat_deg, lat_min, lat_sec, lon_deg, lon_min, lon_sec
Deprecated. Geographical co-ordinates of location. Superseded by the (required) "coordinates" field.

Bundesland or state
Needed Federal state to which the location belongs. No wikilinks. Accepts English and German names, translates many names to English.

Regierungsbezirk or region
Name of the administrative region (Regierungsbezirk) that the location belongs to. Not used for all states. Regierungsbezirk articles on the English wiki are named "xxxx (region)", so only the name of the region is needed here (without wikilinks) and the infobox should link to the correct article.

Kreis / Landkreis or district
Needed. District that the location belongs to. If the location is an urban district, say. District articles on the English wiki are named "xxxx (district)" or without the "(district)" part. For most cases, only the name of the district (xxxx) is needed here (without wikilinks) and the infobox should link to the correct article.

Amt, Gemeindeverwaltungsverband, Samtgemeinde, Verbandsgemeinde, Verwaltungsgemeinschaft, Verwaltungsverband
Some locations belong to a collective municipality of some sort. Fill in the corresponding field and delete all unused fields.

Gliederung or divisions
Local subdivisions. When copying towninfo directly from the German wiki, please translate content of this field to English and remove any red links.

Bürgermeister or mayor
Name of the mayor/lord mayor/etc. Wikilinks automatically generated if the entry exists.

Bürgermeistertitel
Title: Mayor / Bürgermeister, Lord Mayor / Oberbürgermeister, etc. Use wikilinks only if linking to a specific article (eg. Lord Mayor). Default is "Mayor"

Partei or party
Political party of Mayor/Lord Mayor/etc. Use standard party abbreviations (CDU, SPD, Green, FDP, PDS, FWG, etc.) and the correct wikilinks should be generated (if not, leave a comment on the template talk page). For independent politicians, say

ruling_party1, ruling_party2, ruling_party3
Party or parties that govern this location. Fill in this field in the same way as the Partei field.

Fläche or area
Area in square kilometres. Will automatically calculate value in square miles. Enter value without spaces or commas, otherwise an error message will be displayed in the area field.

area_metro
Are of metropolitan area in square kilometres. Will automatically calculate value in square miles. Enter value without spaces or commas, otherwise an error message will be displayed in the area field. Only the bigger cities will have a need for this field.

Höhe or elevation
Elevation in metres. Will automatically calculate value in feet. For some entries, a range of elevation values is given in the German wiki. To prevent an error in the conversion to feet, any range values must use a simple minus sign instead of any other dash characters. Elevation ranges will not be converted to feet.

Gemeindeschlüssel
The Gemeindeschlüssel is the code for the municipalities, cities, districts etc. as used by the German statistics offices. For municipalities and cities this is an 8-digit number, either formatted "XX X XX XXX" or unformatted. This infobox uses this code to retrieve the municipality population from a database, see Population Germany. The code is not displayed. It is required for independent municipalities and cities. For dependent areas and settlements (quarters, boroughs, villages) use the "Einwohner" or "population" field.

Einwohner or population
Population. Don't use this for independent municipalities and cities, use the "Gemeindeschlüssel" field instead. If area is also given, population density will also be calculated. Enter value without spaces or commas, otherwise an error message will be displayed in the density field.

Stand
Date for population value. Enter in YYYY-MM-DD format (eg. 2006-12-31)

pop_metro
Population of metropolitan area. Only the bigger cities will have a need for this field.

pop_urban
Population of urban area. Only the bigger cities will have a need for this field.

pop_ref
Source for population statistic(s). Needed to make it easier to update population values in the future. The German wiki does not use this field, but the earlier English template does. This field must use the
 * 1) Expanded syntax:

Kfz or licence
Car number plate code for the location (1-3 capital letters).

Vorwahl or area_code
Telephone area code. If various values are given, display as a simple range (if possible). Avoid descriptions of each code.

PLZ or postal_code
Postal code. If various values are given, display as a simple range (if possible). Avoid descriptions of each code.

year
Year of foundation, NOT the year of the first recorded mention of the location.

Website or website
Official website of the location. Trim displayed URL as much as possible. (eg. Website=samplesite.de )

Lageplan or image_plan
Zoomed-in map image displaying location within a region of Germany (e.g., a state or a Kreis), with optional width, plansize=265px. If not provided, a mapframe map will be shown.

Lageplanbeschreibung or plantext
Caption for map image given by Lageplan. The template will attempt to automatically create a caption, using values given for other fields. If the caption does not match with the image, use this field to manually enter a caption.

_noautocat
Give a value of "yes" to prevent auto-categorisation. Used only on draft articles (ie. in the User space)

Non-displayed fields
The German wiki has a number of variables that are not displayed here if copied over:
 * PLZ-alt Older postcode(s)
 * NUTS NUTS value: "DEXXX"
 * LOCODE UN/LOCODE value: "DE XXX"