Gau

Gau is an old German word for a district, chiefly used as a suffix, e.g: Rheingau, Breisgau.

In National Socialist Germany that Party's organisation was based on a division of the whole country into a number of roughly equal districts which they described as Gaue; as time went on more and more activities were put on a Party, and therefore on a Gau, basis. Possessing greater uniformity than the states and Prussia Provinces, the new division had certain advantages.