Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The capital East Berlin was officially equated by resolution of the State Council of East Germany in 1961. Though legislative assemblies (Bezirkstage) and executive councils (Räte) existed, the Bezirke according to the top-down principle of democratic centralism enjoyed no autonomy nor any self-governing rights. They were abolished by law which the East German People's Chamber passed in 1990 on the eve of the German reunification. During the Second World War, a special administrative division of Nazi Germany was officially classified as "Bezirk": Bezirk Bialystok. See also Amtsbezirk, historic denotation of an administrative subdivision in Prussia; until 2009 also in the Swiss Canton of Bern Regierungsbezirk, "government region", a subdivision of some German federal states Types of administrative division