 Several rural "Landkreise" in Lower Saxony, whose territorial history goes back to the "Grafschaften", bear this title in their official names; after the municipal reforms at the end of the 1970s, only the county of Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim retains the name.Not to be confused with "Grafschaften" are the "Markgrafschaften" ("margraviates"), "Pfalzgrafschaften" ("counties palatine") or "Landgrafschaften" ("landgraviates"), which had the same status as duchies.The present-day German federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony were once margraviates; Thuringia and Hesse were landgraviates.