First connect the county with its federal state.
Vogtlandkreis lies where south-western Sachsen borders Thüringen, Bavaria and Czechia. This location helps with orientation: a county can border other states or countries while still belonging to its own federal state.
The county administration is in Plauen. The town name in an authority’s address is therefore different from the county’s name. The question asks about the larger local territorial unit, rather than an individual town or the state capital.
The other three answers
Each other name belongs to a different federal state.
Altötting
Altötting is a county in Bavaria. Vogtlandkreis’s proximity to Bavaria does not make Altötting a Saxon county.
Uckermark
Uckermark is in Brandenburg. Although Brandenburg borders Sachsen, it is a separate federal state.
Nordfriesland
Nordfriesland is a county in Schleswig-Holstein. It belongs to northern Germany, rather than Sachsen.
County and state capital are different categories.
Dresden is the capital of the whole Free State of Sachsen. Plauen is the administrative seat of Vogtlandkreis. A question asking for the county is therefore answered with Vogtlandkreis, rather than Dresden or Plauen.
The fixed catalogue answer is a geographical classification, not a current population or area figure. You can understand it through the state and administrative seat without memorising changing statistics.
County profile · Free State of Sachsen · Vogtlandkreis ↗Vogtlandkreis → south-western Sachsen; county administration → Plauen.
Keep county name, administrative seat and federal state distinct.
Three words for this question
- der VogtlandkreisVogtland county
- The county in Sachsen asked for in this question.
- das Landratsamtcounty administration
- A county’s administrative authority.
- der Verwaltungssitzadministrative seat
- The locality where an administration is based.