Citizens Committee
The Citizens' Committee (at that time written Citizens' Committee or Citizens' Committee ) was a communal political body that existed from the 19th to the 20th century in the communities of the Kingdom of Württemberg , the Grand Duchy of Baden and Schwerin .
In the city-states of the Free and Hanseatic Cities of Hamburg and Lübeck , the body formed its own constitutional body.
In Lübeck and other cities there were already citizens' committees in the Middle Ages, but they had a different function.
Today there are only citizens' committees in the former imperial city of Esslingen and in Oberensingen, a district of Nürtingen (Baden-Württemberg). As elected representatives of the citizens of one or more districts, they are there to support the local council and the city administration like an advisory board.
Middle Ages and early modern times
In Lübeck, as in other cities with Lübeck law , it was common in the Middle Ages that important decisions such as the raising of taxes could not be passed without the approval of the citizens . For this purpose, the councilors usually consulted with the so-called “best citizens” who were close to the council. Only when the citizens did not agree with this approach did the "common" vote, i. H. the assembly of all citizens, a committee which mostly consisted equally of merchants, who were allowed to become council members, and craftsmen, to whom the council was closed. These “ordained citizens” negotiated with the council about the amount of taxes and consideration of the council. If the negotiations were successful, the committee usually dissolved again. When, in the years of the Reformation, tax increases were necessary due to the costs of the war against Christian II and the Turkish tax demanded by Emperor Charles V , the citizens saw the opportunity to demand Protestant preachers in return. The refusal of the council under Mayor Nikolaus Brömse rocked the demands ever higher, until finally in 1530 the committee stood there as a kind of counter-government, headed by Jürgen Wullenwever . With the devastating defeat in the count's feud and the restoration of the old council in 1535, citizens' committees were banned for the future. The Reformation was implemented in a similar way in other Hanseatic cities .
In the 16th century there was a 40-member citizens' committee in Paderborn , also known as the Forties Committee.
19th to 20th century
Württemberg
From 1816 to 1822 King Wilhelm I carried out a fundamental reform of the Württemberg municipal constitution. In this case, was the local council a second chamber, the civil Committee (initially also under the name community delegation ) set aside as a control panel and representation of citizenship. The citizens' committees were abolished by the law of March 15, 1919.
Free Hanseatic cities
Citizens' committees were also introduced in the Free Hanseatic Cities of Lübeck and Hamburg in the 19th century. These, however, did not stand independently, but under the citizenship , the parliament of the city-states. But it was also not a simple committee of the citizenship, as it can be formed today in parliaments as preparatory specialist committees (budget committee) or special committees with special rights (committee of inquiry). Rather, the citizens' committees were an independent constitutional body , which was elected by the citizens from their midst and could decide on less important issues in place of the citizens.
Lübeck
The citizens' committee was introduced in Lübeck in 1849. The citizens' committees that already existed in the Hanseatic city in the Middle Ages, however, had no comparable function. The citizens' committee consisted of 30 of the 120 citizenship members. In the Lübeck constitution of May 23, 1920 (in the version of April 11, 1925) the number of members is set at 24 out of 80 members. This constitution was effectively repealed in 1933 with the national socialists' conformity legislation.
Hamburg
In Hamburg, the citizens' committee was introduced with the Constitution of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on September 28, 1860. The name of this constitutional body had already been used here in previous centuries for other civic bodies. The citizens' committee consisted of 20 members, who were elected by the Hamburg citizenship from among their own, and until the constitution of 1921 there were only 5 legal scholars among them. The committee was convened by its chairman (from 1921 the president of the city council) or the senate. The meetings were not open to the public. He was able to: At the request of the Senate, co-approve extraordinary expenses and the sale of state property up to a certain amount (approve from 1921). In urgent cases, co-approve statutory orders before later approval by the citizens (approve from 1921). Request information from the Senate and, from 1921, also access to files. Arrange for the citizenship to be convened. He was obliged to monitor compliance with the constitution and laws of public law and to notify the citizens of the state if the Senate did not remedy the situation.
The last point was put forward as one of the important tasks in the 1921 constitutional article. After an interruption in the time of National Socialism, the citizens' committee was reintroduced with the final post-war constitution of June 6, 1952, “For the performance of certain tasks defined by the constitution or by law” (Article 26 ff.). The old constitutional articles were taken over with slight changes. In addition to monitoring compliance with the constitution and the legality of the administration, he had to approve expenditure up to a certain amount at the request of the Senate, provided that the public discussion in the citizenry was against the interests of the state - or the decision was urgent - or in individual cases did not exceed an amount determined by the citizenship. The approval of the sale of state property up to certain amount limits and the issuing of regulations in urgent cases, the appointment of members of the Court of Auditors and the approval of administrative and supervisory activities of a senator now belonged to the constitutional tasks.
In 1996 the citizens' committee and some other traditional features of the Hamburg constitution were abolished as part of a comprehensive constitutional amendment.
Bremen
In 1157 Bremen was reported by a citizens' committee representing the interests of the city, which had ruled the city as the city council since 1230 . In the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Land) there was a not quite comparable body known as the Citizens Office until the first half of the 20th century . This committee, formed from the Bremen citizenship , did not have deputy decision-making powers, but organized the citizenship meetings in accordance with the constitution and was responsible for business transactions between the citizenship and the Senate. In addition (and in this respect comparable to Hamburg) it had to watch over the maintenance of the constitution, laws and state institutions and to report deficiencies of the citizens.
Schwerin
In Schwerin a 30-member citizens' committee was set up in 1832, which, as a representative of the citizens, determined the city's politics in addition to the magistrate consisting of 9 senators .
21st century
Esslingen am Neckar
The citizens 'committees of Esslingen are voluntary representations of one district and are elected by its citizens in the citizens' assembly for 3 years. They serve the city administration and the municipal council as contact persons for the issues of their district. The individual citizens 'committees are members of the working group of citizens' committees. The voting members of the working group elect a board for 3 years. On February 21, 1991 the working group decided the working method and the structure of the committees in one status . An agreement was reached as a basis for cooperation between the citizens' committees, the municipal council and the administration . This was approved by the working group on July 17, 1990 and approved by the municipal council on December 10, 1990. In June 2000, both the status and the agreement were editorially revised.
literature
To: Württemberg and Baden
- Marzel Nordmann : The citizens' committee according to the Baden municipal and town order , unpublished. Dissertation Freiburg 1924
- Alfred Dehlinger: Württemberg's state in its historical development until today , Volume I, 1954, p. 270 u. 272
- Fritz Klemm: The Württemberg municipal constitution of 1822 and its predecessors , unpublished. Dissertation Tübingen 1976
- Wolfgang Leiser: The community in the municipal law of the Grand Duchy of Baden , in: Local self-administration - Idea and Reality , ed. v. Bernhard Kirchgässner u. Jörg Schadt, 1983 ( ISBN 3-7995-6410-1 ), p. 46
- Hartmut Zoche: The community - a small state? Motives and consequences of the grand-ducal-Baden municipal legislation 1819-1914 , 2 vols. 1986, ISBN 3-8204-9487-1 (also Diss. Freiburg 1985)
- Rupert Hourand: The synchronization of the Baden communities 1933/34 , unpublished. Diss. Freiburg 1985, p. 22f u. a.
To: Hanseatic cities and Schwerin
- The constitutional law of the Free and Hanseatic Cities. Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen. (Handbook of Contemporary Public Law, Vol. 3, Vol. 2, Section 3) , 1884, pp. 22ff, 48f
- Friedrich Bruns: Constitutional history of the Lübeck Free State 1848-1898 , 1898
- Wilhelm Brückner: Constitutional and Administrative Law of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck , 1909, pp. 42–48
- Johannes Bollmann : The constitution of the Free Hanseatic Cities of Bremen and Lübeck , pp. 61–65. In: The Public Law of the Present , Volume 27. JCB Mohr, Tübingen 1914.
- Michael Dunkelberg: The citizens' committee in the constitution of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , unpublished. Diss. 1980
- Detlef Gottschalck: The Hamburg Citizenship: an investigation of its constitutional status according to the constitution of 1952 , 1993 ( ISBN 3-428-07846-2 ) (also diss. Hamburg 1993)
- Klaus David: Constitution of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Commentary , 1994 ( ISBN 3-415-01905-5 ), pp. 425-468
- Bernd Kasten: Citizens' Committee and Magistrate of the residential city of Schwerin in the wake of the revolution of 1848 , in: Mecklenburgische Jahrbücher , vol. 114.1999, pp. 169–182
To: Lübeck in the Middle Ages
- History of Lübeck , publ. by Antje Grassmann, Lübeck 1997 3rd edition, p. 216ff ( ISBN 3-7950-3215-6 )