District Assembly

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old meeting room of the district assembly Hamburg-Mitte in City-Hof (1958-2018)

A district assembly (BV) in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is the name of the administrative committee that works according to parliamentary principles and is assigned to each district office in the seven Hamburg districts of Altona , Bergedorf , Eimsbüttel , Hamburg-Mitte , Hamburg-Nord , Harburg and Wandsbek . The members of a district assembly are determined by general, free, equal and secret elections.

General

Tasks and way of working

The population participates in the affairs of the district and the fulfillment of the tasks of the district office through the respective district assembly (BV). The BV has been electing the district office manager since 1978 (previously: appointment by the Senate). She also supports the respective district office, whose main tasks are to be seen in the areas of building law and traffic planning.

The district assemblies are administrative committees that work according to parliamentary principles and whose external representation is assumed by the respective chairman. The work of the members of the district assembly takes place in the main committee, which deals with nationally important and organizational matters, and technical and special committees that vary from election period to election period. The parliamentary groups represented in the district assembly can also send non-members as “knowledgeable citizens” to participate in the committees.

In the unified municipality of Hamburg , the district assemblies do not have the right to adopt a fee statute (taxes). The decision-making power of a district assembly is limited because the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg has the right, according to Section 1 (4) of the Administrative Authorities Act, to take charge of all matters and make final decisions (“right of evocation ”). This includes the cancellation of resolutions of the district assemblies. In addition, the Hamburg citizenship has the right, as the state parliament in the unified municipality of Hamburg, to pass resolutions on all matters. As political majority decisions, the resolutions and audit orders of a BV are an orientation for the administrative actions of the respective district offices.

composition

Each district assembly consists of 41 members, and since the elections in 2008 - in relation to the population in the district in question - from 45 to 57 members. At the beginning of the 1960s a reform took place in which the “district councilors” then became “members of the district assembly” (colloquially: district representatives ) and the former “district committee” became the more independent district assembly. Since they are not members of a parliament, no mandate abbreviation "MdBV" is provided for the members of the district assemblies; some district assembly members use it anyway.

The stand for election to a District Assembly have all living in each district EU citizens , the first in it are domiciled. According to the electoral law that came into force in Hamburg through a referendum in 2004, the district assemblies should be elected every five years, parallel to the European elections . This should increase the importance of the district assemblies. Due to changes to the electoral law decided by the Senate in disregard of the referendum with the votes of the then government faction CDU and against the votes of the other parliamentary groups, the district assemblies were elected parallel to the citizenship election until February 2011.

Since the European elections on May 25, 2014, the elections for the district assembly have taken place parallel to this. A new constituency division has also been in effect since 2014: Previously elected in the 17 citizen constituencies, there are now 54 constituencies (7 to 9 per district). Election is open to all German nationals and nationals of other Member States of the European Community (EU citizens) who reached the age of 16 years and located in the district for at least three months their home have.

The regular number of seats has changed several times since the first district administration law of 1949: At that time, 40 members were set for five district assemblies, Wandsbek and Harburg received 50. In 1974 the number was limited to 40 members, in 1993 it was increased to 41 to avoid stalemate. Avoid situations in voting.

district 1949 1974 1993 2008
Hamburg-center 40 40 41 51
Altona 40 40 41 51
Eimsbüttel 40 40 41 51
Hamburg North 40 40 41 51
Wandsbek 50 40 41 057
Bergedorf 40 40 41 45
Harburg 50 40 41 51

With effect from the elections on February 24, 2008, the number of mandates was staggered according to the number of inhabitants of the districts: Since then 45 members have been elected in districts with up to 150,000 inhabitants, 51 in those with up to 400,000 inhabitants and 57 members in districts with over 400,000 inhabitants . This results in 51 seats in five district assemblies, 45 in Bergedorf and 57 in Wandsbek.

This minimum number of mandates can be increased by directly elected individual applicants, by increase mandates based on the majority clause and, in the case of overhang mandates, by compensatory mandates.

Compensation payments

The members of a district assembly receive a tax-free expense allowance of 369 euros (as of 2018), with the chairman receiving three and his deputy two times the expense allowance. In addition, the members and “knowledgeable citizens” receive an additional 30 euros each for participating in each committee meeting and parliamentary group meetings. Payments can also be claimed for loss of wages or salaries caused by meetings. In addition, a lump sum for IT use of 1,200 euros is paid out on request. There is also a right to a driver's license, if you waive a flat rate of 51 euros / month. Childcare costs are reimbursed at the rate of 15 euros per child / session.

Distribution of seats after the 2019 election

district Green SPD CDU left AfD FDP Seats
Hamburg-center 16 * 14 * 6th 8th 4th 3 51
Altona 18th 11 9 8th 2 3 51
Eimsbüttel 19th 12 9 5 3 3 51
Hamburg North 19th 11 10 5 2 4th 51
Wandsbek 15th 16 13 4th 5 4th 57
Bergedorf 10 12 11 5 4th 3 45
Harburg 14th 14th 10 5 5 3 51
Sum of all districts 111 90 68 40 25th 23 357

(As of June 11, 2019)

* = After the election, six members of the Greens in the Hamburg-Mitte district did not take part in the founding of the Greens parliamentary group, but initially founded the “Green 2 parliamentary group”. They later joined the SPD, so that it now has 20 seats, while the Greens in the district only have ten clients.

District assembly Altona

history

The district committee of the Altona district was first elected in 1949. In it sat 17 members of the SPD, 16 of the Father City Association of Hamburg (merger of CDU , FDP and DKP ), 5 of the German Party and 2 of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). The former Ottensen and Altona senator acted as provisional district manager . D. August Kirch ( SPD ).

In 1950, Kirch was elected district manager with 24 to 17 votes, and later First Mayor Kurt Sieveking (CDU) as his deputy .

After the 2004 election, the Altona district assembly formed a coalition of CDU and GAL for the first time in Hamburg. The first green-red coalition in this federal state was also formed in the BV Altona; it lasted from 1994 to 1997. In 2003, the CDU, Schill Party and FDP elected FDP member Hinnerk Fock , who had previously been chief of protocol in Hamburg's town hall, to succeed Uwe Hornauer (SPD) as the new district manager. After the new election in February 2004, as a result of which the Schill party and FDP were no longer represented in the district assembly, the CDU and GAL formed the first black-green coalition in Hamburg. On June 28, 2007, this elected Fock as head of the district office and the former CDU member of parliament Jürgen Warmke-Rose , who had left the party in 1993, as his successor. In the 2011 district assembly elections, the black-green coalition lost its majority due to the CDU's loss of votes; then there was another red-green coalition.

District assembly meeting

The 51 (before 2008: 41) elected members form the Altona District Assembly. The district assembly has ten committees and one subcommittee, which usually meet in public. The plenary sessions will begin with a "public question time", in which citizens from the Altona district have the opportunity to ask the parliamentary groups questions on the topics of the session for 30 minutes. Since the change in the rules of procedure in summer 2011, these questions have to be submitted in writing up to one hour before the meeting.

Current electoral term

In the election on May 26, 2019, the SPD lost almost 10% of the votes and, with 20.4% of the valid district votes or 11 mandates, had to relinquish its status as the strongest parliamentary group to the Greens, which rose by 13 percentage points to 35.1% and upgraded 18 seats. The CDU received 16.6% of the vote (minus 6.7 percentage points) and nine seats (minus three). The left with 14.8% (plus 0.8 percentage points) and eight seats (plus two) and the FDP with 6.8% (plus 2.4 percentage points) and three seats (plus one) were able to gain. The AfD was also able to improve with 4.4% (plus 1.1 percentage points) and two seats (unchanged) without being able to achieve a parliamentary group status.

Bergedorf district assembly

In the district assembly election on May 26, 2019, six parties entered the district assembly with a turnout of 53.6%. Despite losses of almost 13 percentage points, the strongest party was again the SPD with 26.4% of the district votes and 12 seats (minus seven). The CDU achieved 24.3% (minus 4.2 percentage points) and thus 11 seats (minus three), the Greens 21.9% (plus 9.6 percentage points) and ten seats (plus four), the Left 10.5% (plus 1.3 percentage points) and five mandates (plus one) and the AfD with 8.5% (plus 4.0 percentage points) and four mandates (plus two). The FDP returned to the district assembly after five years with 5.5% (plus 3.3) and three mandates and for the first time since the 1991 elections again achieved parliamentary group status. The Free Voters missed with 2.9% of votes just a place in the District Assembly Bergedorf.

District assembly Eimsbüttel

A red-green coalition existed in Eimsbüttel for several electoral terms. Although it missed the majority in the 2008 district assembly election, it made further resolutions as a “core alliance with varying levels of support”. From 2011, red-green again had its own majority. In January 2017, the previous economics and building department head Kay Gätgens (SPD) was elected district office manager by this coalition.

In the election on May 26, 2019, the SPD lost a good ten percentage points and became the second strongest force with 23.1% and 12 seats (minus six). It was replaced by its coalition partner, the Greens, who with 37.2% (plus 14.1 percentage points) and 19 seats (plus seven) are now the strongest parliamentary group in the district. The CDU was able to win 9 mandates (minus three) with 16.3% of the district votes (minus 6.4 percentage points). The left received 10.4% (plus 0.6 percentage points) and was able to hold its five seats. The FDP was the fifth strongest force with 6.5% (plus 2.0 percentage points) and received three MPs (plus one). The AfD achieved parliamentary group status for the first time with 4.9% (plus 1.0 percentage points) of the votes and also three mandates (plus one).

On September 26, 2019, the Greens and CDU signed a coalition agreement that replaced the red-green coalition. On November 28, 2019, the Greens and the CDU applied for the former district office manager Kay Gätgens to be replaced by the former member of parliament Katja Husen from the Greens. They received 25 of the 28 votes in the green-black coalition, so Gätgens remained in office because the necessary majority was missing by one vote. Husen also failed in the second attempt on December 19, 2019 with only 25 votes.

District assembly Hamburg-Mitte

View from the visitor area into the plenum of the old meeting room (2001)

history

In Hamburg-Mitte there was a red-green coalition from 2004 to 2011. Since the district assembly elections in 2011, the SPD has been the strongest parliamentary group to miss an absolute majority by one vote. Resolutions were therefore made with varying majorities. District Office Manager was Markus Schreiber (SPD), who announced his resignation on February 9, 2012 after an 11-year-old girl who was in a foster family under the supervision of the district youth welfare office died of a methadone overdose . On April 26, 2012, the social democrat Andy Grote was elected as the new district manager by the district assembly with 33 votes out of 50. After Grote was appointed Senator for the Interior of Hamburg in 2016, he was succeeded by the previous SPD parliamentary group leader, Falko Droßmann .

Current electoral term

In the election on May 26, 2019, the SPD parliamentary group lost ten percentage points and became the second strongest force with 27.0% and 14 seats. It was replaced by the Greens as the strongest force, who had gained 29.3% (plus 11.2 percentage points) and 16 seats (plus six). The Left succeeded for the first time with 15.6% (plus 1.5 percentage points) and eight seats (plus one), the third strongest force ahead of the CDU, which won 12.1% of the votes (minus 6.4 percentage points) and six seats ( minus four) fell behind to become. The AfD received 7.7% of the vote (plus 2.6 percentage points) and four mandates. After five years, the FDP returned to the district assembly with 4.8% of the vote (plus 2.5 percentage points) and three members, and for the first time since the 1974 election it achieved parliamentary group status. The Pirate Party lost half of its previous votes, came to 2.2% and therefore left the district assembly.

A good two weeks after the election, the Greens split after the party leadership raised allegations of extremism against two newly elected members . Four other members expressed their solidarity with those affected and therefore did not participate in the formation of the parliamentary group. It was not yet clear at the time whether these six members of the district assembly would found their own parliamentary group. The following day it became known that one of the two members is said to have called for donations for Ansaar International ( Islamic aid organization), while the other is said to be close to Millî Görüş (Islamic movement). Since the constituent session of the district assembly, the six Green MPs who did not take part in the constitution of the Green parliamentary group have appeared as the “Greens 2” parliamentary group. On October 2, 2019, the members of the "Greens 2 faction" announced at a press conference that they were leaving the Greens and switching to the SPD. The SPD parliamentary group is the strongest parliamentary group in the district assembly with 20 members. The SPD, CDU and FDP then agreed on a coalition agreement, which was signed in early December 2019.

Meeting place of the BV Hamburg-Mitte

The district assembly Hamburg-Mitte (or its predecessor) had its seat in the City-Hof since 1958. From June 2018 the BV will meet in a new meeting room on the 11th floor in the Caffamacherreihe 1–3, which is also run by the Kaiser Wilhelm Street 20 is accessible. The move of the district assembly has become necessary due to the upcoming demolition of the City-Hof high-rise buildings.

District assembly Hamburg-Nord

After the elections in 2008, the CDU and GAL initially had a majority, but were unable to agree on a successor to the district office manager Matthias Frommann (SPD), who had resigned in 2008 and who had been in office since 1996. In April 2009, the leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the district assembly, Wolfgang Kopitzsch , won the election of the district office manager with the votes of the SPD, Left, FDP and two former GAL members. On January 18, 2012 he was appointed Police President of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

In 2011, the SPD was able to achieve the status of the strongest force for the first time since the 2001 elections, but fell short of an absolute majority by two seats. Dagmar Wiedemann (SPD) was elected as the new chairman of the district assembly. The SPD signed a coalition agreement with the FDP for the current election period. In August 2012, the previous deputy head of the district office, Harald Rösler (SPD), was elected as the new head of the district office with 49 out of 51 votes.

On April 12, 2018, the red-green coalition, which has existed since 2014, elected the previous social affairs department head Yvonne Nische (SPD) against the FDP candidate Petra Wichmann-Reiss with 33 to 11 votes with 4 abstentions and one invalid vote (there was no AfD MP present, a mandate was vacant due to the death of a Left MP) for the new district office manager. Since they were investigated in the context of the so-called “ticket affair” for free tickets for the Rolling Stones concert in Hamburg's Stadtpark in October 2017, the Senate did not appoint them. In January 2019, Niche announced that it was no longer available for the office. On January 23, 2019, she was charged with accepting advantages and inducing a subordinate to commit a criminal offense.

In the election on May 26, 2019, the SPD lost over 13 percentage points and became the second strongest force with 20.8% and eleven seats (minus six). With 35.7% (plus 14.6 percentage points) and 19 seats (plus eight), the Greens emerged as the strongest group in the district. The CDU achieved ten seats (minus two) with 17.5% (minus 6.2), while the left remained unchanged with 9.6% (plus 0.1) and 5 seats. With 7.7% of the votes (plus 3.4 percentage points), the FDP achieved its best district result in Hamburg and got four seats (plus two). The AfD again missed parliamentary group status with 4.6% (plus 0.9 percentage points) and two mandates. The pirates, who won two mandates in 2014), came to 1.1% (minus 2.4 percentage points) and therefore left the district assembly.

District Assembly Harburg

The SPD parliamentary group of the Harburg district assembly elected the incumbent district office manager Torsten Meinberg (CDU) on November 29, 2011 and, with the support of the FDP parliamentary group, elected Thomas Völsch (SPD), former member of the parliament, as the new official manager. After Völsch's death on November 28, 2017, the non-party Sophie Fredenhagen was elected by the SPD, the Greens and the Left as the new district head in 2018.

In the district assembly election on May 26, 2019, six parties entered the district assembly. The strongest parliamentary group was again the SPD, which lost 27.1% (minus 11.5 percentage points) and 14 seats (minus six) votes and seats. The group of the Greens doubled to 25.8% (plus 12.3 percentage points) and 14 seats (plus seven). The CDU achieved 19.4% (minus 7.2) and thus ten mandates (minus four). The left remained unchanged, with 9.3% (plus 0.4) and five seats. The AfD achieved its best district result in Hamburg with 10.2% (plus 4.0 percentage points) of the votes and five mandates (plus two). The FDP was also able to increase to 6.0% (plus 1.6 percentage points) and three mandates. The New Liberals , who stood for the first time and who had achieved parliamentary group status during the previous electoral period by converting the SPD and the Greens, failed with 2.2% because of the three percent threshold.

District assembly Wandsbek

After the 2008 district assembly election, the only CDU / FDP coalition in a Hamburg district was formed in Wandsbek . After they lost their majority in the 2011 district assembly election due to the losses of the Christian Democrats, a red-green coalition was instead formed. The coalition factions voted out the previous district office manager Cornelia Schroeder-Piller (CDU) and replaced her with the former SPD parliamentary group leader in the district assembly, Thomas Ritzenhoff .

In the election on May 26, 2019, the SPD was again the strongest force with 26.7% (minus 11.2 percentage points) and 16 seats (minus seven). The Greens won with 26.3% (plus 13.1 percentage points) and 15 seats (plus seven). The CDU lost almost seven percentage points and got 22.2% of the vote or 13 seats (minus four). The AfD gained two seats with 7.7% of the vote (plus 2.2 percentage points) and five mandates. The left remained unchanged at 7.2% and four seats. The FDP also achieved four seats (plus two), for which 7.0% of the votes (plus 3.1 percentage points) were cast.

literature

  • Rita Bake (Ed.): You vote ... the district assemblies . Information and background information for first-time voters. With a quiz. In cooperation with the youth information center . State Center for Political Education , Hamburg, 2014. No ISBN.
  • Kai Bücking: The participation of foreigners in elections to the German Bundestag, the parliaments of the federal states and the municipal representative bodies with special consideration of the elections to the Hamburg district assemblies . Dissertation at the University of Hamburg (1991). Frankfurt am Main , 1991. ISBN 978-3-631-44928-8 .
  • State Center for Political Education (Ed.): Training of new members in the district assemblies . LZfpB Hamburg, 2014. No ISBN.
  • Rolf Lange : Self-government in Hamburg: history, structure and functions of the Hamburg district assemblies . Dissertation at the University of Hamburg (1980). Stuttgart , 1981. ISBN 978-3-17-005892-7 .

See also

Web links

Commons : District Assembly  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Günter Püttner (Ed.): Handbook of communal science and practice. Volume 2: Municipal Constitution . Page 306.Springer, ISBN 978-3-662-11965-5 .
  2. ↑ District Administration Act (BezVG). Retrieved October 23, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Press release of December 20, 2005 on the new District Administration Act
  4. ^ Compensation Act , Act on Compensation Payments on the Occasion of Honorary Work in Administration (Compensation Services Act) of July 1, 1963, current version
  5. ↑ Results on the website of the Hamburg-North Statistics Office, accessed on June 12, 2019
  6. ^ Evidence in the section on the Hamburg-Mitte district assembly.
  7. ^ District assembly Altona (ed.): Chronicle of the district assembly Altona. From the minutes of 1949-2009. Self-published, HH-Altona 2009, p. 8/9
  8. ^ "House visit: Hinnerk Fock" ( Memento from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Klönschnack, issue 6/2004, accessed on December 31, 2012.
  9. ^ "Altona: Warmke-Rose elected" , Hamburger Abendblatt dated June 29, 2007.
  10. ↑ https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Kay-Gaetgens-wird-Bezirksamtsleiter-Eimsbuettel,gaetgens102.html
  11. ↑ Final results of the 2019 district assembly election , accessed on June 15, 2019.
  12. ↑ Signing of the coalition agreement. Retrieved November 26, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Jens Meyer-Wellmann: “Stunned: Greens react to bitter Eimsbüttel defeat”. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . November 28, 2019, accessed November 28, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Andreas Dey: “A bang! Katja Husen finally fails in Eimsbüttel ”. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . December 20, 2019, accessed December 20, 2019 .
  15. ↑ "The horrific death of Chantal's bothered me so much," The World online edition , accessed on 14 March 2012 found.
  16. ↑ "Andy Grote is the new boss in Mitte", press release on Hamburg.de from April 26, 2012 ( Memento from July 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ "Scandal among the Greens in the Mitte district: Fraction splits up" , in Hamburger Abendblatt from June 16, 2019 (online already June 15, 2019), accessed on June 17, 2019.
  18. ↑ "MPs supposedly supported Islamist group" in Hamburger Abendblatt from June 17, 2019 (online already June 16, 2019), accessed on June 17, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Sensational: This is the" Green 2 "team" in the Hamburger Abendblatt from June 20, 2016, accessed on July 17, 2019.
  20. ↑ NDR 90.3 , news from October 2, 2019, 9:00 a.m.
  21. ^ "Hamburg-Mitte: coalition agreement signed" , report on www.ndr.de of December 3, 2019, accessed on December 20, 2019.
  22. ↑ Hamburger Morgenpost of June 10, 2011, page 6.
  23. ↑ "Yvonne Nische elected head of the North District" on www.abendblatt.de, accessed on May 2, 2018.
  24. ^ "Ticket affair: charges brought against niche" , at www.ndr.de, accessed on February 4, 2019.
  25. ↑ "Thomas Völsch is the new District Office Manager in Harburg" at www.abendblatt.de, accessed on August 26, 2013.
  26. ↑ “New beginning for Alstertal and Walddörfer - Cornelia Schroeder-Piller is leaving the Wandsbek district office after four years, successor is Thomas Ritzenhoff” at heimatecho.de, accessed on December 27, 2012.