Appointed State Parliament (North Rhine-Westphalia)
The appointed Landtag in an area that consisted of the north of the Rhine Province and the Province of Westphalia and was unified as North Rhine-Westphalia in 1946 was a body set up by the British military government after the Second World War to control the state government. The appointed Landtag existed from September 26, 1946 to April 19, 1947. Similar Appointed Landtag was also set up in other countries of the British zone of occupation . He was the predecessor of the first elected North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament in 1947.
prehistory
The concrete basis for setting up new political structures in the British occupation zone was the directive “On Administrative, Local and Regional Government and the Public Services” issued in summer 1945. The declared intention was to build a democratic order based on the British model. The establishment of political structures in the provinces of Rhineland and Westphalia took place in various stages. The beginning was made at the municipal level, followed by the provincial level and finally, with the establishment of North Rhine-Westphalia, the state level. The first supra-local structures came into being in June 1945 with the appointment of provincial governments under the senior presidents Robert Lehr for the Rhineland and Rudolf Amelunxen for Westphalia. Appointed provincial councils (“non-executive provincial councils”) made up of representatives of the non-fascist parties of the Weimar Republic as well as personalities from various walks of life advised the governments.
In the summer of 1946, after the failure of the Paris Foreign Ministers' Conference, the British government decided to reorganize its territory. Among other things, this led to the establishment of North Rhine-Westphalia . Associated with this were the establishment of a state government and the convening of a “representative council”. The designated Prime Minister Rudolf Amelunxen was obliged to keep the members of the Council fully informed of all political orders issued by the British military authorities. The existence of the council was limited, since the legislative competence should rest with an elected council. The members of the council should represent the different parts of Rhineland and Westphalia and be composed of representatives of the political parties that were just emerging. Then there were the members of the state cabinet. The British military government, which was headed by the Land Commissioner William Asbury , who resided in the Stahlhof , subsequently exerted massive influence on the exact composition of the council . The council was appointed on September 26, 1946.
composition
The appointed Landtag consisted of one hundred politically unencumbered representatives from North Rhine and Westphalia. The parties' proportions were based on the results of the Prussian state elections of 1932 and the Reichstag elections of the same year. Without taking cabinet members into account, the state parliament consisted of 71 members of the SPD , 66 of the CDU , 34 of the KPD , 18 of the Center , 9 of the FDP and 2 independent members.
| Factions | North Rhine | Westphalia | country |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | 36 | 35 | 71 |
| CDU | 36 | 30th | 66 |
| KPD | 14th | 20th | 34 |
| center | 8th | 10 | 18th |
| FDP | 4th | 5 | 9 |
| Independent | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| total | 100 | 100 | 200 |
The constituent meeting took place on October 2, 1946 in the Düsseldorf Opera House . Then the parliament met in a hall of the Henkel works . The working conditions of the parliamentarians were poor and provisional. There were no work desks, no rooms for parliamentary groups or committee meetings. In addition, there were regular theater and cinema performances in the plenary hall for the employees of the Henkel factories and for British soldiers.
The first president was Ernst Gnoss (SPD), vice-presidents were Karl Arnold (CDU) and Konrad Skrentny (KPD). Already in the first meeting, the CDU parliamentary group leader Konrad Adenauer criticized the party-political composition of the assembly, which would not correspond to the actual political majority. In fact, the local elections on October 13, 1946 made it clear that the Union with 46% was well ahead of the SPD with 33%. This made a reshuffle of the state parliament inevitable. After the new composition on November 29, 1946, the state parliament now had 92 CDU members, 66 from the SPD, 19 from the KPD, 12 from the center and 8 FDP members. Robert Lehr (CDU) became the new president .
On February 25, 1947, as a result of the incorporation of the state of Lippe into North Rhine-Westphalia, the former Lippe state parliament members Emil Feldmann (SPD), Wilhelm Mellies (SPD), Ernst August Schlinkmeier (CDU) and Hermann Wendt (CDU) joined the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament .
Competencies
The state parliament initially had no legislative power, but was entitled to propose laws to the military government. He was also able to pass resolutions that should be accepted by the state government, provided they were not directed against the military authorities. The state parliament had the right to form any number of committees. The assembly did not have the right to dismiss or even appoint the state cabinet or its members. Only official disapproval was possible.
On December 1, 1946, the powers of the countries in the British zone were reorganized. After that, the state parliaments were given the legislative competence, subject to the rights of the Control Council. Laws also had to be submitted to the military government, which had the right to approve or reject the law. However, there were a number of areas that remained closed to the legislative competence of the state parliament. In addition, the state parliament was bound by some decisions made by the military government.
Main political issues
Overall, the appointed Landtag met four times between October 1946 and March 1947 and passed four laws. The focus was on the drafting of rules of procedure that were adopted on November 12, 1946. The next important issue was the deliberation and adoption of an electoral law. This was passed on January 23, 1947. However, it was not approved by the military government and was only adopted in a modified form on March 5, 1947.
In view of the limited legislative competence, resolutions and resolutions became important parliamentary instruments. The debates included the housing shortage, lack of fuel, the food situation and other emergencies in the immediate post-war period. In addition, there was reconstruction, the establishment of police and administration, reorganization of the education and school system, the defense against dismantling and the socialization of the basic industry. A subcommittee was formed to deal with the denazification issue.
Members
- List of the members of the 1st Appointed State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
- List of members of the 2nd Appointed State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
literature
- Alois Vogel: The state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. Highlights from six decades . In: 60 years of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. The country and its deputies. Düsseldorf 2006. pp. 11-32.
- Uwe Andersen and Rainer Bovermann: The state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia . In: Siegfried Mielke and Werner Reutter (eds.): Land parliamentarism in Germany. History, structure, functions. Wiesbaden 2004, pp. 307-330.
- Renate Uhlig-Raddatz: The appointed state parliament 1946/47. In: 1946 - Politics and everyday life in the founding year of North Rhine-Westphalia. Düsseldorf 2006, pp. 22-29.
- Walter Först: A short history of North Rhine-Westphalia . Düsseldorf 1985, pp. 31-38
Remarks
- ↑ The table shows the composition of the first Landtag appointed.