State government (Germany)

Governing parties and number of seats in the Federal Council

The state government is the government of a country in Germany . In Bavaria and Saxony the state government is called the state government , in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg the cabinet is called the Council of Ministers . In the city-states of Berlin , Hamburg and Bremen , the state government is called the Senate .

The legal relationships of the members of the government are regulated in the ministerial laws of the individual federal states.

The state government consists of the head of government and a certain number of ministers (state ministers, state ministers, senators). The number of ministers varies from country to country. In Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg there are also state secretaries who can belong to the state government.

Resolutions by a state government initially only have political significance and often require further corresponding steps. So z. B. a government bill can be discussed in the state parliament . Depending on the legal provisions in the law, ordinances and administrative regulations can be issued by the state government or an individual minister. In the interest of the ministers' cooperation, however, such decrees are often preceded by a resolution by the state government, even if this is not legally required.

The heads of government are Prime Minister in the territorial states , Governing Mayor in Berlin and President of the Senate in Bremen and Hamburg . In the city-states, ministers are called senators .

The State - or form of government for all German Laender parliamentary republics . The constitutional political framework of this form of government is prescribed by federal constitutional law, the so-called homogeneity requirement of the Basic Law ( Article 28 of the Basic Law ), whereby this requirement would in principle also permit a presidential form of government at the state level.

Current state governments

country	Cabinet / Senate	education
Baden-Württemberg	Kretschmann II	May 12, 2016
Bavaria	Söder II	November 6, 2018
Berlin	Müller II	December 8, 2016
Brandenburg	Woidke III	20th November 2019
Bremen	Bovenschulte	15th August 2019
Hamburg	Tschentscher II	June 10, 2020
Hesse	Bouffier III	18th January 2019
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	Schwesig	4th July 2017
Lower Saxony	Because II	22nd November 2017
North Rhine-Westphalia	Lash	June 30, 2017
Rhineland-Palatinate	Dreyer II	May 18, 2016
Saarland	Hans	1st March 2018
Saxony	Kretschmer II	20th December 2019
Saxony-Anhalt	Haseloff II	April 25, 2016
Schleswig-Holstein	Günther	June 28, 2017
Thuringia	Ramelow II	4th March 2020

Historical overview of all state governments

State governments of current German states

State governments of former German states

Government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse

Historical overview of the chairmen of the state governments

See also : List of Prime Ministers of the German Länder

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Overview of the Prime Ministers

Women as chairmen of the state government

To date, seven women have chaired a state government in Germany. Of these, however, only one, Hannelore Kraft , won the office through a top candidacy in a general election, although without initially having had its own majority. Five were elected by the respective parliamentary majorities after the resignations of the respective office holder, another held the office on a provisional basis.

The first woman to lead the government of a German country was Louise Schroeder ( SPD ), who had to lead the Berlin magistrate from August 18, 1947 to December 7, 1948, because the mayor, who was actually elected, was not confirmed by the Allied command ( see also Magistrate Schroeder ).

Heide Simonis (SPD) was elected Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein for the first time in 1993 and was in office until 2005 (see also the Simonis I , II and III cabinets ). Christine Lieberknecht ( CDU ) then ruled in Thuringia from 2009 to 2014 (see also the Lieberknecht cabinet ).

Currently (2019) two women are prime ministers at the head of a state government: in Rhineland-Palatinate Malu Dreyer (SPD) since January 2013 and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since July 2017 Manuela Schwesig (see also Cabinet Dreyer I and II and Cabinet Schwesig ).

The proportion of women among the chairmen of the 16 state governments has now been 25%; Within a few years it came significantly closer to the proportion of women in the 16  parliaments of the federal states , which ranges between 18.8% ( Baden-Württemberg ) and around 40% ( Bremen , Brandenburg ) and averages around a third of the members. Since the 1990s, the proportion of women in the individual state parliaments has risen significantly.

With two out of seven at the end of 2019, the proportion of women among the SPD Prime Ministers was 28.6%. The CDU in six federal states, the CSU in Bavaria , the Left Party in Thuringia and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen in Baden-Württemberg do not provide any women from their ranks for the top office of the state governments they lead.

See also : proportions of women at state level  and proportions of women in state parliaments

Women as prime ministers of German states
Period	1947-1948	1948-1993	1993-2005	2005-2009	2009	2010	2011–2012	2013-2014	2015-2017	2017	2017-2018	since 2018
Prime Minister / term of office (s)	Louise Schroeder ( SPD ) 1947–1948
			Heide Simonis ( SPD ) 1993-1996; 1996-2000; 2000-2005
					Christine Lieberknecht ( CDU ) 2009-2014
						Hannelore Kraft ( SPD ) 2010–2012; 2012-2017
							Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer ( CDU ) 2011–2012; 2012-2017; 2017-2018
								Malu Dreyer ( SPD ) 2013–2016; 2016–
											Manuela Schwesig ( SPD ) 2017–
Number of women in office at the same time	1	no	1	no	1	2	3	4th	3	2	3	2
Proportion of women among the prime ministers of all 16 countries (other countries up to 1990)	5.9%	0%	6.2%	0%	6.2%	12.5%	18.7%	25.0%	18.7%	12.5%	18.7%	12.5%

See also

• List of representations of the churches in state governments under Evangelical Office and Catholic Office .

Web links

Commons : State government  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Parliament Vice- President Lösch urges the realization of equal opportunities. on: landtag-bw.de , accessed on January 16, 2013.
2. ↑ Statistics on the 18th LP ( memento from February 21, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ) on: bremische-buergerschaft.de , accessed on January 16, 2013.
3. ^ Special edition Landtag Brandenburg: Names - Dates - Facts. 5th electoral term 2009–2014. Published by: President of the Brandenburg State Parliament, as of November 2009, p. 49. ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1 MB) 
4. ↑ 50 years of women in politics: late successes, but not the goal. The political participation of women over time. at: bpb .de , accessed on January 16, 2013.