Northern state

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A northern state is a country that is created in the course of a possible reorganization of the German states , the name of which depends on the variant of the possible mergers. The creation of a northern state ( North German State ) has been the subject of discussions in politics and business associations since the end of the Second World War . The first politician to bring a northern state up for discussion in the 1940s was the then Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Hermann Lüdemann . His idea of uniting Schleswig-Holstein with Hamburg and communities south of the Elbe close to the Elbe to form a federal state of the Lower Elbe also met with strong resistance from his own party, the SPD .

Variants of a possible national territory

Four variants are discussed ( northern state : green, north-east state : red, north-west state : light green)

Merger with five countries The merger of the five states Schleswig-Holstein , Hamburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Lower Saxony and Bremen to form a common northern German state. Brandenburg and Berlin form a common state, which occasionally includes the Western Pomerania part of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as a former Prussian area and the northern parts of Saxony-Anhalt .
Merger with four countries The amalgamation of the four states Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Bremen to form a common north-western state ; Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as part of a north-eastern state with Berlin-Brandenburg .
Merger with three countries The merger of the three states Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to form a northern state. Lower Saxony and Bremen form a north-western state . Brandenburg and Berlin form a common state, which occasionally includes the Western Pomerania part of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as a former Prussian area and the northern parts of Saxony-Anhalt .
Merger with two countries The amalgamation of the two states Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg to form a northern state (usually referred to as Northern Elbia ). Lower Saxony and Bremen form a north-western state . Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as part of a north-eastern state with Berlin-Brandenburg.

There are a number of proposals for limit corrections for these merger variants .

Objectives and motives

The aim of the amalgamation is cost savings and an associated increase in efficiency in politics and administration, but also a reduction in permanent election campaigns . With an overall economic area, negotiations can be conducted more easily and the position strengthened in the international environment (e.g. competence clusters for renewable energies, shipbuilding, biotechnology, transport). Hamburg would experience a mitigation of the city / surrounding area problem and could lead negotiations (e.g. for housing construction) with the neighboring municipalities. In addition, northern German cultural similarities are emphasized ( North Sea / Baltic Sea , Friesland , Hanseatic League , Low German language , brick Gothic, etc.). The common history is also pointed out with regard to the Hanseatic League, the tribal duchy of Saxony , the Lower Saxon Imperial Circle and the North German Confederation .

Another important aspect can be found in the concept of transparency. The diverse provisions of the horizontal and vertical financial equalization of the federal states , as well as the inclusion of different negotiating levels, make it difficult for citizens to understand and monitor political processes.

Cons and criticism

Opponents of an alliance cite the loss of cultural identity and less political influence as arguments.

In addition to the traditional similarities of the northern German states, some of them also look back on their own long, independent history. The name of a merged state could hardly simply consist of a combination of the previous names and certain or all historical areas lose their representation in the state name. The historical artificiality of the state would come to light until a new identity was formed.

The question of the seat of the state government and its authorities, their emblems, the harmonization of state laws and regulations (example school policy: different school types in the respective states) and the new regulation of tax revenues, also with regard to the state financial equalization, would be difficult to clarify. With a merger of Bremen and Lower Saxony, these states would have to expect 500 million euros less income per year, which would be offset by cost savings in administration of perhaps only 50 to 80 million euros.

Likewise, in the event of a merger, a new regulation of Schleswig-Holstein's minority protection would have to be considered.

Political disadvantages

The decisive problem of politics and parties with regard to a reorganization arises from the population figures of the newly created countries. According to Article 51, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law , each country has at least three votes in the Bundesrat , four votes from two million inhabitants, five votes from six million inhabitants and the maximum number of six votes from seven million inhabitants. The small states are thus favored in the weighting of the votes and, as long as the Bundesrat still has significant importance in the balance of power at the federal level, are often decisive for the respective majority of voting rights in the Bundesrat, especially if this does not agree politically with that of the Bundestag. Hamburg currently has three votes and Schleswig-Holstein four. In the event of a merger, there would only be four, i.e. a weakening of the North German positions in the Bundesrat by three votes, the voting power in the Bundesrat per inhabitant would be roughly halved. From this one could conclude that the design of Article 51.2 of the Basic Law opposes a reorganization of the federal territory in northern Germany, as in the case of Berlin-Brandenburg and the question of the Saarland's right to exist , and thus secures a balance of power for German party democracy. In this respect, only compelling economic savings in the field of politics and administration and the recognizable will of the population will pave the way to a northern state, possibly with another change in the voting rights in the Federal Council.

Shifting Influence

In a (then former) city-state like Hamburg, the more traditionally minded population from suburban or rural areas would increasingly decide on urban issues that would hardly affect them directly in everyday life, but the (tendentially more liberal minded) city dwellers would. From the perspective of the rural population, however, the big city dwellers, for example from the current city-state of Hamburg, would have a greater say in their affairs than they do now, and political voting weights would shift.

Merger of Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein

Already after the Second World War, the Kiel Prime Minister Hermann Lüdemann made specific proposals for a common state, which, however, met with rejection from various areas. From Hamburg's point of view, the rebuilding of the port, which is important for the nation, was the first priority of the Hanseatic city. Bundling forces for this task and maintaining independence were too much anchored in the city's tradition. They did not want to take on the role of a capital city with the administration of a predominantly agricultural country structured completely differently.

The discussion about a merger, however, was held again and again, sometimes more or less, in the following decades. In fact, the decision prevailed to find ways of working together in the form of collaborations in different areas instead of a joint merger. This cooperation consists of joint institutions such as the State Statistical Office or the Hanse Office , and the possible creation of a North Elbe federal state is supported by the development of the European metropolitan region of Hamburg . In preparation, the amalgamation of several Schleswig-Holstein districts in the Hamburg bacon belt is being politically discussed at district level. In any case, only the bilateral amalgamation of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein to form a new state appears politically almost realistic in northern Germany. Such a country would have an area of ​​16,518.34 km² (in the ranking of the states 11th place before Thuringia ) and approx. 4,558,000 inhabitants (in the ranking 6th place before Saxony ), who are mainly concentrated in the south of the state. In addition to Hamburg and Kiel , Lübeck is also mentioned as a possible state capital in the current discussion . However, the approval of the population is likely to be problematic. So Hamburg would have to give up its long-preserved independence, which the city had also achieved in relation to Holstein / Denmark (see Gottorper comparison ). According to previous audits, the income of the two countries from the state financial equalization would also be around one billion euros less.

Current discussion

In February 2005, Hamburg's mayor Ole von Beust suggested that the states of Hamburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein be merged within twelve years. Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Peter Harry Carstensen shared the opinion in the press that a northern state was the future, but pointed out that this would be “a task for the next generation”. The Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Economics, Bernd Rohwer , who was in office until May 2005, had also spoken out in favor of merging Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein to form a northern alliance. Such a merger is viewed critically, especially in the so-called Kiel region of Schleswig-Holstein. In October 2005 Ole von Beust expected northern Elbe within the next 15 years, but considered a major solution involving Lower Saxony to be “ungovernable”. Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Christian Wulff kept a low profile on this issue, and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen traditionally insists on its independence.

The then Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Harald Ringstorff , spoke out in the spring of 2006 for increased cooperation with Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, but saw no political majorities for a merger at that time. The Brandenburg Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck , on the other hand, advocated a north-eastern state consisting of Berlin , Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and parts of Saxony-Anhalt .

In addition, the question of the seriousness with which the goal of a northern state is pursued remains. Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Peter Harry Carstensen had spoken very positively of the northern state in Hamburg, but rowed back in the state parliament and only wanted to set a route for a common economic, administrative and knowledge region.

On the subject of the Northern State, Bremen's Mayor Jens Böhrnsen said in April 2009 that he considered this debate superfluous and that German federalism with small and large countries was so wanted and a valuable asset to regulate things regionally, which leads to a better relationship between people and the state enable. In addition, he did not see how larger countries could better solve financial problems, especially since the then lower funds from the state financial equalization could not be offset by possible cost savings in administration.

In the past, there were repeated irritations in the relationship between Bremen and Lower Saxony, which were often based on aspects of spatial and economic planning in Lower Saxony's surrounding municipalities, which Bremen saw as unfavorable, where large industrial areas were created in competition with Bremen's economy. On the other hand, the Lower Saxony side often criticizes so-called “Bremen solo efforts” in infrastructure planning. In this respect, the relationship between Bremen and Lower Saxony is marked by far greater dissonances than, for example, that between Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.

Probabilities

The bargaining theory shows that multilateral agreements are far more difficult to achieve than bilateral ones. Therefore the simultaneous unification of more than two countries according to their laws is to be classified as an extremely problematic political decision-making process and accordingly unlikely. It is therefore more likely that two federal states will merge, i.e. Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein on the one hand and Lower Saxony and Bremen on the other. It would depend on the course of the respective integration processes whether these two new units come closer together. An inclusion of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is currently not rudimentary foreseeable in the discussion, but a pure "green table" in the sense of general staff planning of the 19th century. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is itself an art state , the Mecklenburg part historically tends more towards Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, while Western Pomerania, as the former Prussian province of Pomerania , was governed from Stettin before the war and is therefore more in the tradition of Brandenburg and tends towards northeast Germany .

Other reorganizations

Since the merger of Baden , Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern (to form Baden-Württemberg ) in 1952, there has been no more reorganization (apart from minor border adjustments such as the incorporation of the Neuhaus office in Lower Saxony in 1993). In 1996, the planned unification of Berlin and Brandenburg to one Land Berlin-Brandenburg failed in a referendum , but the issue is still under discussion. In addition, some politicians from the states of Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are discussing an amalgamation to form Central Germany . A merger of the Saarland with Rhineland-Palatinate to form the federal state of Rhineland-Saar-Palatinate has also been called for several times.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt February 26, 2009 The dream of the northern state - this is how it could become reality http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2009/02/26/1063979.html
  2. ↑ according to Jens Böhrnsen in the Hamburger Abendblatt April 21, 2009
  3. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt February 26, 2009: Who would benefit from a country merger - and who would lose it http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2009/02/26/1063968.html
  4. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt, April 21, 2008
  5. ↑ Article in the Weser-Kurier ( Memento from May 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Situation of the B6