Council of the district

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The councils of the districts were in the 189 districts of the GDR as the executive body of the respective district assembly and thus, according to the legal definition, the executive and deciding body in a district area. Its counterpart in the 26 urban districts of the GDR was the council of the urban district and in the 11 urban districts of East Berlin the council of the urban district as organs of the respective city ​​council of the independent city or the respective urban district assembly in East Berlin.

In the state administrative structure of the GDR, the councils of the districts thus formed the third state administrative level after the government and the councils of the districts . In terms of their classification in the state structure, they are roughly comparable to today's district offices .

Principles

As a collective body, a council of the district decided within the framework prescribed by law on the issues of its administrative area, the respective rural or urban district, so as far as these did not fall under the exclusive competence of its legislative body (district council or city council or city district assembly). He prepared the decisions of the district council by introducing decision papers in these.

In accordance with the centralistic principle of dual subordination that applied in the GDR , the district councils or their specialist bodies were bound by instructions to the district council and its specialist departments, as were the executive bodies of the lowest administrative level (the councils of the district's towns and municipalities) to the district council and whose specialist bodies were subordinate.

As in all state levels, the district councils and the district councils were very restrictively subject to the dictates of the responsible district leadership of the SED , which ultimately meant that they were not independent in their local political, personal and financial decision-making.

tasks and responsibilities

The tasks and the working methods of the councils of the districts were last in the law on the local people's representatives of 1985, Chapter II, §§ 9-12; their responsibilities are regulated in Chapter V, Sections 39–60. They ranged from territorial political, social and cultural administrative tasks to budgetary and financial management and economic management measures through to domestic political obligations.

construction

The members of the district council were elected by the district council from among its members. The council members (apart from the chairman, his first deputy and the secretary of the council) were also the heads of the specialist departments of the council of the district.

Members of a council of the district were usually:

  • the chairman of the council of the district
  • the 1st deputy of the chairman
  • the deputy chairman for home affairs
  • the deputy chairman and chairman of the district planning commission
  • the deputy chairman for agriculture, forestry and food industry
  • the deputy chairman for trade and supply
  • the secretary of the council
  • the member of the Council for Finance and Pricing
  • the member of the Council for Local Utilities
  • the member of the Housing Council
  • the member of the Council for Transport
  • the member of the Energy Council
  • the member of the Council for Environmental Protection and Water Management
  • the member of the Council for Culture
  • the member of the council for youth issues, physical culture and sport
  • the district building director
  • the district school board
  • the district doctor

Personnel and structural assignments of the council areas could also vary according to the size of the circle.

Subordinate bodies of the council included a. the office of the district architect, the district cabinet for cultural work, the district cabinet for health education and the district hygiene inspection.

Role of the councils for home affairs in the SED state

The journalist Christian Booß, chairman of the “ Citizens Committee January 15”, complained in 2016 that employees of the local and district authorities were practically not held accountable for their involvement in the SED injustice system. For example, church groups and emigration applicants were subjected to harassment from the interior affairs councils in districts and municipalities. The employees responsible for this usually survived the inspections after 1990 without damage.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Law on the local people's representations of the GDR of July 4, 1985 (GöV)
  2. ↑ Interview with Christian Booß: “The goal is not to score politically” Die Tageszeitung , December 29, 2016.