District President (Germany)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Baden-Wuerttemberg , Bavaria , Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia , and formerly also in other German states or states, the district president (RP) is the designation of the head of the state authority (district government, government, district council or the district president), whose area of ​​responsibility defines an administrative district . The incumbents are political officials and are appointed by the respective prime minister. As top civil servants, they are paid according to salary order B. Depending on the number of inhabitants in the administrative district, salaries start in group B 7 or B 8 . The permanent representative of a government president bears the official title of government vice president .

History of the office

The authority of a district president was introduced by the Stein-Hardenberg reforms in Prussia in 1808 and replaced the war and domain chambers that had existed there since 1723 as a central authority. With the "Ordinance for Improved Establishment of the Provincial Authorities" of April 30, 1815, the Prussian state territory was then divided into ten provinces, each of which was divided into two or more administrative districts. Due to the imprecise allocation of competencies between the upper and regional presidents , a simplification of the state central authority in Prussia was a constant issue until the state was dissolved in 1947. The Hohenzollerschen Lande were the only Prussian province whose regional presidents also had the powers of an upper president.

During the time of the German Empire , there were also regional councils as a central instance of state administration, especially in the larger federal states, but sometimes under a different name: districts in Bavaria and Württemberg , provinces in Hesse , state commissioner districts in Baden , district chiefs in Saxony . The official designation of the head of the authority was adjusted to the Prussian designation regional president during the time of National Socialism .

After 1945 government districts were set up for intermediate authorities of the state administration in the territorial states of the western zones, with the exception of Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland. In the Soviet zone, there were administrative districts only in Saxony-Anhalt. The government president was the head and namesake of these authorities. In the 1980s, everywhere the replacement of the designations was made President of the Government in ... by regional council in ... .

There are no regional councils in the following countries:

  • Rhineland-Palatinate , since 2000
  • Saxony-Anhalt , since 2003
  • Lower Saxony , since 2005
  • Saxony , from August 1st, 2008 until the merger of the three formerly independent regional offices in Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig with effect from March 1st, 2012 to form the regional office of Saxony, Saxony was the president of the regional office

literature

  • Klaus Schwabe (Ed.): The Prussian Oberpräsident 1815–1945 (= German ruling classes in modern times. Vol. 15 = Büdinger research on social history. 1981). Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1985, ISBN 3-7646-1857-4 .
  • Jörg Bogumil , Steffen Kottmann: Administrative structural reform - the abolition of the district governments in Lower Saxony , series of publications by the Westphalia Initiative Foundation, Volume 11, Ibbenbürener Vereindruckerei. Ibbenbüren, 2006, ISBN 3-932959-48-5 , PDF
  • Wilhelm Volkert (Ed.): Handbook of Bavarian Offices, Municipalities and Courts 1799–1980 , Munich, 1983, ISBN 3-406-09669-7