Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen

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Bremen coat of arms

The Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the highest executive body of the municipality of Bremen and at the same time the state government of the German state of the same name , which forms the "two-city state" with Bremerhaven.

Senate formation and powers

The town hall, the seat of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
Senate Chamber

The formation, composition and competencies of the Senate are mainly regulated in Articles 107 to 121 of the State Constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen . According to this, the Bremen citizenship decides on the number of members of the Senate by law and then first elects the President of the Senate and then the Senators in a separate ballot. On the proposal of the Senate, the citizenship can elect councilors to further members of the Senate, the number of whom may not exceed one third of the number of senators.

The President of the Senate also bears the official title of “ Mayor ”, as does another Senator to be elected by the Senate, who acts as a deputy to the Senate President. The Senate issues rules of procedure and distributes the areas of responsibility of the administrative authorities and offices among its members. The main tasks of the Senate include the implementation of the law, the management of the administration and the external representation of Bremen. The office of a member of the Senate is incompatible with that of a member of the citizenship ; if a member of the citizenship is elected to the Senate, his mandate is suspended for as long as he belongs to the Senate. It can only exercise its citizenship mandate after it has left the Senate.

The term of office of the Senate is tied to the length of the electoral term of the citizenship. In contrast to most other German states , the premature discharge of office by the President of the Senate - e.g. through resignation or death - has no effect on the term of office of the other Senate members. For example, the change in this office during an electoral term from Henning Scherf to Jens Böhrnsen in November 2005 did not constitutionally mark the start of a new Senate.

The President of the Senate directs the business and meetings of the Senate, with his vote deciding in the event of a tie . Although the state constitution says nothing about the authority of the President of the Senate to issue guidelines , he is still considered a determining figure in political practice and acts on an equal footing with the other state leaders. However, he traditionally does not have the strong position in his party as many heads of government in other German countries: During his tenure, no Senate President was also chairman of the SPD Bremen .

Business distribution

The Senate decides independently on its division of responsibilities. Although the number of Senate members is set by law, the number of administrative authorities is not. Usually the President of the Senate himself leads a division and sometimes a Senator is responsible for several departments. In the Senate of the 20th electoral term (since 2019) ten departments were formed:

Changes in the formation of the Senate

Election of the President of the Senate by the citizens

Until 1994, the Bremen Senate was appointed as a collective body by the citizenship: First, the citizenship elected all Senate members in one ballot, then the Senate constituted itself as a body, elected the President of the Senate and his deputy without the participation of the citizenship and decided on its division of responsibilities. Since a constitutional amendment on November 8, 1994, the Senate President has been elected in a separate ballot by the citizens (and no longer by the Senate itself). This provision was first applied on July 4, 1995, when the members of the 14th parliament in their constituent meeting elected the SPD politician Henning Scherf first as President of the Senate and then the seven senators in a further ballot.

Other members of the Senate

Since 2000, the state constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen has also offered the possibility of electing state councilors as "further members of the Senate". Eleven days after this regulation came into force on February 12, 2000, further members of the Senate were elected for the first time within the meaning of the new constitutional provision, with the state councilors Erik Bettermann and Reinhard Metz, who had been in office since 1999 . Since then, however, only the respective plenipotentiaries of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen have been elected to the Senate as state councilors in order to represent the state of Bremen in the mediation committee and in the Federal Council and to cast the three votes of the state of Bremen in the Federal Council as electoral leader .

The same regulations apply to the Senate members in their appointment and in their official powers as for the Senators. In doing so, they set themselves apart from the other state councilors, who, as the highest-ranking officials in the state of Bremen, are assigned to the senators, but do not belong to the senate itself:

  • The other members of the Senate are elected by the citizens and take their oath of office before parliament.
  • You have a seat and vote in the Senate; when voting, they are not bound by the instructions of the senator to whose authority they are assigned.
  • They can be appointed as full members of the Federal Council and act as voting leaders of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.
  • Their term of office ends with the meeting of a newly elected citizenry.
Councilors of State as further members of the Senate
Surname Political party Office Term of office
Erik Bettermann SPD State Councilor and authorized representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at the federal level, for Europe and development cooperation 2000-2001
Reinhard Metz CDU State Councilor to the Senator for Finance 2000-2003
Kerstin Kießler SPD State Councilor and authorized representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at the federal government, for Europe and development cooperation 2001-2003
State Councilor and authorized representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at the federal level and for Europe 2003-2007
State Councilor and authorized representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at the federal level 2007-2011
Eva Quante-Brandt SPD State Councilor for Federal and European Affairs and Integration and authorized representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at the federal level and for Europe 2011–2012
Ulrike Hiller SPD State Councilor for Federal and European Affairs and Integration and authorized representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at the federal level and for Europe 2012-2015
State councilor for federal and European affairs and authorized representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at the federal government, for Europe and development cooperation 2015-2019
Olaf Joachim SPD State Councilor for Media Affairs, Development Cooperation and International Affairs and authorized representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen at the federal level since 2019

Senate since 1945

The formation of the Senate in Bremen after the end of World War II in 1945 is characterized by a high degree of continuity: The SPD emerged as the strongest parliamentary group from 19 successive citizenship elections between 1946 and 2015 ; she consistently provided the President of the Senate. From 1971 to 1991 the SPD ruled without a coalition partner. From 1946 to 1947 and 1955 to 1967 the SPD also had an absolute majority of the seats in parliament, but still governed jointly with other parties.

Equally remarkable is the small number of presidents of the Senate currently in office: Andreas Bovenschulte is only the ninth politician to hold this office. Wilhelm Kaisen held the office the longest at almost 20 years (August 1945 to July 1965), Hans Koschnick held office for 18 years, Klaus Wedemeier , Henning Scherf and Jens Böhrnsen for ten years each.

Overview of the Bremen Senates since 1945
senate Term of office Ruling parties President of the Senate Electoral term of citizenship
Vagts 1945 SPD , BDV , KPD Erich Vagts ( independent ) 1 -
Kaisen I. 1945-1946 SPD, BDV, KPD Wilhelm Kaisen (SPD) Appointed Citizenship
Kaisen II 1946-1948 SPD, BDV 1st, 2nd
Kaisen III 1948-1951 SPD, BDV 2.
Kaisen IV 1951-1955 SPD, FDP , CDU 3.
Kaisen V 1955-1959 SPD, CDU, FDP 4th
Kaisen VI 1959-1963 SPD, FDP 5.
Kaisen VII 1963-1965 SPD, FDP 6th
Dehnkamp 1965-1967 SPD, FDP Willy Dehnkamp (SPD) 6th
Koschnick I. 1967-1971 SPD, FDP (until June 1, 1971) 2 Hans Koschnick (SPD) 7th
Koschnick II 1971-1975 SPD 8th.
Koschnick III 1975-1979 SPD 9.
Koschnick IV 1979-1983 SPD 10.
Koschnick V 1983-1985 SPD 11.
Wedemeier I 1985-1987 SPD Klaus Wedemeier (SPD) 11.
Wedemeier II 1987-1991 SPD 12.
Wedemeier III 1991-1995 SPD, Alliance 90 / The Greens , FDP 13.
Scherf I 1995-1999 SPD, CDU Henning Scherf (SPD) 14th
Scherf II 1999-2003 SPD, CDU 15th
Scherf III 2003-2005 SPD, CDU 16.
Boehrnsen I. 2005-2007 SPD, CDU Jens Boehrnsen (SPD) 16.
Böhrnsen II 2007-2011 SPD, Alliance 90 / The Greens 17th
Boehrnsen III 2011-2015 SPD, Alliance 90 / The Greens 18th
Sieling 2015-2019 SPD, Alliance 90 / The Greens Carsten Sieling (SPD) 19th
Bovenschulte since 2019 SPD, Alliance 90 / The Greens, The Left Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) 20th
1 Used by the US military government, official title: "Governing Mayor".
2On June 1, 1971, the FDP left the coalition. Until the end of the 7th electoral term in October 1971, the SPD had a minority government .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Law amending the state constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen of November 1, 1994. (PDF; 185 kB) In: Gesetzblatt der Free Hansestadt Bremen, No. 44/1994. Senate Chancellery Bremen, City Hall, November 7, 1994, pp. 289–292 , accessed on August 22, 2017 .
  2. Election of the President of the Senate; Election of the other members of the Senate; Swearing-in of the Senate. (PDF; 1.1 MB) In: Minutes of the plenary 14/1. Bremische Bürgerschaft (Landtag), July 4, 1995, pp. 16-19 , accessed on August 22, 2017 .
  3. Law amending the state constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen of February 1, 2000. (PDF; 167 kB) In: Law Gazette of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, No. 5/2000. Senate Chancellery Bremen, City Hall, February 11, 2000, p. 31 , accessed on August 22, 2017 .
  4. ^ Election and swearing-in of further members of the Senate according to Article 107 of the state constitution. (PDF; 323 kB) In: Plenary minutes 15/11. Bremische Bürgerschaft (Landtag), February 23, 2000, pp. 737-739 , accessed on August 22, 2017 .
  5. ↑ The new Bremen state government decided to divide up and assign departments. In: press release. Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Senate Press Office, July 4, 2003, accessed on August 22, 2017 .