Senate of the Free City of Gdansk
The Senate of the Free City of Danzig was the government of the Free City of Danzig from 1920 to 1939. It replaced the Allied administration from the administrator Reginald Thomas Tower and the Danzig State Council .
Constitutional regulations
The separation of Danzig from the German Reich against the will of large sections of the population as a "Free City" without a vote led to the need to draft a constitution. In the Constitution of the Free City of Danzig , which was then drawn up , the role of the Senate was regulated in Articles 25 to 42. The Senate consisted of 7 full-time senators (including the President of the Senate as Chairman and the Deputy President as Deputy Chairman) and 13 honorary Senators. The full-time senators were elected by the People's Day for 4 years, the part-time senators even for an indefinite period. Honorary senators could only be recalled through an express vote of no confidence by the People's Day. Even if the People's Day was dissolved, the Senate remained in office.
The Senate was the highest state authority. In particular, he had the task:
- to promulgate the laws within one month of their constitutional conclusion and to issue the ordinances necessary for their implementation;
- to lead the state administration independently within the framework of the constitution, the laws and the state budget and to supervise all state authorities;
- to draw up the draft budget;
- administer the property and income of the state, direct the income and expenditure, and defend the rights of the state;
- to appoint civil servants, unless otherwise prescribed by the constitution or law;
- to ensure the security and the common good of the state and of all nationals within the framework of the constitution and the laws and to issue the necessary regulations.
The legislative procedure regulated in Articles 43 to 49 regulated that laws required the approval of the Senate and the People's Day. In the event that the Senate refuses to approve popular parliamentary bills, a referendum was planned. Changes to the constitution required a two-thirds majority.
With the constitutional amendment with the law of July 4, 1930, the number of senators was reduced to 12 (and that of the People's Parliament from 120 to 72).
The individual senates
Senate Sahm I and II
After the proclamation of the Free City of Danzig on November 15, 1920, the Constituent Assembly elected the first Senate on December 6, 1920. A bourgeois coalition of DNVP , Center DDP and the liberal Free Economic Association had formed. The Social Democrats were in opposition. At the head of the Senate was Heinrich Sahm , the former mayor, who received 68 of 120 votes. 4 German national, 4 center members and 5 liberal politicians were elected as honorary senators. In the election for the 2nd People's Day on November 18, 1923 , the coalition was confirmed and the Senate Sahm I remained in office until December 10, 1924. The then newly formed Senate Sahm II corresponded to the first.
For the members of the Senate see Senate Sahm I .
Minority Senate 1925 to 1928
The rejection of the state budget in 1925 by Vice President Ernst Ziehm led to a government crisis. On August 19, 1925, the new senate was a minority senate made up of the SPD , the center and the German Liberal Party (this had been formed in 1925 from the "Free Association of Officials, Salaried Employees and Workers" and the "German Party for Progress and Economy (since 1920 The name of the Free Economic Association) was formed) This government was tolerated by the Poles and the non-attached MP Wilhelm Rahn .
Even if Sahm refused to allow the SPD to participate in government, he remained in office for reasons of continuity. The honorary senators were replaced by 7 social democrats, 4 center members and 2 German liberals. The Senate remained in office until December 18, 1928.
For the members of the Senate, see Senate Sahm II .
Senate Sahm III
In the election for the 3rd People's Day on November 13, 1927 , there were further shifts towards the SPD. The parties of the previous minority government now had a majority. Without prejudice to some personnel changes, the SPD, the Center and the Liberals continued to form the Senate.
The coalition broke up over the question of housing management and the financing laws in 1930. On March 29, the Liberals and on April 2, 1930 the SPD left the alliance. In May 1930 Heinrich Sahms attempt to form a bourgeois senate failed. Sahm suffered another setback in the vote on the constitutional amendment, in which the DNVP pushed through to reduce the People's Day from 120 to 72 members. The Senate remained in office until January 9, 1931.
For the members of the Senate, see Senate Sahm III .
Senate Ziehm
In the election for the 4th People's Day on November 16, 1930 , neither the left nor the bourgeois parties had received a majority. The NSDAP , which had received 12 mandates, had tipped the scales.
On January 10, 1931, a new Senate was formed under Ernst Ziehm. German nationalists, center and liberals formed this new Senate, which was tolerated by the National Socialists. In the autumn of 1931, an overthrow of the Ziehm Senate was discussed in the NSDAP, but Adolf Hitler decided against it. At the end of 1932 Hitler changed his mind and they waited for an occasion. With the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933, the NSDAP saw the time had come. It withdrew its trust in Senate Ziehm and offered to enter a joint Senate with the bourgeois parties if Hermann Rauschning became Senate President and the NSDAP would provide the Senator for the Interior. The bourgeois parties refused and the Senate resigned. He remained in office until June 20, 1933.
For the members of the Senate, see Senate Ziehm .
time of the nationalsocialism
The election for the 5th People's Day on May 28, 1933 resulted in an absolute majority for the National Socialists. On June 20, 1933, a Senate was elected under Hermann Rauschning , to which only National Socialists and two center members belonged. The People's Day decided to adopt the Enabling Act and the Senate could now govern with emergency ordinances without a parliament.
After the NSDAP had withdrawn Rauschnig's trust, a new NSDAP Senate was formed on November 23, 1934 under Arthur Greiser . Due to the special status of the city, the synchronization could in fact be operated but not formally completed. In the massively falsified People's Day election in Danzig in 1935 , the National Socialists therefore tried to obtain a constitution-changing majority in order to remove the already hollowed-out constitution and thus the Senate and to introduce the Führer principle . However, they did not get a two-thirds majority.
With the invasion of Poland , Danzig was annexed to the Reich again and the Free City and the Senate ceased to exist.
For the members of the Senate, see Senat Rauschning and Senat Greiser .
The Senate as an organ of the commune
The Free City of Danzig consisted of the city of Danzig and surrounding counties. While the districts elected their own organs of local self-government (district council, district committee, district administrator) according to the “Law on Local Elections” of April 4, 1924, such an election was not made for the city of Danzig. Here the Senate also performed the task of the magistrate. The city council of 51 members was elected by the People's Day. These regulations were provisionally made with the “Law on the Provisional Regulation of Various Points of Municipal Constitutional Law” of July 18, 1919 and finally with the law “On the Administration of Municipal Affairs in the City of Danzig” on October 9, 1923. In the individual districts of the city of Gdansk, district leaders were elected by the people for a period of 6 years.
Seat
The Senate had its seat in the former regional council of the administrative district of Danzig (until 1920), Neugarten 12-16, Danzig.
literature
- Stefan Samerski: The Catholic Church in the Free City of Danzig, 1991, ISBN 3412017914 , pp. 80–84
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Text of the constitution
- ↑ Journal of Laws p. 179
- ↑ Dieter Schenk : Danzig 1930–1945. The end of a free city . Ch.links, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-737-3 , p. 28 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Georg-Christoph von Unruh: The Free State of Danzig; in: Gerd Heinrich, Friedrich-Wilhelm Henning, Kurt GA Jeserich: Administrative history of East Germany 1815-1945; 1992, ISBN 3-17-011338-0 , pp. 355-357