Senate of the Free City of Frankfurt

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The Senate of the Free City of Frankfurt was the highest constitutional body of the executive in the Free City of Frankfurt between 1816 and 1866 . It emerged from the council of the imperial city of Frankfurt. After the loss of state sovereignty , the now Prussian city ​​of Frankfurt am Main received a municipal constitution in 1867 . The municipal magistrate took over the administrative tasks of the Senate .

Emergence

Frankfurt am Main was an imperial city in the Holy Roman Empire . The council was at the head of the imperial city of Frankfurt. In 1806 the city lost its sovereignty and became part of the Principality of Aschaffenburg and the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt . After the Wars of Liberation , the city regained its independence and became a part of the German Confederation as the Free City of Frankfurt .

With the spin-off from the Generalgouvernement of Frankfurt on January 1, 1814, the old constitution was put back into force. After long negotiations, a new constitution was agreed in 1816, the constitutional amendment act . As the name suggests, many elements of the old council constitution have been adopted. The previous council has now become the Senate.

As a transitional regulation, it was regulated that the previous council members should be accepted as lay judges in the new Senate. 20 citizens (2 of the third order and 18 of the second order; 12 of them should be legal scholars) were to be elected as new senators. On August 26, 1816 and the following days, this additional election of the new 20 senators took place. For the members of this first Senate see List of Senators of the Free City of Frankfurt 1817 .

In the late summer of 1817, the first Senate was elected in accordance with the constitutional supplementary act. For the members of this Senate see List of Senators of the Free City of Frankfurt 1818 .

The Senate according to the Constitutional Amendment Act

The city senate was the executive branch of the Free City of Frankfurt and the successor to the council of the imperial city constitution. Like this one, it consisted of three banks with 14 members each. Unlike before 1806, however, the predominance was no longer with the patrician inheritance , especially the aristocratic societies Alten Limpurg and Zum Frauenstein . The senators were appointed for life.

The first senate bank was the bank of the lay judges , which included the four municipal syndici . Its members complemented each other according to the principle of anciency from the second bank, the Senators ' Bank , which consisted mainly of lawyers and business people. The third bank consisted of 12 guild and two non- guild council members. The members of the second and third banks were co-opted by the senators .

For this purpose, an electoral body composed of six representatives elected by the Senate by secret ballot (regardless of which bank) and six representatives of the legislative assembly met. This college elected three candidates by an absolute majority who met the electoral requirements according to Articles 6 and 19 of the constitutional supplementary act: The candidates had to have been Frankfurt citizenship for at least 10 years (which required proof of assets of at least 5000 guilders and members of the three Christian denominations, Lutheran , Catholic or Reformed ) and have lived in Frankfurt for at least 10 years without interruption, be at least 30 years old and were not allowed to be in the service of another state, for example Prussia or Austria. Only “scholars, aristocrats, military personnel, merchants and other respected citizens” could be elected to the senatorial bank, 12 guild craftsmen for the third bank, whereby more than one representative from each guild was never allowed to be in the senate at the same time, while two senate seats of the “all other non-guilds Christian citizenship, regardless of the trade ”were reserved. Further provisions that had been taken over from the time of the imperial city also excluded citizens who were closely related or related by marriage to incumbent senators from being elected.

One of the three candidates elected by the electoral college was then drawn at a meeting of the Senate in the presence of the delegates of the legislative assembly according to the balloting procedure, and the new senator was immediately committed.

A separation of the judiciary and administration was not provided for in the constitution. Some of the senators consisted of legal scholars. These were part of the jurisprudence and were in front of the various courts of the Free City. Another part of the Senate forms the Administrative Senate or Inner Senate and managed the administration. The administrative senate thus consisted of the senators apart from the Syndici, the senators charged with the exercise of justice and the seven youngest members of the third bank.

The Senate also elected the two city leaders, the Senior Mayor (from the Schöffenbank) and the Younger Mayor (from the Senator's Bank) by balloting.

The senior mayor presided over the Senate and was in charge of foreign relations and the military. The younger mayor from the Senatorial Bank was in charge of the police, the guild system and civil rights affairs and was his colleague's representative.

Revolution of 1848

The March Revolution also affected the city of Frankfurt, but had no influence on the organization of the Senate. A March Ministry was not set up, nor was a new constitution passed (the work of the Constituent Assembly of the Free City of Frankfurt remained without consequences).

Organic law of 1855

The Organic Law of 1855 was a constitutional amendment. In it the Senate was reduced to 21 members, 4 of whom were craftsmen. The separation of justice and administration has been implemented. The judges were now elected by the Senators and the Legislative Assembly. The Senate seats in the Legislative Assembly (which was reduced to 88 members) were dropped. The senator's salaries were increased significantly (to around 4,000 guilders ).

The end of the Senate

After the annexation of the Free City of Frankfurt by Prussia, General Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein declared the Senate to be dissolved on July 16, 1866. He took over the government himself and instructed Carl Fellner and Samuel Gottlieb Müller to assist him in the administration of the city.

The Senate met in a last special session and protested against annexation and dissolution in a resolution, but asked Fellner and Müller to comply with the request in the interests of the city.

However, the implementation of Prussia's demand for contributions exceeded the possibilities of the “Government of the City of Frankfurt” created in this way. The former senators were therefore appointed to the Russischer Hof on Sunday, July 22nd and appointed the new magistrate of the city of Frankfurt. As a first official act, you should arrange for the contributions to be paid and thus prevent military coercive measures. Fellner therefore called an extraordinary meeting of the magistrate on July 23. It was decided to pass a down payment of 5 million guilders in a joint submission to the citizens' representatives and the legislative body. However, the citizen representation declared that they did not know a magistrate. The bill was ignored and it was decided instead that the contribution was impossible and that a bourgeois deputation should be sent to negotiate with the Prussian king.

Prussia then doubled the down payment to 10 million on July 24th, arranged for compulsory billeting in the houses of the members of the Citizens' Representation and the legislative body, and appointed a Prussian commissioner to collect the funds from the townspeople. Fellner committed suicide on the morning of July 24th.

On July 27th, Müller was elected chairman by the Senate. He brought the matter to the Legislative Assembly again. Under the impression of the Prussian coercive measures, they decided to ask the Senate to find a solution that would put an end to the increasing demands. This opened the way for the payment of contributions and negotiations between Müller at the head of a Frankfurt delegation with Prussia. On October 18, they agreed on a transitional arrangement. After that, the Senate was to form the head of the Prussian city. It should consist of 9 paid and 3 unpaid members, elected for life.

This Senate headed the city until the Prussian municipal code came into force. In the deliberations on the new municipal code, the Senate was renamed the Magistrate according to the name in the other Prussian cities (in the first draft version there was still talk of a Senate). From March 25, 1867, King Wilhelm approved the law and ended the history of the Frankfurt Senate.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Schwemer: History of the Free City of Frankfurt. Volume 1, p. 235.
  2. ^ Richard Schwemer: History of the Free City of Frankfurt. Volume 1, p. 245.
  3. ↑ Constitution supplement act , Art. 19, p. 34 ff. In: Law and Statute Collection of the Free City of Frankfurt. Vol. 1, pp. 7-70.
  4. ^ Richard Schwemer: History of the Free City of Frankfurt. Volume 3.2, p. 324 ff.
  5. ^ Fellner, Carl | Frankfurt dictionary of persons. Accessed January 30, 2019 .
  6. ^ Collection of Laws 1867, No. 27.
  7. ^ Richard Schwemer: History of the Free City of Frankfurt. Volume 3.2, pp. 330-465.