Minister of State (Germany)
Minister of State (StMin) is the title of a high-ranking government representative in Germany . At the federal level, the title of parliamentary state secretary is conferred. In Bavaria , Hesse , Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate , the members of the state government at ministerial level are also referred to as ministers of state .
Federation
At the federal level in Germany, the title of Minister of State is a designation given by the Federal President (pursuant to Section 8 ParlStG ) on the proposal of the Federal Chancellor in agreement with the responsible Federal Minister to a parliamentary State Secretary of the Federation for the duration of his or her term of office or for the performance of a specific task, without doing so a greater power would be connected. The certificate of appointment and the handbook of the federal government continue to provide for the appointment as "Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister of / for ...".
This has so far only been used in the Federal Chancellery and the Foreign Office :
- The ministers of state at the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs use the title more for protocol reasons, in order to be able to maintain eye level on the diplomatic floor . However, frequently encountered in official use designation "Minister of State at the Foreign Office" is formally incorrect as the Minister of State "only" perceive the official role of a parliamentary state secretary and, therefore, the foreign minister in question only when given, so (civil servants) as opposed to the State secretaries of the Foreign Office (formerly “ in the Foreign Office”) have no powers within the ministerial office. However, “Minister of State in the Foreign Office” has generally even established itself as a functional designation in the Foreign Office. Since November 2002 one of the ministers of state of the Federal Foreign Minister has also been given the title of "Minister of State for Europe".
- This is also the case with the ministers of state with the Federal Chancellor who are not “ministers of state in the Federal Chancellery”. In 1998, Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder created the office of the so-called Minister of State for Culture (officially: Minister of State for the Federal Chancellor and Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media ) with his own authority. Because although at that time it was only a matter of bundling business areas , the establishment of a corresponding federal ministry would be verbal due to the material cultural sovereignty of the states (according to Art. 30 and Art. 70, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law ) , although often demanded by many cultural institutions been inappropriate. The task of the Federal Government Commissioner for the new states with the focus on " Construction East ", which was initially also performed by a Minister of State for the Federal Chancellor, was given to the Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Housing (or Transport, Building) after the Federal Parliament election in 2002 as part of an organizational decree and urban development). In 2005, Chancellor Angela Merkel moved the position of the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration with the rank of Parliamentary State Secretary from the Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to the Federal Chancellery and awarded Maria Böhmer the title of Minister of State in order to make immigration policy a larger cross-sectional task To give weight. There is also a ministerial post in the Chancellery for federal-state coordination.
Current ministers of state with the Federal Chancellor:
- Dorothee Bär ( CSU , digitization)
- Monika Grütters ( CDU , Culture and Media)
- Hendrik Hoppenstedt (CDU, coordination of federal-state relations)
- Annette Widmann-Mauz (CDU, Migration, Refugees and Integration)
Current ministers of state at the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs:
- Niels Annen ( SPD , general foreign policy)
- Michelle Müntefering (SPD, foreign cultural and educational policy)
- Michael Roth (SPD, Europe)
countries
After the Second World War and the formation of new German states in the individual occupation zones , only the Free State of Bavaria resorted to the tradition of designating the members of its state government as ministers of state . This has also been anchored in the section on the tasks and composition of the state government in the constitution of the Free State of Bavaria from the start (see Art. 43, Paragraph 2 of the BayVerf). The prime minister determines the number of ministers of state , but may not exceed 17. The division of ministries of the state ministries is laid down in the division of responsibilities of the Bavarian state government. It has also become customary to transfer the head of the state chancellery and a cabinet member for federal and / or European affairs to this rank.
The State of Hesse only adopted the designation Minister of State insofar as it awards it as a mere additional or honorary title to all members of the state government with the rank of minister (for example "State Minister and Minister of Finance of the State of Hesse")
In Rhineland-Palatinate, too, the ministers are customarily referred to as ministers of state, even if this is not provided for in the constitution.
With the reunification of Germany and the emergence of new states on the soil of the former German Democratic Republic , the name was then adopted by Saxony in the constitution of the Free State of Saxony based on the Bavarian model (according to Art. 59 Para. 2 SächsVerf).
After winning the state election, Prime Minister Wolfgang Böhmer awarded the title of Minister of State as a functional designation for the head of the State Chancellery of Saxony-Anhalt by virtue of his organizational sovereignty .
In Baden-Württemberg the head of the State Ministry (State Chancellery) is officially designated as Minister of State .
In North Rhine-Westphalia , former state ministers are named "retired state ministers" after many years of state practice. D. ”. The term state minister for former state ministers is to be understood in terms of customary law. It is not found in the state constitution or in the state ministers' law and does not apply to ministers who are still members of the state government.
Historical
The title of State and Conference Minister appeared in Germany for the first time in the 18th century and was given individually to members of princely cabinets in order to distinguish them from the other councils and to illustrate their particularly strong position within the government . At the same time, this was connected with the development of departmental structures, as a result of which separate authorities for the respective departments (foreign affairs, justice, war, etc.) of the Minister of State were developed.
The title was also adopted for the members of the respective state governments at the time of the Weimar Republic , in order to lean verbally on the term Free State , which was common for all German members at the time, including in Prussia .
In Nazi leaders State new offices designations were created early on to the strongly hierarchical to express state structure and the many special authorities. The only two appointments to ministers of state at the level of the Reich fell during Hitler's tenure . Thus Otto Meissner to the presidential office of the State Minister and Chief leader and Chancellor and Karl Hermann Frank the German State Minister for Bohemia and Moravia appointed. Both were given the rank of Reich Minister at the same time , which also reflected their actual position of power.
Individual evidence
- ^ Text of the Act on the Legal Relationships of Parliamentary State Secretaries
- ^ Government Online
- ↑ set out in the decision of the state government of 9./23. July 2002, MBl. LSA p. 779.
- ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior - Inland Protocol, Guide to Addresses and Salutations, as of December 2016, p. 88 https://www.protokoll-inland.de/SharedDocs/downloads/Webs/PI/DE/Allgemeines/Anschriften.pdf?__blob = publicationFile & v = 1
