Constitution of the City and Republic of Bern
The constitution of the city and republic of Bern was based on the so-called Golden Handfeste , dated 1218 , based on the model of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau . In 1293, King Adolf confirmed the Golden Handfeste in Zurich and, in a second document, looked up the city and republic of Bern for everything they had acquired during the last imperial vacancy (July 1291 to May 1293). The Golden Handfeste was continuously supplemented by statutes. The ensuing collection of laws actually formed the constitution. Parts of the city statutes were given the term Red Book because of the red velvet used on the book cover for this collection . In contrast to the court statutes (civil and procedural law) and the choir court statutes (marriage law, moral legislation), which appeared in print from 1615, the Red Book was not allowed to be printed. Members of the Grand Council could have a copy made.
The executive , legislative and judicial branches were not delimited. The mayor was also a member of the Small Council (executive), the Grand Council (legislative) and the judiciary (judiciary). The members of the small council always belonged to the grand council. The court crew was formed by members of the Small and Large Councils, and a German and a Welsh appellate chamber had existed as appeal bodies since the 16th century.
Great advice
The Bernese Grand Council, which was chaired by the mayor , was created as part of the constitutional reform of 1294. With the Grand Council, the commercial townspeople created a counterweight to the Small Council, which was dominated by the urban nobility. Everyone elected had to accept the Bernese citizen right within 14 days (if he did not already have it) and to procure armaments. The Grand Council was supplemented annually up to 1619; in the course of the 17th century, the supplementary elections took place less and less, until it was finally decided in 1642 that an election should only be scheduled if the number of members fell below 200. Under no circumstances could more than 300 members be elected. The election took place until 1591 after the four city districts. Four representatives from each of the four districts elected 50 members of the Grand Council as electors (the “sixteen”) at Easter . The sixteen and the members of the small council did not originally belong to the grand council.
In the 15th century, membership in the Grand Council was made more difficult for the first time by statutes, in which Bern residents had to reside in Bern for five years and Swiss citizens for ten years. The original number of 200 members ("Council of Two Hundred") gradually grew in the late Middle Ages, at times to over 300 members. In 1529 the statute was passed that every member of the Grand Council within the city ban should own their own house, and sons in their fathers' house had to own their own house within one year. From 1557, people born out of wedlock were no longer allowed to sit on the council. The resident categories of permanent residents ( Habitanten ) and Hintersässen , newly created in 1643, could not be elected to the council. From 1683, unmarried men who were 29 years of age could also be elected. While "burger" referred to the entire population of the city in the Middle Ages, in modern times at the latest the term only meant the members of the Grand Council. With the council resolution of May 8, 1682, the Grand Council declared itself sovereign and thus wrested sovereignty from the citizenship. The number of eligible genders became increasingly smaller due to co-optation , which in the 18th century at the latest led to displeasure in the non-governing families with civil rights (see Henzi conspiracy ). In 1790 it was decided that the minimum number of genders represented in the Grand Council should be 76. In the late 18th century, elections only took place every ten years or when the number of councilors fell below 200. This led to the fact that resignations (resignations) of older council members were bought.
Little advice
A council was first recorded in 1224, and in 1249 there was talk of two councils. The council , called the Small Council since 1294 to distinguish it from the Grand Council , formed the government, the center of power in Bern. The Small Council has been deliberating the business of the Grand Council since 1526.
Sixteen
The sixteen had the right to nominate in the supplementary elections of the Grand Council. Only those who were baptized within the city ban could become sixteen. Each society (guild) in Bern provided a sixteen, the Venner societies two. The companies of Ober-Gerwern and Mittellöwen shared the right to the two sixteen. Two years in a row Ober-Gerwern had both sixteen, in the third year the Middle Lions were entitled to one of the two sixteen. Together with the members of the Small Council, the sixteen nominations for the Grand Council were made on Maundy Thursday.
Schultheiss
In the early days of Bern, the city lord appointed a mayor ( scultetus , causidicus ) as a deputy . A document from 1223 names Rodolfus de Crohtal […] causidicus for the first time as a Bernese mayor. After the death of Berchtold V in 1218, the city of Bern fell to the king because it was built on the land of the king. From now on, the Roman-German king appointed the mayor or imperial bailiff , later possibly also Peter of Savoy , the patron ( defensor ) of Bern. With the Golden Handfeste (Golden Handfeste) , dated 1218, but possibly later issued , the Bernese council received the right to choose the mayor from among its members. However, it can be assumed that Bern had to contend for this right in the 13th century. Imperial bailiffs and imperial delegates are still mentioned in the sources in 1244 and 1255. An election of the mayor by the council (with confirmation by the king) might not have prevailed until the second half of the 13th century. From that moment on, the ruling mayor was head of the city and, increasingly, of the territories it had acquired. The nomination of the Schultheissen has been made by the four Venners with a three-way suggestion since early modern times. Until 1636, the Schultheiss was chosen more openly, then by ballots .
Seckelmeister
The Seckelmeister was the highest tax officer in the city of Bern. The first well-known Seckelmeister was Konrad vom Holz. The Seckelmeister submitted the bill on St. Stephen 's Day. From 1536 a distinction was made between the Deutschseckelmeister and the Welschseckelmeister. The Welschseckelmeister was responsible for the financial management of Vaud, which was conquered in 1536 . The Seckelschreiberei (financial administration) was under the direction of the Seckelmeister.
Venner
The four Venners were originally the quarter masters and standard bearers of Bern. They were responsible for the harness show , tax collection , market surveillance and fire brigade . The crafts of the Pfister (bakers), blacksmiths , butchers and tanners made up the four town vendors since the early 15th century. In the Middle Ages, the Venner handicrafts were divided into several rooms or societies (e.g. Oberpfistern and Niederpfistern). In the early modern period (until 1798) the Venners were made up of the following companies: Pfistern, Schmieden, Metzgern, Ober-Gerwern and Mittellöwen (the latter both together). In addition to the municipal tasks, the four Venners were responsible for the administration of the district courts of Sternenberg (Schmieden), Seftigen (Pfistern), Konolfingen (butcher) and Zollikofen (Gerwern).
Offices and services
Administrative positions that were filled exclusively by members of the Grand Council were referred to as “offices and services”. Mainly these were the positions as bailiff, as well as offices in the city such as the builder of burgers, the salt director of burgers, the museum attendant , the monastery attendant or the hospital master. The offices and services were reappointed every six years. The election was made by the Grand Council. With the lottery of 1710, the offices and services were divided into four income classes and each was drawn by lot.
chancellery
The Bernese chancellery was headed by the town clerk . The first known city clerk of Bern in terms of sources was Burchardus, notarius bernensis . Ulrich von Gysenstein is referred to as Stettschriber in 1312 . After the Reformation, the town clerk had his apartment in the office building next to the town hall . He kept the city documents, carried out the official correspondence and wrote the minutes of the Small Council, alternately with the council clerk and the signatory. In the early modern period, the town clerk had to belong to the Grand Council, and since the 18th century the term of office was limited to twelve years. From around the middle of the 18th century, the town clerk was increasingly referred to as a state clerk .
literature
- Barbara Braun-Bucher: The Bernese mayor Samuel Frisching (1605–1683). Literature, education, constitution and politics of the 17th century based on a biography . Bern 1991, ISBN 3-7272-0495-8 .
- Karl Geiser: The constitution of old Bern . In: Festschrift for the VII. Secular celebration of the foundation of Bern, 1191–1891 . Schmid, Francke and Co., Bern 1891, p. 1-143 .
- Roland Gerber: God is Burger in Bern. A late medieval urban society between rule building and social equilibrium. Weimar 2001, pp. 57-58.
- Fritz Häusler: From the founding of the city to the Reformation. In: Peter Meyer (Ed.): Berner - your story. Landscape and city of Bern from prehistoric times to the present (= Illustrated Bern Encyclopedia 2). Büchler Verlag, Bern 1981, ISBN 3-7170-0185-X , pp. 51-106.
- Hermann Rennefahrt: The legal sources of the canton of Bern. The town charter of Bern V, Constitution and Administration of the State of Bern , Aarau 1959 (SSRQ BE I / 5). on-line
- Christoph von Steiger: Internal problems of the Bernese patriciate at the turn of the 18th century. Bern 1954.
- Mathias Sulser: The town clerk Peter Cyro and the Bernese Chancellery at the time of the Reformation. Bern 1922.
- Urs Martin Zahnd : City and territory: Bernese alliances and castle rights and the beginnings of urban territorial politics. In: Bern journal for history and local history. Vol. 65 (2003), pp. 102-103.
Individual evidence
- ^ Regesta Imperii 7 n.176
- ^ Regesta Imperii 7 n.179
- ↑ Geiser 1891, p. 19.
- ↑ Gerber 2001, p. 46.
- ↑ Geiser 1891, p. 96.
- ↑ a b c d e Geiser 1891, p. 98.
- ↑ Geiser 1891, p. 97.
- ↑ Geiser 1891, p. 99.
- ↑ Brunner 1964, p. 4.
- ↑ Geiser 1891, p. 100.
- ↑ Geiser 1891, p. 102.
- ↑ a b c d Geiser 1891, p. 99.
- ↑ Geiser 1891, p. 90.
- ↑ Zeerleder Urkunden 1, p. 208. in the Google book search
- ^ Anne-Marie Dubler and Hans Grütter: Bern (community). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ↑ Braun-Bucher, p. 297.
- ↑ Braun-Bucher, p. 297.
- ↑ von Steiger 1954, p. 61.
- ↑ Braun-Bucher, p. 277.
- ^ Sulser, p. 235.
- ^ Sulser, p. 235.