Constitution for the city of Bremerhaven
Basic data | |
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Title: | Constitution for the city of Bremerhaven |
Abbreviation: | Availability |
Type: | Local law |
Scope: | Bremerhaven |
Issued on the basis of: | Art. 145 BremLV |
Legal matter: | Local law |
Original version from: | November 4, 1947 ( Brem.GBl. P. 243) |
Entry into force on: | February 1, 1948 |
Last revision from: | 3 December 2015 (Brem.GBl. 2015, 670) |
Entry into force of the new version on: |
January 1, 2016 |
Weblink: | Text of the constitution |
Please note the note on the applicable legal version. |
The constitution for the city of Bremerhaven dates from November 4, 1947 and is currently in a new version of December 3, 2015. Due to its constitution, the city is often called the “freest municipality” in Germany, also in comparison with the regulations for municipalities in the rest of Germany designated.
Since the state of Bremen does not have a municipal code and the Bremerhaven constitution is based on local law in the form of a statute, this freedom is restricted: The constitution may not contravene higher-ranking state or federal law, otherwise the provisions concerned would be ineffective. There are also regulations for municipal supervision by the state of Bremen, but they are not legally binding.
precursor
The "Provisional Municipal Code", which dates to November 8, 1837, can be considered the first predecessor. At that time, the Bremen Senate still held a predominant position over the "Colonie" Bremerhaven. Another municipal code was issued on October 18, 1851 and approved the place, apart from the financial area, further autonomy rights. On October 1, 1879, the city received the right to self-government through the enactment of a city constitution.
Basics
According to Article 145 of the state constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen , the municipalities can adopt their own constitutions. The Bremerhaven constitution is essentially based on the municipal constitution of Freiherr vom Stein , on which earlier forms of the city constitution were based. In addition, there was then the influence of a draft constitution that was presented in May 1947 at the German Association of Cities. In a nationwide comparison, this form of constitution is special because apart from a few municipalities in Hesse, only Bremerhaven has a municipal constitution. Here the legislature (here the Bremerhaven City Council ) and the executive (the magistrate ) are strictly separated. Since the resolutions of the city council in Bremerhaven, in contrast to the “real” municipal constitution, do not require the approval of the municipal authorities in order to become legally binding, we are also talking about a “fake municipal constitution”.
structure
The constitution comprises 80 paragraphs, which are structured as follows:
- Basics of the city constitution (§§ 1–8)
- Rights and obligations of residents and citizens (§§ 9–21)
- City administration
- City council assembly (§§ 22-45)
- Magistrate (§§ 46-55)
- Management of special funds (Section 56)
- City economy
- City assets (§§ 57-60)
- Economic activity (§§ 61-62)
- Debts (§ 63)
- Household (§§ 64-66)
- Audit of the accounts (§§ 67-73)
- Supervision (§§ 74-79)
- Final provisions (§ 80)
content
The first part deals with questions of principle, including the use of national emblems (Section 7) or the definition of the urban area (Section 8). At the same time, § 3 regulates that an amendment to the city constitution requires a two-thirds majority in the city council as well as approval from the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen .
The second part of the constitution regulates u. a. Provisions on honorary citizenship (Section 14), resident applications (Section 15), petitions for citizens (Section 16) and referendums (Section 17). Paragraph 18 also provides for the right of children and young people to participate if their interests are affected by the city's planning projects.
In the third part of the constitution, the tasks and responsibilities of the two organs of the city, the city council and the magistrate, are detailed. The city council consists of 48 city councilors (Section 22). The magistrate consists of the mayor , mayor and full-time and honorary members ( city councils ) (§ 46). All members of the magistrate are appointed by the city council, which is an exception in Germany. Bremerhaven has therefore (besides the city of Bremen) since the 1990s the only place in northern Germany where the mayors are not directly elected by the people. This opens up the question to what extent this is a deficit of direct democracy .
The fourth part explains the principles of asset and household management and issues regulations for the economic activity of the city and for taking on debts. The fifth part stipulates that the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, as the state government, is responsible for ensuring that Bremerhaven is administered in accordance with the law (Section 74). If existing law is violated, the Senate can instruct the Magistrate or the Lord Mayor to object to this (Section 76). If the city does not comply with its statutory obligations, the Senate can, after a period of time, order what is necessary in place of the city (Section 77). With the help of these paragraphs, the Bremerhaven constitution tries to define and at the same time limit state powers by means of local law. This is considered inadmissible in the literature, also because there is no law in Bremen state law to carry out such, therefore non-binding, municipal supervision. So far, no legal disputes have been conducted on the basis of these provisions; disputes that have arisen have been dealt with politically.
literature
- Michael Göbel: Bremen . In: Thomas Mann, Günter Püttner (ed.): Handbook of communal science and practice . 3. Edition. tape 1 . Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-3-540-68884-6 , pp. 771–796 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- Hartmut Bickelmann (ed.): Constitution, administration and democracy. Contributions to the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Bremerhaven city constitution (= publications of the Bremerhaven City Archives . Volume 12 ). City archive, Bremerhaven 1997, ISBN 3-923851-18-9 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Karlheinz Arendt: Bremen . In: Hans Peters (Ed.): Handbook of communal science and practice . tape 1 . Springer, 1956, ISBN 978-3-642-86959-4 , pp. 523 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Michael Scherer: Local politics in Bremen . In: Andreas Kost, Hans-Georg Wehling (Hrsg.): Local politics in the German states. An introduction . 2nd Edition. Springer, 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-92034-4 , pp. 125 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Andreas Fisahn: Direct Democracy in Bremen . In: Andreas Kost (ed.): Direct democracy in the German countries. An introduction . Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-3-322-80568-3 , pp. 98 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Göbel, p. 772
- ^ A b Manfred Ernst: City constitution in conflict. Legal disputes about the Bremerhaven city constitution . In: Hartmut Bickelmann (Ed.): Constitution, Administration and Democracy. Contributions to the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Bremerhaven city constitution (= publications of the Bremerhaven City Archives . Volume 12 ). City archive, Bremerhaven 1997, ISBN 3-923851-18-9 , p. 70-71 . Statements on municipal supervision refer to Sections 64 to 69 of the version of the constitution valid at the time.
- ↑ Ernst, p. 69 f.
- ↑ Scherer, p. 167
- ^ Johanna Vogt: City Council Assembly Bremerhaven . In: Lothar Probst (Ed.): Political Institutions, Parties and Elections in the Federal State of Bremen (= Politics and Participation . No. 5 ). LIT Verlag, Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-11145-6 , pp. 40 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Fisahn, p. 101