The governing mayor () of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

is the

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

, presiding over the

Berlin Senate The Senate of Berlin (; unofficially: ) is the executive body governing the city of Berlin, which at the same time is a state of Germany. According to the Constitution of Berlin the Senate consists of the Governing Mayor of Berlin and up to ten ...

. As Berlin is an

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

as well as one of the constituent

states of Germany The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

(), the office is the equivalent of the ministers president of the other German states, except the states of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

, where the heads of government are called "First Mayor" and "President of the Senate and Mayor", respectively. The title Governing Mayor of Berlin is the equivalent of

Lord Mayor Lord mayor is a title of a mayor of what is usually a major city in a Commonwealth realm, with special recognition bestowed by the sovereign. However, the title or an equivalent is present in other countries, including forms such as "high mayor". A ...

in the meaning of an actual executive leader. Rotes Rathaus

According to the Berlin Constitution, the governing mayor is member and head of the Berlin Senate. The ministers are called senators. The two deputies additionally hold the title of Mayor (, historically:

burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...

). The title Mayor is also held by the heads of the twelve

boroughs of Berlin Berlin is divided into boroughs or administrative districts (). In Berlin, the term is officially shortened to (districts). The boroughs are further divided into quarters (). These smaller localities are officially recognised, but have no admini ...

, although they do not actually preside over self-governmental municipalities. The governing mayor is elected by the city's state parliament, the

Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin The of Berlin (House of Representatives) () is the state parliament ('' Landtag'') of Berlin, Germany according to the city-state's constitution. In 1993, the parliament moved from Rathaus Schöneberg to its present house on Niederkirchnerst ...

(equivalent to the of other federal states), which also controls their policy guidelines and is able to enforce resignation by a

motion of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

. The governing mayor is entitled to appoint and release the senators of the government. The seat of the Senate is the city hall,

Rotes Rathaus The Red Town Hall ( ) is the town hall of Berlin, Germany, located in the Mitte (locality), Mitte district on Rathausstraße near Alexanderplatz. It is the home to the Governing Mayor of Berlin, governing mayor and the government (the Senate of B ...

, in

Mitte Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kreuz ...

History

As capital of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, Berlin received its first Lord Mayor () according to the

Prussian reforms The Prussian Reform Movement was a series of constitutional, administrative, social, and economic reforms early in 19th-century Prussia. They are sometimes known as the Stein–Hardenberg Reforms, for Karl Freiherr vom Stein and Karl August v ...

after the retreat of the

Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of mi ...

occupation troops in 1809, approved by King

Frederick William III Frederick William III (; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved. ...

. He served as head of the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

called . The two-stage administration and the office of the boroughs' mayors were implemented in the course of the wide-ranging incorporations by the 1920

Greater Berlin Act The Greater Berlin Act (), officially Law Regarding the Creation of the New Municipality of Berlin (), was a law passed by the Prussian state government in 1920, which greatly expanded the size of the Prussian and German capital of Berlin. Hist ...

During the Allied occupation after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the city assembly () elected the

Social Democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

politician

Ernst Reuter Ernst Rudolf Johannes Reuter (29 July 1889 – 29 September 1953) was the mayor of West Berlin from 1948 to 1953, during the time of the Cold War. He played a significant role in unifying the divided sectors of Berlin and publicly and politically ...

as Lord Mayor on 24 June 1947, who, however, did not obtain the affirmation by the

Allied Kommandatura The Allied Kommandatura, or often just Kommandatura, also known as the in German, was the governing body for the city of History of Berlin#The divided city, Berlin following Germany's defeat in World War II. The victorious allied powers estab ...

of Berlin due to

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

reservations. Following the Communist putsch in Berlin's city government in September 1948, a separate city parliament (still named ) was set up, however, ''de facto'' only competent for the western occupation sectors of what was to become

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

was elected on 5 December 1948, electing two days later a separate city government and Ernst Reuter Lord Mayor for West Berlin. The Soviet administration had officially deposed the previous elected government for all of Berlin with effect only in the eastern sector and had installed the SED Lord Mayor Friedrich Ebert, Jr. in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

already on 30 November 1948. West Berlin introduced its own constitution (), accounting for the changed facts, with effect of 1 October 1950. This constitution provided for the renaming of the city parliament to "", of the city government into "Senate of Berlin" and the head of government into "Governing Mayor of Berlin".Cf. articles 25 and 40 of ''Die Verfassung von Berlin'' (Constitution of Berlin est, Berlin (West): Landeszentrale für politische Bildungsarbeit Berlin, 1982, pp. 34 and 37. Following the new constitution representatives were elected on 3 December 1950 and the new parliament re-elected Ernst Reuter as head of city government on 18 January 1951, with Reuter then adopting the new title. From 1951 to 1990, during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, the governing mayor was the head of government in West Berlin with his seat at

Rathaus Schöneberg Rathaus Schöneberg is the City and town halls, city hall for the Boroughs of Berlin, borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin, Germany. From 1949 until 1990 it served as the seat of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin, state senate of West Berlin a ...

, while East Berlin ''de jure'' remained under Soviet occupation and ''de facto'' became a part and capital of the

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

— not recognized by the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

members, but actually condoned by the 1971

Four Power Agreement on Berlin The Four Power Agreement on Berlin, also known as the Berlin Agreement or the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin, was agreed on 3 September 1971 by the reconvened Allied Control Council, consisting of ambassadors of the four wartime Allied power ...

and the German Basic Treaty of 1972. The government of West Berlin claimed to be the legitimate government for all of Berlin within the borders established by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act until the

Peaceful Revolution The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...

of 1989. Even before

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

on 3 October 1990, the West Berlin governing mayor and the East Berlin held common cabinet meetings, until Berlin-wide elections took place on 2 December 1990.

History

List

See also

Notes and references

External links