Senate of Berlin
{{Short description|Government of Berlin}}
{{distinguish|text=the Bundesrat of Germany, a national body based in Berlin and sometimes compared to the upper house or Senate of other national legislatures}}
File:Standard of senate and the governing mayor of Berlin.svg
The Senate of Berlin ({{langx|de|Senat von Berlin}}; unofficially: {{lang|de|Berliner Senat}}) 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 senators appointed by the governing mayor, two of whom are appointed (deputy) mayors.{{Cite web|date=2016-11-01|title=Verfassung von Berlin - Abschnitt IV: Die Regierung|url=https://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/regierender-buergermeister/verfassung/artikel.41527.php|access-date=2020-10-02|website=www.berlin.de|language=de}} The Senate meets weekly at the {{lang|de|Rotes Rathaus}} (Red Town Hall).[http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/rundgang/senatssitzungssaal.html Virtueller Rundgang: 7. Senatssitzungssaal], Berlin.de {{in lang|de}}
History
The Brandenburg municipalities of Alt-Berlin and Cölln had received town privileges in the 13th century and from 1307 on shared a common administration, but were divided after the elector subjected the city (following the idea of divide and rule) and made it his residential city in 1448. King Frederick I of Prussia by resolution finally had both towns, and three later founded adjacent cities,These were Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt, and Friedrichstadt. merged and elevated to the "Royal Capital and Residence City of Berlin" as of 1 January 1710.
File:Rotes Rathaus.jpg, seat of the Berlin Senate]]
From the Prussian reforms of 1808 until 1933, Berlin (expanded to Greater Berlin in 1920) was governed by a Magistrat (compulsorily dissolved by Nazi act on 15 March 1933), which was the executive committee of the Stadtverordnetenversammlung (city council; last convened on 27 June 1933)T.H. Elkins with B. Hofmeister, Berlin: The Spatial Structure of a Divided City, London: Methuen, 1988, {{ISBN|0-416-92220-1}}, e-edition Taylor & Francis 2005, {{ISBN|0-203-98402-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsPYIdOa1kC&q=its+executive+organ+was+the+Magistrat p. 11]. and was represented in each of the boroughs of Berlin by a local office (usually housed in the town hall of a formerly independent suburb).Elkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsPYIdOa1kC&q=Bezirksamt p. 23]. The council was headed by a Lord Mayor, or Oberbürgermeister. Lord Mayor Heinrich Sahm, elected in 1931, remained in office, and joined the NSDAP in November 1933, but resigned in 1935. His power totally depended on Julius Lippert, on 25 March 1933 appointed as Prussian State Commissioner for Berlin. So Berlin was de facto under the ultimate governance of the Nazi regime.
After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Berlin was to be under the ultimate governance of the Allied Kommandatura. However, in the election of 20 October 1946, the city elected an SPD-majority Stadtverordnetenversammlung and an SPD mayor (Otto Ostrowski, resigned 1947). The second elected SPD mayor, the devoted anti-communist Ernst Reuter, was vetoed by the Soviet commander, so Louise Schroeder (SPD) officiated as only acting lord mayor. The Western allies permitted the Berlin SPD to hold a referendum on whether to merge with the Communist party to form a unified single party of the left, the Socialist Unity Party, as realised under pressure in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, and the members voted against the merger.Elkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsPYIdOa1kC&q=20+October+1946 pp. 34–35].
File:Gedenktafel Parochialstr 1-3 (Mitt) Neues Stadthaus.jpg This was unacceptable to the Soviets, who engineered the establishment of an alternative city council in the sector under their direct control.Elkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsPYIdOa1kC&q=At+the+same+time+delegates+decided+to+set+up+a+new+city+council. p. 37]. Following the Berlin Blockade, the Soviet sector, which became known as East Berlin (and the capital of the German Democratic Republic as of October 1949) and the three western sectors (British, French, and U.S.) were functionally separated following the attempted Communist putsch in Berlin's city government in September 1948 (a situation formalised in the Four Power Agreement on Berlin of 1971).
Under the new constitution of West Berlin which came into force on 1 September 1950, Berlin was defined as a state of the Federal Republic of Germany; however, due to the Allied veto, its representatives in the federal parliament (and later in the European Parliament) were not directly elected by the citizenry, but appointed by the Berlin parliament (Abgeordnetenhaus) and had no voting power, but a merely advisory vote in those parliaments.Elkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsPYIdOa1kC&q=The+constitution+of+West+Berlin%2C+as+it+came+into+force+on+1+September+1950%2C p. 40]. On the model of the two Hanseatic city-states within the Federal Republic, Hamburg and Bremen,Europa World Year Book 2004 Volume 1, New York: Taylor & Francis, {{ISBN|1-85743-254-1}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wGA4o-UhAfgC&q=The+equivalent+of+the+Landesregierung+in+Berlin%2C+Bremen+and+Hamburg+is+the+Senate&pg=PA1845 p. 1845]. the Berlin Senate, chosen by the parties represented in the Berlin parliament, was established to perform the functions of a state government,Jan Edmund Osmanczyk and Anthony Mango, Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: A to F, New York: Taylor & Francis, 2002, {{ISBN|0-415-93920-8}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=aiIOW0LOdKgC&q=West+Berlin+was+administered+by+the+senate&pg=PA191 p. 191]. with each of its members heading a department, equivalent to a state ministry, and a Regierender Bürgermeister (Governing or Executive Mayor) at its head and one Bürgermeister as his/her deputy. In the 1950 constitution the maximum number of senators was 16,Elkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsPYIdOa1kC&q=and+not+more+than+sixteen+senators pp. 41–42.]Alexandra Richie, Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin, New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998, {{ISBN|0-7867-0510-8}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xKwjAQAAIAAJ&q=1950+constitution+The+parliament+was+permitted+to+pass+legislation+relating+to+Berlin%2C+and+elected+the+Berlin+Senate%2C+which+consisted+of+the+governing+mayor%2C+a+deputy+and+sixteen+senators p. 774]. then each elected by the parliament, but the first Senate had 13.Ann Tusa, The Last Division: a History of Berlin, 1945–1989, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison Wesley, 1997, {{ISBN|0-201-14399-2}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hlGVrPoOnRkC&q=the+new+thirteen-man+city+executive&pg=PA351 p. 35].
File:Berlin, Mitte, Parochialstraße, Feuersozietät aka Neues Stadthaus.jpg
Thus, following the Hanseatic tradition, the Lord Mayor was only primus inter pares as he and the senators had an elected mandate, therefore the Lord Mayor could not dismiss any senator. Senators could however be removed from their seats by the Parliament. Until 1990 all elected Mayors and Senators had to have their positions confirmed by the Allied commanders of West Berlin. Since both the building then used as the town hall of Berlin, (the {{Interlanguage link multi|Neues Stadthaus, Berlin|de|3=Neues Stadthaus (Berlin)|lt=Neues Stadthaus}}), and the Rotes Rathaus (which had been destroyed and was not rebuilt until 1956) were in East Berlin, the Senate met at the former town hall of Schöneberg, Rathaus Schöneberg.Elkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsPYIdOa1kC&q=West+Berlin%27s+senate%2C+teh+city%27s+governing+body%2C+was+formally+established p. 169].
During the transition to a reunified Germany in 1990, a new Magistrat was elected in East Berlin and a Senate appointed in West Berlin, and they jointly governed as a Landesregierung aus Senat und Magistrat (state government of Senate and Magistrat, known popularly as the MagiSenat),Eckardt D. Stratenschulte, [http://www.fulbright.de/fileadmin/files/togermany/grants/gss/2009/Berlin_Society_and_the_Challenge_of_Reunification_by_Eckart_D._Stratenschulte.pdf "Mission Accomplished? Berlin Society and the Challenge of Reunification] (pdf) p. 12.Sigrid Kneist, [http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/am-anfang-stand-der-magi-senat/1947934.html "Berliner Wiedervereinigung: Am Anfang stand der Magi-Senat"], Der Tagesspiegel 2 October 2010 {{in lang|de}} which initially met in alternate weeks at the Schöneberg town hall and the Red Town Hall.[http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/rbm/galerie/1990.html Der "MagiSenat" unter Walter Momper und Tino Schwierzina] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100823150354/http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/rbm/galerie/1990.html |date=2010-08-23 }}, Berlin.de {{in lang|de}} The Oberbürgermeister (East) and the Regierender Bürgermeister (West) similarly headed the government jointly.
With the completion of reunification on 3 October 1990, the MagiSenat became a unified Berlin Senate, no longer depending on Allied confirmation. The new Senate was reduced to a maximum of 8 members, and senators are now appointed by the Governing Mayor (1995 amendment of the constitution). There are now two Deputy Mayors.[http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/verfassung/section4.html The Constitution of Berlin: Section IV: The Government] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612095927/http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/verfassung/section4.html|date=2011-06-12}}, Berlin.de The senate meets in the room in the Red Town Hall which was originally created for the Magistrat in the 1950s.
Departments
{{seealso|Wegner senate}}
The Berlin Senate consists of ten ministries or departments (German: Senatsverwaltungen).{{cite web|title=Die Landesregierung von Berlin|publisher=Senatskanzlei|url=https://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/regierender-buergermeister/senat/senat-2023/|access-date=2023-06-11|date=2023-06-11}} Their work is coordinated by the staff of the Senate Chancellery, which is under the direction of the governing mayor. As of 2023, the composition of the Senate is as follows:
| class=wikitable style="text-align:center; font-size:90%"
! Portfolio ! colspan=2| Senator ! colspan=2| Party ! Took office ! Left office ! State secretaries |
| Governing Mayor of Berlin Senate Chancellery | 75x75px | Kai Wegner | bgcolor={{party color|Christian Democratic Union of Germany}}| | CDU | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Deputy Mayor Senator for Economy, Energy and Enterprise | 75x75px | Franziska Giffey | bgcolor={{party color|Social Democratic Party of Germany}}| | SPD | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Deputy Mayor Senator for Finance | 75x75px | Stefan Evers | bgcolor={{party color|Christian Democratic Union of Germany}}| | CDU | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion
| 75x75px | Joe Chialo | bgcolor={{party color|Christian Democratic Union of Germany}}| | CDU | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Senator for Urban Development, Construction and Housing
| 75x75px | Christian Gaebler | bgcolor={{party color|Social Democratic Party of Germany}}| | SPD | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Senator for Interior and Sport
| 75x75px | Iris Spranger | bgcolor={{party color|Social Democratic Party of Germany}}| | SPD | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Senator for Education, Youth and Family
| 75x75px | Katharina Günther-Wünsch | bgcolor={{party color|Christian Democratic Union of Germany}}| | CDU | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Senator for Science, Health and Care
| 75x75px | Ina Czyborra | bgcolor={{party color|Social Democratic Party of Germany}}| | SPD | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Senator for Labour, Social Affairs, Equality, Integration, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination
| 75x75px | Cansel Kiziltepe | bgcolor={{party color|Social Democratic Party of Germany}}| | SPD | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Senator for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment
| 75x75px | Manja Schreiner | bgcolor={{party color|Christian Democratic Union of Germany}}| | CDU | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
| Senator for Justice and Consumer Protection
| 75x75px | Felor Badenberg | bgcolor={{party color|Independent politician}}| | Ind. | 27 April 2023 | Incumbent | {{smalldiv|
|
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/rundgang/senatssitzungssaal.html Senate meeting room]
- [http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/rbm/senatsgalerie/index.html List of Senators since 1945]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110612095927/http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/verfassung/section4.html Constitution of Berlin. Section IV. The Government.]
- [http://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/dokumentation/geschaeftsordnung/ Procedural Rules of the Senate]{{in lang|de}}
- [http://www.berlin.de/politik-und-verwaltung/senatsverwaltungen/ Senate Departments] {{in lang|de}}
{{Berlin}}
{{Authority control}}