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The Burgermeister, Germany's Chief Municipal Magistrate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Joseph Torrey Bishop
Joseph Torrey Bishop
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

The title bürgermeister first appears in German municipal history during the early part of the thirteenth century, but the exact nature of the tasks imposed upon the official at this period still remains obscured in the darkness of the Middle Ages. We know that there were such officers, and we know something as to the method of their election, but very little as to the extent of their real power. Probably, however, as Von Maurer suggests, the bürgermeister had originally no other duty than that of presiding over the civic council, a simple function, to which came later to be added a general oversight of current affairs and the enforcing of city ordinances.

Considerably more, however, may be learned as to the duties of this officer in the seventeenth century, when the franchise had become more and more restricted and the number of town officers much smaller, and when, partly as a result of this decrease and partly in consequence of the awakening industrial life of the period, there had come to be an increase in the importance of town officials, and naturally among the rest in that of the chief magistrate.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , May 1908 , pp. 396 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1908

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References

1 Zimmermann, A., Versuch einer historischen Entwickelung der märkischen Städteverfassungen, i, 90.Google Scholar

2 Maurer, G. L. von, Geschichte der Städteverfassung in Deutschland, i, 631.Google Scholar

3 Zimmermann, , Versuch einer historischen Entwickelung der märkischen Städteverfassungen, iii, 12–13.Google Scholar

4 Zimmermann, , Versuch einer historischen Entwickelung der märkischen Städteverfassungen, iii, 29.Google Scholar

5 For a discussion of this system, see Brooks, R. C. on The Three Class System, in Municipal Affairs, iii, 396ff.Google Scholar

6 Ledermann, Walter, Die Städte-Ordnung, 119.Google Scholar

7 For German cost of living, see Ashley, W. J., Progress of the German Working Classes, 24.Google Scholar

8 For the exact figures in all German cities, see Joseph Kürschner's Handbuch.

9 Ledermann, , Die Städte-Ordnung, 511.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., 326.

11 For a detailed account of this charity, see Neefe, M., editor, Statistisches Jahrbuch Deutscher Städte (1901), 255.Google Scholar

12 Ledermann, , Die Städte-Ordnung, 518.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., 332.

14 Ibid., 518.

15 See Redlich, Josef, Local Government in England, i, 303–304.Google Scholar

16 Ledermann, , Die Städte-Ordnung, 517.Google Scholar

17 Ibid.

18 Many of the larger cities maintain two or even three bürgermeisters, the highest bearing the title of ober-bürgermeister.

19 Ledermann, , Die Städte-Ordnung, 516.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., 517.

21 Ibid.

22 Ledermann, , Die Städte-Ordnung, 516.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., 517.

24 When no government commissioner (staats kommissar) has been appointed. See Ibid., 386.

25 Ibid., 388.

26 Ledermann, , Die Städte-Ordnung, 331.Google Scholar

27 Ledermann, , Die Städte-Ordnung, 44.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., 366.

29 Ibid., 122.

30 Ibid., 481.

31 Ibid., 421.

32 James, , Municipal Administration in Germany as seen in the Government of a Typical Prussian City, Halle a/S., 91.Google Scholar

33 The following advertisement is taken from the Deutsche Gemeinde-Zeitung of Berlin, July 21, 1906:

Position of Bürgermeister Vacant

In consequence of the pensioning of the former incumbent, the position of First Bürgermeister, in our city, must again be filled—that is, between October 1 and January 1, 1907.

The salary, which entitles the recipient to a pension conditionally upon the consent of the district committee, amounts to 7500 marks, rising after 3 years to 8000 marks, after 6 years to 8500 marks, and after 9 years to 9000 marks.

Candidate must possess experience as a judge or in some branch of important administrative service, and must have proved himself successful in the local service.

Account of Previous Service is not Without Weight.

Information including career and testimonials may, up to September 1, be presented to the undersigned.

Personal application is not, for the present, desired.

Rathenow July 16, 1906.

By Town Appointment, the Director.

C. Heidepriem.

34 Kürschner, Joseph, editor, Handbuch des Reiches und der Einzelstaaten (1906), 1115.Google Scholar

35 James, Edmund J., Municipal Administration in Germany as seen in the Government of a Typical Prussian City, Halle a/S., 13Google Scholar, note.

36 Ledermann, , Die Städte-Ordnung, 418.Google Scholar The pension amounts to one-quarter of the salary for 6 years' service, one-half for 12 years, and two-thirds for 24.

37 For this and following records, see Degener, H. A. L., Wer ist's? (1905).Google Scholar

38 See bottom of next page.

39 Pyfferoen, Oscar, Berlin et ses institutions administratives, 13.Google Scholar

40 Shaw, Albert, Municipal Government in Continental Europe, 315.Google Scholar See also Shaw's, Municipal Government in Great Britain, 59Google Scholar, and Anson's, W. R.Law and Custom of the Constitution, ii, 233.Google Scholar

41 Conkling, A. R., City Government in the United States, 22Google Scholar.

42 Yet the idea of municipal government by means of the board system is at present gaining ground in the United States. Agitation in Boston, Massachusetts, and in other eastern sections points in this direction, and recent legislation in Iowa seems to be an even stronger indication of the advance of the German system.

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