Burgomaster

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Burgomaster (alternatively spelled Burgomeister, literally translated meaning 'master of the citizens') is the English form, rendering (often the Anglo-Saxon equivalent Mayor is substituted) various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate and/or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration:

[edit] Municipal government

Bürgermeister, in German: in Germany, Austria, and formerly in Switzerland. In Switzerland, the title was abolished mid-19th century; various current titles for roughly equivalent offices include Gemeindepräsident, Stadtpräsident, Gemeindeammann, and Stadtammann.

In an important city for instance, especially in a city state (Stadtstaat), there can be several posts called Bürgermeister in the city's executive college, justifying the use of a compound title for the actual highest Magistrate (also rendered as Lord Mayor), such as:

- Regierender Bürgermeister, 'Governing Burgomaster', 'Lord Mayor' in Berlin
- Erster Bürgermeister, 'First Burgomaster' in Hamburg
- Oberbürgermeister, 'Supreme Burgomaster', the most common version
- Präsidierender Bürgermeister, an obsolete formulation sometimes found in historic texts.
- etcetera. However, in a few cases, such title was again multiplicated.
Burgemeester in Dutch: Belgium (also Bourgmestre in French; a party-political post, though formally nominated by the regional government and answerable to it, the federal state and even the province) and in The Netherlands.
Buergermeeschter in Luxembourg.
In Polish, a mayoral title, derived from German, is burmistrz.
Bourgmestre (French) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

[edit] Compound title at supra-municipal level

Amtsbürgermeister (German; roughly translated: 'District Burgomaster') can be used for the Chief Magistrate of a Swiss constitutive Canton, as in Aargau 1815-1831 (next styled Landamman)