Burgomaster

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Burgomaster (alternatively spelled Burgomeister, literally translated meaning 'master of the citizens') is the English form, rendering 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. All contemporary titles are commonly translated into English with the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Mayor.

[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 Stadtamtmann.
• In an important city, especially in a city state (Stadtstaat), where one of the Bürgermeister has a rank equivalent to that of a minister-president, 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 (literally 'Governing Burgomaster' commonly translated as 'Lord Mayor') in Berlin
  • Erster Bürgermeister (literally 'First Burgomaster') in Hamburg
  • Bürgermeister und Präsident des Senats ('Burgomaster and President of the Senate') in Bremen
  • Oberbürgermeister ('Supreme Burgomaster') is the most common version. The Ober- prefix is used in many ranking systems for the next level including military designations.
  • Präsidierender Bürgermeister ('Presidential Burgomaster') is an obsolete formulation sometimes found in historic texts.
• 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 Belgium and 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)

[edit] Sources and references

• WorldStatesmen- here Switzerland, see also other present countries