List of mayors of Berlin

The following list of mayors of Berlin shows all the mayors (Oberbürgermeister, Regierender Bürgermeister) of Berlin, Germany since 1809:

1806–1809

In 1806 the French occupants gathered 2,000 wealthy Berliners in St. Peter's Church, Berlin, in order to elect the Grand conseil (grand council) of sixty members again electing the Comité administratif (administrative committee). This body of seven elected burghers was the provisional city government competent to carry out the orders of the occupation power, especially to raise the French war contributions by levying them mostly from the 2,000 eligible voters. The président of the committee was the Berlin-based Prussian publisher:^[1]

• François Théodore de Lagarde (1806–1809; *1756-1824*)

1809–1935

Oberbürgermeister (generally "Lord Mayor")

• Leopold von Gerlach (1809–1813)
• Johann Büsching (1814–1832)
• Friedrich von Bärensprung (1832–1834)
• Heinrich Wilhelm Krausnick (1834–1848)
• Franz Christian Naunyn (1848–1851)
• Heinrich Wilhelm Krausnick (1851–1862)
• Karl Theodor Seydel (1863–1872)
• Arthur Hobrecht (1872–1878)
• Max von Forckenbeck (1878–1892)
• Robert Zelle (1892–1898)
• Martin Kirschner (1899–1912)
• Adolph Wermuth (1912–1920)
• Gustav Böß (1921–1929)
• Arthur Scholz (1929–1931)
• Heinrich Sahm (1931–1935)

1935–1945

The Nazi government introduced a new unitary municipal ordinance for all German municipalities and cities accounting for the de facto abolition of municipal democracy and autonomy since the Nazi takeover in 1933. According to the new ordinance the head of the city was titled Stadtpräsident (city president).

• Oskar Maretzky (1935–1937)
• Julius Lippert (1937–1940)
• Ludwig Steeg (1940–1945)

1945–1948

Following Berlin's provisional post-war constitution, enacted under quadripartite Allied rule, the head of city government was titled again Oberbürgermeister (generally "Lord Mayor").

• Arthur Werner (1945–1946)
• Otto Ostrowski (1946–1947)
• Louise Schroeder (1947–1948), replacing the Lord Mayor Elect Ernst Reuter, who was barred by Soviet veto.
• Ferdinand Friedensburg (1948)

1948–1991 (East Berlin)

Lord Mayors (German title: Oberbürgermeister) of East Berlin, capital in the socialist state of the German Democratic Republic.

• Friedrich Ebert, Jr. (1948–1967)
• Herbert Fechner (1967–1974)
• Erhard Krack (1974–1990)
• Dr. Ingrid Pankraz (1990)
• Dr. Christian Hartenauer (1990)
• Tino Schwierzina (1990–1991)
• Thomas Krüger (1991) provisional

The Governing Mayor of Berlin (Regierender Bürgermeister von Berlin) was democratically elected in January 1991.

1948–1991 (West Berlin)

Under Berlin's provisional post-war constitution, valid for West Berlin until September 1950, the mayor continued to be called Lord Mayor (Oberbürgermeister). By the new constitution of Berlin (West), effective as of 1 October 1950, the title was Governing Mayor of Berlin (German: Regierender Bürgermeister von Berlin), competent for Berlin (West) only between 1949 and 1990, and reunited Berlin, capital of Germany since. Following the new constitution the new parliament of West Berlin, the House of Representatives of Berlin (Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin), was newly elected on 3 December 1950 and constituted on 11 January 1951.

After reunification

Notes

1. ^ Cf. Werner Gahrig, Unterwegs zu den Hugenotten in Berlin. Historische Spaziergänge, extended and corrected ed., Berlin: edition ost/Das Neue Berlin, ²2000, p. 83. ISBN 3-360-01013-2