Constitution of Hamburg

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The Constitution of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg (German: Verfassung der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg) is the basic governing document of the German city-state of Hamburg. It was approved on 6 June 1952. It is the fourth constitution that the state has had, consists of 76 articles and has been amended 13 times.

History

The first Rezeß of 1410.

Erich and Martin Verg considered a document called "the first Rezeß" of 1410 as the first constitution of Hamburg, although it has had no democratically founded proceedings to establish it.^[1]

The first constitution was established on 28 September 1860. It introduced a form of a representative democracy but with a limited the right to vote, e.g. only male could vote. On 13 October 1879 a new constitution (Verfassung der freien und Hansestadt Hamburg) was created.^[2]

After the First World War in 1919 in the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the Hamburg Parliament ratified a temporary constitution (Gesetz über die Vorläufige Staatsgewalt) and a constitution (Verfassung der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg) was formally approved in 1921.^[3]

The constitution of 1952 was ratified by the Hamburg Parliament.

Content

The constitution consists of 76 articles and a preamble. Dieter Läpple described the important connection between the port and the trade city to enter it into the preamble of the constitution as follows: The preamble of the constitution of Hamburg points out the close relationship between port and city with regard to their development: „As an international port the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg has a special task, allocated by its history and location, to perform for the German people. In the spirit of peace it wants to be an intermediary between all continents and peoples of the world."^[4]

It is diveded into the following sections:

• legal foundations (I). In contrast to the other two city-states Berlin and Bremen the constitution does not separate between state (Land) and local communal affairs.^[5]
• sections for the Hamburg Parliament (II) and senate (III)
• law (IV) and administration (V)
• jurisdiction (VI)
• budget and finance (VII)
• and final and transitional provisions (VIII)

Because the constitution was approved in 1959, after the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (approved in 1949) — which is the document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government in Germany and legal also for the German states (federal law breaking state law) — a part for the human or basic rights (fundamental rights) is missing.

Constitutional institutions

The legislature is the Hamburg Parliament, for the judiciary there is the Hamburg Constitutional Court (Hamburgisches Verfassungsgericht) and the executive is represented by the senate (the cabinet), with its head the First Mayor of Hamburg (Erster Bürgermeister der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg) equivalent to a prime minister or minister-president.

Amendments

The constitution has been amended 13 times since 1952.

References

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia (Version of July 2009).

Literature

• Werner Thieme: Verfassung der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg. Kommentar mit einem Anhang Hamburgischer staatsrechtlicher Gesetze. Harvestehuder Fachverlag, Hamburg 1998. ISBN 978-3-933375-00-1 (German)
• 50 Jahre Verfassung der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg : Festakt am 6. Juni 2002 im Hamburger Rathaus, Hamburgische Bürgerschaft, Hamburg 2002. OCLC 76454634 (German)

External links

• Verfassung der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg, retrieved on 2009-07-22

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