Hamburg.com Residents About Hamburg
About Hamburg

Government

Hamburg is a city-state within the Federal Republic of Germany. Meet the First Mayor, the State Parliament and learn about local politics.

  • You are reading the original text
Christoph Bellin - www.bildarchiv-hamburg.de

The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is both a municipality and a city-state within the Federal Republic of Germany. There is no distinction between these administrative levels, meaning that city-wide government is organised on state-level through the Hamburg State Parliament ('Bürgerschaft' in German). 

Quick facts:

  • Hamburg is a city-state within the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Government is separated into legislative, executive and judicial powers
  • The President of the state parliament is Carola Veit and the First Mayor is Peter Tschentscher

Parliament

The Hamburg State Parliament (Bürgerschaft) is the legislature of Hamburg and consists of 121 deputies, currently presided over by Social Democrat Carola Veit. Responsibilities of the Bürgerschaft include law creation, amendment and ratification, as well as the election of the First Mayor of Hamburg. Elections to the Bürgerschaft take place every five years and are open to Hamburg residents of German citizenship aged 16 years and older.

Districts

The seven districts ('Bezirke') of Hamburg each have their own local parliament ('Bezirksversammlung') consisting of 45, 51 or 57 representatives who preside over questions of local importance to the districts. Elections take place parallel to elections to the Bürgerschaft and are open to Hamburg residents with European citizenship aged 18 years or older.

Senate

Executive power of the Hamburg government lies with the Senate or State Cabinet, which includes the senators (called Ministers elsewhere) of the different ministries (Behörden) and is headed by the First Mayor, currently Peter Tschentscher. The Second Mayor is Katharina Fegebank. The senate is responsible for Hamburg’s law enforcement, the city’s day-to-day management and its representation to the German Federal Government and other countries.

Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court ('Hamburgisches Verfassungsgericht'), the highest court in Hamburg’s judicial system, is responsible for the interpretation of the Constitution of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.