The municipal council (German: Gemeinderat) is the main body of a municipality. The council is the of the municipal citizens and is elected for four, five or six years, depending on the . Every municipal council in Germany has a mayor (Bürgermeister).
Designations The term varies across German states and even within states depending on the size and status of the municipality. Specifically, the following terms are used – which vary considerably depending on the specifics of municipal constitutional law :
Municipal council / city council (in most countries) Municipal council (in Brandenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein) Market town council (in ) Local council (in local belonging to the association in Rhineland-Palatinate) Council (in Lower Saxony) City citizenship (in the city of Bremen) City Council (City of Bremerhaven and in Hesse, partly in North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Brandenburg) City council (in cities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein) Citizenship (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, where it also serves as the state parliament, as well as Hanseatic cities in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, but not in the state of Bremen, which is formed from two municipalities and where Citizenship refers solely to the state parliament) In the state of Berlin, which is also a unitary municipality, the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin is both the state parliament and the municipal representative body.
+Designations in the federal statescountryCommunityCityBaden-WürttembergMunicipal CouncilMunicipal CouncilBavariaMunicipal council or market councilCity CouncilBrandenburgmunicipal councilCity CouncilHessemunicipal councilCity CouncilMecklenburg-Western Pomeraniamunicipal councilCity council (in the Hanseatic cities: citizenship)Lower SaxonyCouncilCouncilNorth Rhine-WestphaliaMunicipal CouncilCity CouncilRhineland-PalatinateLocal council/municipal councilCity CouncilSaarlandMunicipal CouncilCity CouncilSaxonyMunicipal CouncilCity CouncilSaxony-AnhaltMunicipal CouncilCity CouncilSchleswig-HolsteinMunicipal council or municipal assemblyCity council or citizenship (Hanseatic City of Lübeck) or city council (Bad Oldesloe)ThuringiaMunicipal CouncilCity Council The members of these bodies are also often called "Gemeinderat" or "Stadtrat" (municipal councillor) (e.g., City Councillor Alois Müller). However, in countries with a magistrate constitution, "Stadtrat" is the name given to an alderman who is a member of the magistrate. The members of the City Council, on the other hand, are called " Stadtrat" (city councillor).City councilors. In Bavaria, the legal designation is "municipal council member" or "city council member," in contrast to the members of the district council and the district council (both also municipal bodies), who are called "district councilors" and "district councilors," respectively.
Depending on the country, the chairman of the city council is either the mayor or lord mayor elected by the people or a chairman elected from the body itself, who may also have a special title, e.g. city president, city council chairman, council chairman, president of the citizenry, mayor () or citizen spokesman (). In parishes and there is also a parish council, which is usually called the Pastoral council, parish council or presbytery (see ).
Assignment to the executive branch Despite the superficial similarity to a parliament, the municipal council is not part of the legislative branch, but rather of the executive branch. The representations in the city-states of Berlin and Hamburg are an exception to this. In the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the Bürgerschaft of the state of Bremen (legislative branch) is distinct from the municipal citizenship of the city municipality of Bremen (executive branch).
This is because in Germany laws can only be passed by the state (i.e. the federal or state governments). Municipalities, as territorial entities, belong to the state in the broader sense, but not to the state in the narrower sense. Laws are indeed made in local councils, but only in the form of statutes and ordinances, i.e. legal norms that rank below formal laws in the hierarchy of norms. Since the local council, despite its parliamentary nature and corresponding public perception, cannot pass laws in the formal sense, it is considered an executive and not a legislative body under constitutional law. Furthermore, the norm-setting activities of the local council only represent a small part of its overall activities. Municipal regulations also do not define the local council as the exclusive or primarily legislative body, but rather as the central governing body of the municipality, with its main focus on executive functions. Just like the judiciary, legislative bodies can only exist at the state, i.e., state and federal, levels.
Status and tasks
The municipal council is a municipal body and the political representative of the municipal citizens. The municipal council is not an authority in the institutional sense, as it carries out administrative activities under public law (body of a legal entity under public law), but without the external influence that is constitutive of an authority. It decides on the administrative organization of the municipality insofar as matters of the local community (own sphere of influence) or matters that the law assigns to the municipalities for handling on behalf of the state (transferred sphere of influence/commissioned matters) are affected (universal jurisdiction of the municipality) and the mayor ( called Lord Mayor in independent cities and large district towns) is not responsible (organ jurisdiction of the municipal council). The municipal council decides on all matters within the scope of the municipality that are not assigned to other municipal bodies with their own jurisdiction.
The municipal council is not responsible for matters that have been delegated to the mayor, municipal senate , or municipal council committee for independent handling. This includes regular business that arises on an ongoing basis and is not of fundamental importance or entails any significant obligations for the municipality. In accordance with the municipal regulations, the municipal council can also generally delegate certain business to the aforementioned municipal bodies; in such cases, it is no longer responsible for them in individual cases. The municipal council supervises the mayor and the municipal administration, in particular the implementation of its resolutions. The mayor is responsible for the administrative supervision of municipal employees; the municipal council determines the nature and extent of this authority in its rules of procedure. The mayor implements the resolutions of the municipal council. The resolutions become effective externally when they are implemented by the (lord) mayor. The resolutions are not administrative acts , but represent an internal decision-making process; they become administrative acts when they are implemented by the mayor. An exception to this are resolutions that do not require an implementation act.
Composition
Election The municipal council is elected by the citizens in elections in accordance with the provisions of the respective , with participation from political parties and electoral associations. Within the European Union, EU citizens also have the right to vote and stand for election. Candidates for local elections must be nominated by secret ballot.
Structure The municipal council/city council consists of the chairman, who in many federal states is the mayor (or lord mayor), and the elected council members.
The size of the municipal council/city council is determined by the respective municipal ordinances and depends largely on the municipality's population. It varies from 6 to over 90 members.
The voluntary members of the municipal council receive an expense allowance.
Special feature in Bavaria In larger municipalities, the municipal council can elect additional professional council members. These are temporary municipal . They have no voting rights on the municipal council, but only perform an advisory function. Professional council members often have titles such as "advisor" or "councilor" (e.g., district administration officer, environmental officer, city planning officer, city school board member, etc.). The remuneration of professional council members is determined by state law or statutory regulations.
In Bavaria, the number of honorary municipal council members and the allocation of the offices of professional municipal council members (temporary elected municipal officials) to the respective salary groups (salary groups according to the Federal Salary Act) are as follows: Volunteer council membersProfessional municipal council membersDistrict municipalitiesIndependent cities and large district townsResidentsMembersResidentSalaryResidentSalaryup to 1,0008––up to 30,000A14/A151,001 to 2,000122,001 to 3,000143,001 to 5,000165,001 to 10,0002010,001 to 15,0002410,001 to 15,000A13/A1415,001 to 20,00015,001 to 30,000A14/A1520,001 to 30,0003030,001 to 50,00040more than 30,000A 14/A 1530,001 to 50,000A 16/B 250,001 to 100,0004450,001 to 100,000B 2/B 3100,001 to 200,00050100,001 to 200,000B 3/B 4Augsburg60AugsburgB 4/B 5Nürnberg70NürnbergB 5/B 6München80MünchenB 6/B 7
Regulation in Saxony The composition of Saxon city and municipal councils is stipulated in Section 29 of the and is generally based on the table below. However, the main statute of the respective municipality may stipulate that the composition is based on the next higher or next lower size group. In the last size group, the number may increase by a maximum of 10 councilors. The mayor is the chairman of the council with voting rights. +Size chart (including district towns and independent cities)ResidentsMunicipal councilsResidentsMunicipal councilsup to 5008up to 30.000 (Meißen)26up to 1,00010up to 40.000 (Pirna, Bautzen)30up to 2,00012up to 50.000 (Freiberg)34up to 3,00014up to 60.000 (Görlitz)38up to 5,00016up to 80.000 (Plauen)42up to 10,00018up to 150.000 (Zwickau)48up to 20,00022 (Torgau, Borna,Annaberg-Buchholz)up to 400.000 (Chemnitz)54from 400.000 (Dresden, Leipzig)60 Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz all make use of the above-mentioned regulation and have 70 and 60 city councilors, respectively. The district town of Annaberg-Buchholz also has 26 councilors, four more than planned. Pirna, however, has four fewer councilors than its original size class, namely 26. The same applies to Torgau, which has only 20 councilors. But even Rathen, for example, the municipality with the smallest population in Saxony (347 residents), makes use of the exemption and has 10 councilors.
Course of business The municipal council makes decisions in meetings (mandatory meetings). Decisions by circular or by soliciting votes in person or by telephone are inadmissible. The reason for the mandatory meeting is the need for joint deliberation, which is an important prerequisite for the accurate formation of the will.
Proper summons of all council members