Governing Mayor of Berlin
| Governing Mayor of Berlin | |
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| Inaugural holder | Ernst Reuter |
| Formation | 11 January 1951 |
| Website | [1] |
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The Governing Mayor (German: Regierender Bürgermeister) of Berlin is the head of government, presiding over the Berlin Senate. As Berlin is an independent city as well as one of the constituent States of Germany (Bundesländer), the office is the equivalent of the Ministers-President of the other German states —except the two other city-states of Hamburg and Bremen, where the heads of government are called "First Mayor" and "Mayor and President of the Senate", respectively. The title Governing Mayor of Berlin is the equivalent of Lord Mayor in the meaning of an actual executive leader.
According to the Berlin Constitution, the Governing Mayor is member and head of the Berlin Senate. The ministers are called senators. The two deputies additionally hold the title of Mayor (German: Bürgermeister, historically: burgomaster). The title Mayor is also held by the heads of the twelve boroughs of Berlin, although they do not actually preside over self-governmental municipalities.
The Governing Mayor is elected by the city's state parliament (Landtag), the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin, which also controls his policy guidelines and is able to enforce his resignation by a motion of no confidence. He is entitled to appoint and release the senators of his government.
The seat of the Senate is the city hall Rotes Rathaus in Mitte.
As capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, Berlin received its first Lord Mayor (Oberbürgermeister) according to the Prussian reforms after the retreat of the Napoleonic occupation troops in 1809, approved by King Frederick William III. He served as head of the city council called Magistrat. The two-stage administration and the office of the boroughs' mayors were implemented in the course of the wide-ranging incorporations by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act.
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