page_title: Government of Hamburg
section_title: Legislature
hierarchical_section_title: Government of Hamburg / Political system / Legislature
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Plenarsaal des Hamburger RathausesThis is a photograph of an architectural monument.It is on the list of cultural monuments of Hamburg, no. 40
context_page_description: The government of Hamburg is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. Hamburg is a city-state and municipality, and thus its governance deals with several details of both state and local community politics. It takes place in two ranks – a citywide and state administration, and a local rank for the boroughs. The head of the city-state's government is the First Mayor and President of the Senate. A ministry is called Behörde and a state minister is a Senator in Hamburg. The legislature is the state parliament, called Hamburgische Bürgerschaft, and the judicial branch is composed of the state supreme court and other courts. The seat of the government is Hamburg Rathaus. The President of the Hamburg Parliament is the highest official person of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. This is a traditional difference to the other German states. The president is not allowed to exert any occupation of the executive.
  Prior to 1871, Hamburg was a fully sovereign country, and its government a sovereign government. Upon joining the German Empire, the city-state retained partial sovereignty as a federal state.
context_section_description: The power to create, amend and ratify laws (legislature) is given to the parliament. A plebiscite and a referendum is possible due to the Constitution of Hamburg. In other German states the parliament is called Landtag.
  The President of the Hamburg Parliament is the highest official person of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
  The parliament is among other things responsible for the law, the election of the Erster Bürgermeister (First Mayor) for the election period and the control of the Senate (cabinet). The parliament is a unicameral parliament and the 121 deputies are elected in universal, direct, free, equal and secret elections every five years.
caption: Room of the Hamburgische Bürgerschaft (Diet)
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