Politics of Hamburg

The bases of the political system are the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and the Constitution of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg.

The Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg is its own state in the Federal Republic of Germany. Hamburg is a republic, democratic welfare state and a constitutional state. At the same time Hamburg is a municipality, there is no separation between these two administrative tasks.^[1] The power to create a law is restricted by federal law.

There is a clear separation of powers.

The two main parties in the current government of Hamburg are the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the left-wing Alliance 90/The Greens (Green). Historically, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany has also had a significant presence.

Political party key:   SPD   CDU

First Mayor and President of the Senate of Hamburg

Portrait		Name (Born–Died)	Term of office			Political party
			Took office	Left office	Days
Hamburg (1945–1949)
British occupation zone in Allied-occupied Germany
–		Rudolf Petersen (1878–1962) Appointed by the British military	15 May 1945	22 November 1946	556	Christian Democratic Union
1		Max Brauer First term (1887–1973)	22 November 1946	23 May 1949	913	Social Democratic Party
Hamburg (1949–present)
City-state of the Federal Republic of Germany
(1)		Max Brauer First term (1887–1973)	23 May 1949	2 December 1953	1654	Social Democratic Party
2		Kurt Sieveking (1897–1986)	2 December 1953	4 December 1957	1463	Christian Democratic Union
2 (1)		Max Brauer Second term (1887–1973)	4 December 1957	31 December 1960 (resigned)	1123	Social Democratic Party
4		Paul Nevermann (1902–1979)	1 January 1961	9 June 1965 (resigned)	1620	Social Democratic Party
5		Herbert Weichmann (1896–1983)	9 June 1965	9 June 1971 (resigned)	2191	Social Democratic Party
6		Peter Schulz (1930–2013)	9 June 1971	4 November 1974 (resigned)	1244	Social Democratic Party
7		Hans-Ulrich Klose[2] (1937–2023)	12 November 1974	22 May 1981 (resigned)	2383	Social Democratic Party
8		Klaus von Dohnanyi (born 1928)	24 June 1981	8 June 1988	2541	Social Democratic Party
9		Henning Voscherau[3][4] (1941–2016)	8 June 1988	8 October 1997 (resigned)	3409	Social Democratic Party
10		Ortwin Runde[5] (born 1944)	12 November 1997	31 October 2001	1449	Social Democratic Party
11		Ole von Beust (born 1955)	31 October 2001	25 August 2010 (resigned)	3220	Christian Democratic Union
12		Christoph Ahlhaus (born 1969)	25 August 2010	7 March 2011	194	Christian Democratic Union
13		Olaf Scholz (born 1958)	7 March 2011	13 March 2018 (resigned)	2563	Social Democratic Party
14		Peter Tschentscher (born 1966)	28 March 2018	Incumbent	2454	Social Democratic Party

A darkened box under a party in any given year denotes that the party had either not yet been founded, or the party had become defunct, by the date of that election.

• 
  1st Parliament, following 1946 election
• 
  2nd Parliament, following 1949 election
• 
  3rd Parliament, following 1953 election
• 
  4th Parliament, following 1957 election
• 
  5th Parliament, following 1961 election
• 
  6th Parliament, following 1966 election
• 
  7th Parliament, following 1970 election
• 
  8th Parliament, following 1974 election
• 
  9th Parliament, following 1978 election
• 
  10th Parliament, following June 1982 election
• 
  11th Parliament, following December 1982 election
• 
  12th Parliament, following 1986 election
• 
  13th Parliament, following 1987 election
• 
  14th Parliament, following 1991 election
• 
  15th Parliament, following 1993 election
• 
  16th Parliament, following 1997 election
• 
  17th Parliament, following 2001 election
• 
  18th Parliament, following 2004 election
• 
  19th Parliament, following 2008 election
• 
  20th Parliament, following 2011 election
• 
  21st Parliament, following 2015 election
• 
  22nd Parliament, following 2020 election

• 
  2015 Hamburg state election
• 
  2020 Hamburg state election

• Hamburg Parliament
• Government of Hamburg
• 2020 Hamburg state election