SECRET
S.T.C.(49)19.
9th December, 1949.
14814/21/B/49.
COMMITTEE OF ENQUIRY INTO CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SMALLER COLONIAL TERRITORIES.
At the suggestion of Mr. W.H. Ingrams and in connection with his Memorandum circulated to the Committee as S.T.C. (49)17 - particularly as regards paragraphs 81 to 83 - the Foreign Office were asked if they would supply a note on the government of Hamburg. The notc, which is given below, was drafted by Mr. B. Marsden-Smedley, Head of the German Internal Department. He has omphasised that it is a rough no te only since it was written at few hours notice, but that he is very willing to supply further information if it is required by the Committee.
HISTORY.
Note on the Government of Hamburg.
A.M.P.
From the carliest times Hamburg was governed by an elected Council. By the middle of the 18th century it had come to be governed by a Senate and 3 colleges of Burghers. The Senate consisted of 4 Buergermeister, 25 Senators and 4 syndics. The Burgher collcgcs had complete control of taxation. This system has been the basis of rulc in Hamburg ever since. described as a mixture of democratic and benevolent
It might be oligarchy. The Buergerschaft, which has complete financial control and elects the Senate, loaves many things unquestioningly in its hands, relying upon it to carry out its duties as an oligarchy devoted to tho welfare of the whole city.
2.
In 1933 Hamburg was deprived of its ancient sovereignty by the Gleichschaltungsgesetz, which constituted Germany as one single state, but it waS excluded from the application of the Deutsche Gemeinde-Ordnung of 1935 and its institutions survived in a somewhat nebulous statc. Two years later the Law on the "Constitution and Administration of the Hanse City of Hamburg" placed it directly under the Reich. Its jurisdiction had, meanwhile, been altered by the . exclusion of Cuxhaven and the inclusion of Harburg, Altona and Wandsbeck.
3. A further change took place during the war years when, as a result of the air raids, Hamburg was split into administrative areas and won considerable independence from Reich control.
4. Since the capitulation the boundaries have remaincd as they were set by the Nazis in 1937 but, in other respects, the Nazi laws were repealed and, in 1946, the Buergerschaft nominated by Military Government adopted
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