Senate of the Free City of Danzig

The separation of Danzig from the German Reich as a "Free City" without a vote led to the need to draft a constitution. In the Constitution of the Free City of Danzig, articles 25 to 42 detailed and regulated the role of the Senate. The Senate consisted of 7 full-time senators (including the President of the Senate, who was the chairman, and the Deputy President, the Vice Chairman) and 13 honorary senators. The full-time senators were elected from the Volkstag, and served 4-year terms. The honorary senators could serve indefinite terms. Only by a vote of no confidence from the Volkstag could honorary senators be recalled. Even with a dissolution of the Volkstag, the Senate could remain in power.

The Senate was the highest state authority. In particular, it had the tasks:

• to announce the laws within a month of their constitutional formation and to issue the ordinances necessary for their execution;
• to run the state administration independently within the framework of the constitution, the laws and the state budget, and to exercise = supervision over all state authorities;
• to draw up the budget draft;
• to manage the property and revenues of the state, to remit revenues and expenditures and to defend the rights of the state;
• to appoint officials, unless stated otherwise by constitution or law;
• to operate within the framework of the constitution and the laws for the safety and public welfare of the State and of all nationals, and to adopt its necessary regulations.

In articles 43 to 49, which detailed legislative procedures, laws had to be approved by both the Volkstag and the Senate. In the event that the Senate failed to approve bills on the day it was proposed, a referendum would be held. Constitutional amendments required a two-thirds majority.^[1]

With the constitutional amendment of July 4, 1930, the number of senators was reduced to 12 (with the members of the Volkstag decreased from 120 to 72).^[2]

First Sahm Senate edit

After the establishment of the Free City of Danzig on November 15, 1920, the Constituent Assembly elected the members of the first senate on December 6. It was a bourgeois coalition between the DNVP, the DPP and the liberal Free Economic Association. The Social Democrats were the main opposition. The head of the government was Heinrich Sahm, the former mayor, who did not belong to any party. There were 4 DNVP, 4 DDP and 5 liberals in the Senate. At the second Volkstag election on November 18, 1923, the coalition continued. The First Sahm Senate continued until December 10, until it was replaced by the Second Sahm Senate. The honorary members of the First Sahm Senate, including the Deputy President, resigned on January 15, 1924.

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Second Sahm Senate edit

The rejection of the state budget of 1925 by Deputy President Ernst Ziehm led to a crisis in the government. A new senate was formed on August 19, 1925. This senate was a minority senate, made from a coalition of the SPD, Zentrum, and the German Liberal Party (formed from a 1925 merge of the Free Association of Civil servants, Employees and Workers and the German Party for Progress and Economy (the name of the Free Economic Association since 1920)).^[5] This government was tolerated by the Poles and socialist politician Wilhelm Rahn.

Third Sahm Senate edit

In the third Volkstag election on November 13, 1927, there was a further political shift towards the SPD. The parties of the previous minority government now had a majority. Without prejudice for some changes in senators, the SPD, Zentrum, and the Liberals continued to dominate the senate.

The coalition collapsed in 1930, divided over the question of housing management and financing laws. On March 29, the Liberals left the coalition, with the SPD following suit on April 2. In May 1930, Heinrich Sahm's attempt to form a bourgeois senate failed. Sahm suffered another setback in a vote to amend the constitution, in which the DNVP succeeded in reducing the number of seats in the Volkstag from 120 to 72. This Senate remained in office until January 9, 1931.

Ziehm Senate edit

In the fourth Volkstag election on November 16, 1930, neither the left or the bourgeois parties had received majorities. The NSDAP, which had received 12 seats, tipped the scales. On January 10, 1931, a new senate was formed under Ernst Ziehm, with its members being parts of the DNVP, Zentrum, and the Liberals. The Nazis tolerated this senate, even though they were prone to extreme political conflict with them.. However, in the autumn of 1931, the NSDAP discussed the possible fall and forceful removal of the Ziehm Senate, decided against by Adolf Hitler. Towards the end of 1932, Hitler changed his mind and started planning to remove the Ziehm Senate. With his appointment as Chancellor in January 1933, it was time for the NSDAP to come into power in Danzig. They deprived the Senate of confidence in Ziehm and offered to enter into a joint senate with the bourgeois parties if Hermann Rauschning became Senate President and the NSDAP appointed the Interior Senator. The bourgeois parties rejected this proposition and the Senate resigned, remaining in office until June 20, 1933.^[6]

This Senate was known for increasing authoritarianism in Danzig, even banning the social democratic newspaper Volkstimme for a short time in 1932.^[7] By 1932, the Nazis had tapped into the electoral power of the rural population of Danzig, and had become the second most popular party.

Rauschning Senate edit

In the fifth Volkstag election on May 28, 1933, the NSDAP gained an absolute majority. On June 20, 1933, a senate under prominent Danzig Nazi Hermann Rauschning was elected, with only Nazis aside from two Zentrum senators. The Volkstag voted to adopt the Enabling Act, allowing the Senate to use emergency decrees without the approval of the Volkstag.

Greiser Senate edit

Arthur Greiser was made Senate President (Senatspräsident) in 1935–1939. As Senate President of Danzig, he was a rival to Albert Forster, his nominal superior in the Nazi Party (Gauleiter of the city) since 1930. Greiser was part of the SS empire whilst Forster was closely aligned with the Nazi Party Mandarins Rudolf Hess and later Martin Bormann.

Forster Senate edit

On 23 August 1939 Albert Forster replaced Greiser as Danzig's head of state.