Politics of Berlin


Berlin is a city-state and the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. The President of Germany, whose functions are primarily ceremonial under the German constitution, has his official residence in Schloss Bellevue. Berlin is the seat of the German executive, housed in the Chancellery. Facing the Chancellery is the Bundestag, the German Parliament, housed in the renovated Reichstag building since the government's move to Berlin in 1998. The Bundesrat represents the Federal States of Germany and has its seat at the former Prussian House of Lords.

Capital city

Berlin is the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. The President of Germany, whose functions are mainly ceremonial under the German constitution, has his official residence in Schloss Bellevue. Berlin is the seat of the German executive, housed in the Chancellery, the Bundeskanzleramt.
Facing the Chancellery is the Bundestag, the German Parliament, housed in the renovated Reichstag building since the government moved back to Berlin in 1998. The Bundesrat is the representation of the Federal States of Germany and has its seat at the former Prussian House of Lords.

Ministries

The relocation of the federal government and Bundestag to Berlin was completed in 1999, however with some ministries as well as some minor departments retained in the federal city Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. Discussions to move the remaining branches continue. The ministries and departments of Defence, Justice and Consumer Protection, Finance, Interior, Foreign, Economic Affairs and Energy, Labour and Social Affairs
, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Food and Agriculture, Economic Cooperation and Development, Health, Transport and Digital Infrastructure and Education and Research are based in the capital.

City-state

Since German reunification on 3 October 1990, Berlin has been one of three city-states among Germany's 16 states. The city and state parliament is the House of Representatives,, with 141 seats. Berlin's executive body is the Senate of Berlin. The Senate consists of the Governing Mayor and up to eight senators with ministerial positions. The Social Democratic Party and The Left took control of the city government after the 2001 state election, winning another term in the 2006 state election. The 2011 state election produced a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union.
The Governing Mayor is Lord Mayor of the city and Prime Minister of the federal state. The office of Berlin's Governing Mayor is in the Rotes Rathaus. From 2001 to 2014, this office was held by Klaus Wowereit of the SPD. It is currently held by Michael Müller, also of the SPD.
The total annual state budget of Berlin in 2007 exceeded €20.5 billion, which included a budget surplus of €80 million. Due to increasing growth rates and tax revenues, the Senate of Berlin calculated an increasing budget surplus for 2008. The total budget was an estimated amount €5.5 billion, financed by the German government or the German Bundesländer. Primarily due to reunification-related expenditures, Berlin as a German state accumulated more debt than any other city in Germany.

2016 Election

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!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left colspan="2" rowspan="2" width=400 |Party
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center colspan="3" |Popular vote
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center colspan="3" |Seats
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=60|Votes
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=40|%
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=50|+/–
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=30|Seats
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right width=30|+/–

Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – SPD|| 352,369 || 21.6 || 6.7 || 38 || 10

Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands – CDU|| 288,002 || 17.6 || 5.8 || 31 || 8

Die Linke|| 255,740 || 15.6 || 4.0 || 27 || 7

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen|| 248,243 || 15.2 || 2.4 || 27 || 3

Alternative für Deutschland – AfD|| 231,325 || 14.2 || 14.2 || 25 || 25

Freie Demokratische Partei – FDP|| 109,431 || 6.7 || 4.9 || 12 || 12
|| 31,908 || 2.0 || 1.1 || – || –
|| 30,565 || 1.9 || 0.4 || – || –
|| 28,321 || 1.7 || 7.2 || – || 15

Boroughs

Berlin is divided into twelve boroughs, reduced from 23 boroughs before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. Each borough has a number of localities, which often have historic roots in older municipalities predating the formation of Greater Berlin on 1 October 1920 and were urbanised and incorporated into the city. Many residents strongly identify with their localities. Berlin has 96 localities, commonly made up of several city neighbourhoods.
Each borough is governed by a council with five councillors and a borough mayor. The borough council is elected by the borough assembly. The boroughs of Berlin are not independent municipalities; the borough governments' power is limited, and subordinate to the Berlin Senate. The borough mayors form a council of mayors, which advises the Senate. The localities have no local government bodies, and the administrative duties of the former locality representative were assumed by the borough mayors.

Sister cities

Berlin maintains official partnerships with 17 cities. Town twinning between Berlin and other cities began with Los Angeles in 1967. East Berlin's partnerships were cancelled at German reunification, but later partially reestablished. West Berlin's partnerships were limited to the borough level. During the Cold War the partnerships reflected spheres of influence, with West Berlin partnering with Western capitals and East Berlin partnering primarily with cities of the Warsaw Pact and its allies.
There are joint projects with a number of other cities, such as Belgrade, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Seoul, Sofia, Sydney and Vienna. Berlin participates in international city associations such as the Union of the Capitals of the European Union, Eurocities, Network of European Cities of Culture, Metropolis, Summit Conference of the World's Major Cities, Conference of the World's Capital Cities. Its sister cities are:

Berlin Police

The Berlin Police, or commonly Berliner Polizei is the German Landespolizei force for the city-state of Berlin. Law enforcement in Germany is divided between federal and state agencies. Berlin Police is divided into 6 local directorates. Each local directorate is responsible for one to three Berliner districts:
The Federal Police is a uniformed federal police force in Berlin and Germany. It is subordinate to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The Bundespolizei can also be used to reinforce state police if requested by a state government. The BPOL maintains these reserve forces to deal with major demonstrations, disturbances or emergencies, supplementing the capabilities of the State Operational Support Units. Several highly trained detachments are available for crisis situations requiring armored cars, water cannon or other special equipment.
BPOL has investigators conduct criminal investigations only within its jurisdiction; otherwise the cases are referred to the appropriate state police force or to the federal criminal investigative agency, the Federal Criminal Police. In addition, the Bundespolizei cooperates closely with German state executive authorities, such as prosecutor's offices in pursuing criminal investigations.
of the Bundespolizei
The Bundespolizei has the following missions: