Potsdam

:This article is about the German city of Potsdam. There is also Potsdam, New York in the United States of America.

Politics

Potsdam has had a mayor (Bürgermeister) and city council since the fifteenth century. From 1809 the city council was elected, with a super-mayor (Oberbürgermeister) at its head. In the Third Reich the mayor was selected by the NSDAP and the city council dissolved; it was reconstituted in token form after the Second World War, but free elections did not take place until after reunification.

Related Topics:
Mayor - City council - 1809 - NSDAP - Reunification

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Today the city council is the central administrative organ of the city. The last local elections took place on 26th October 2003, with the next in 2008. From 1990 to 1999 the Chairman of the city council was known as the "Town President" (now simply "Chairman of the city council"). The mayor is directly elected. At the last mayoral elections of 22 September 2002 no candidate gained an overall majority, and a run-off election was conducted between Jann Jakobs (SPD) and Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg (PDS), with Jann Jakobs gaining the narrowest of victories, with 50.1%.

Related Topics:
2003 - 2008 - SPD - PDS

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Twinned cities

• Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia), since 1988
• Opole (Silesia) (Poland), since 1973
• Minsk (Belarus)
• Bobigny (France), since 1974
• Jyväskylä (Finland), since 1985
• Perugia (Italy), since 1990
• Sioux Falls, South Dakota (USA), since 1990
• Lucerne (Switzerland), since 2002