The Constitution of the State of Schleswig-Holstein of December 13, 1949 came into force on January 12, 1950, under the title State Statute for Schleswig-Holstein. A constitutional and parliamentary reform also led to a change in title on June 13, 1990. The current publication of the constitution of the state of Schleswig-Holstein dates from December 2, 2014.
The German lawyer and civil servant Uwe Jens Lornsen, who was temporarily employed by Denmark, had already done some preliminary work in the first half of the 19th century with his writings on the constitutional situation of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which were linked to the Danish crown. At that time, Schleswig was a fief of Denmark, Holstein a member state of the German Confederation - but both territories were ruled by the Danish king in personal union as duke. Lornsen, however, demanded more autonomy for Schleswig-Holstein within Danish politics, which was still very much influenced by absolutism.
At the beginning of the Schleswig-Holstein uprising on July 24, 1848, a commission of the provisional government had already presented a draft of a "Basic State Law for the Duchies of Schleswig = Holstein". Article 3 of the draft stated: "The Duchies of Schleswig = Holstein are a part of the German State Union". In 1854, the Danish government presented a constitution for Schleswig and Holstein.
After the Second World War, Schleswig-Holstein was governed by the British military government. In 1946, the British military government issued a provisional state statute as a provisional constitution. The appointed state parliament approved this law on June 12, 1946. This provisional constitution formed the legal framework in Schleswig-Holstein until the 1949 constitution was passed.
In 1949, the first elected state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein, which emerged from the Prussian province of the same name, passed a state statute. The term "statute" was chosen instead of "constitution" because, like the Basic Law of the Federal Republic, it was only to be valid until the divided Germany was reunited in one state.
The debate on the constitution took place in a poisonous atmosphere. After the state elections in Schleswig-Holstein in 1947, the SPD had an absolute majority of representatives in the state parliament thanks to the right to vote, despite only receiving 41.1% of the vote. In the local elections on 24 October 1948 and the federal election in 1949, the CDU had even become stronger than the SPD. Due to this constellation, the SPD rejected the opposition's demand to convene a constitutional assembly and decided that the state parliament should adopt the state statutes. The opposition parties' resistance to the constitutional provision that the constitution should be adopted with an absolute majority, but that future amendments to the constitution would require a two-thirds majority, was even fiercer.
Through these regulations, the SPD intended to permanently secure the highly controversial core points of its policy, the six-year primary school and land reform.
After the Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Käber, presented the draft of the state statutes containing these regulations on October 24, 1949, the representative Hermann von Mangoldt of the CDU Schleswig-Holstein demanded that the CDU not participate in the constitutional consultations on this basis and would contest the result before the Federal Constitutional Court. The SSW also expressed sharp criticism of the procedure and the draft.
The SPD was not prepared to comply with the opposition's wishes. The consultations therefore only took place with the SPD and SSW representatives. The CDU had only sent Hans-Jürgen Klinker and Emmy Lüthje as observers.
Minister-President Hermann Lüdemann (SPD) tried to find a compromise by proposing to delete the paragraph on the six-year primary school. His party rejected this proposal with the argument that other majorities could then abolish this regulation again in the future.
Due to this situation, the discussion on the bill resulted in only a few changes. The length of the legislative period was extended from 3 to 4 years compared to the draft (although this rule would only apply from the next election) and a constructive vote of no confidence was introduced. The regulations on land reform (Article 8) and primary school remained in the constitution. The constitution was adopted on December 13, 1949, with the votes of 42 SPD MPs against the votes of the two CDU observers and the SSW. Only the two SSW MPs Berthold Bahnsen and Victor Graf von Reventlow-Criminil abstained..
The SPD's efforts to use the constitution to permanently protect the core points of its policy against democratic opinion-forming were unsuccessful. In the 1950 state election in Schleswig-Holstein, the party lost 16.3% of the vote and had to go into opposition. On November 20, 1950, the constitutional provisions on the six-year primary school and land reform were deleted from the state statutes.
The Kiel affair involving the then Prime Minister Uwe Barschel led to a comprehensive constitutional and parliamentary reform in 1990, which culminated in the law amending the state statutes for Schleswig-Holstein of 13 June 1990 (GVOBl. Schl.-H. p. 391).
In April 2013, all parliamentary groups decided to set up a special committee on constitutional reform with the aim of examining and presenting, among other things, the following points:
The deliberations of the special committee also dealt with suggestions from the public and associations, some of which were also taken into account. The special committee's deliberations also dealt with suggestions from the public and associations, some of which were also taken into account. The decision in the state parliament was made on October 8, 2014. 61 of the 66 members present voted for the inter-party motion to amend the constitution. The new constitution lowers the quorums for referendums. The protection of digital privacy and the further development of basic digital services, like the school system for the Danish minority, are given constitutional status. The inclusion of students with disabilities and a citizen-oriented administration are also state tasks (the constitution speaks of "state goals"). The state parliament is given more rights and can in future force the government to file a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court. There was no majority in the state parliament to amend the constitution to include a reference to God. Two motions to subsequently include a reference to God in the constitution were also rejected in July 2016. [1]
According to Article 1 of its constitution, Schleswig-Holstein is a member state of the Federal Republic of Germany. Like the Basic Law, the state constitution stipulates the separation of powers between legislative power (legislature, the state parliament), executive power (executive, the state government and administration) and judicial power (judiciary, the courts). Another constitutional body is the State Audit Office. In addition, there is a so-called vertical separation of powers between the state level and the municipal level, which each have their own responsibilities and tasks. The constitution also contains far-reaching elements of direct democracy. A new element of the constitution from 1990 onwards are so-called state objectives, such as the protection of minorities of the Frisian and Danish ethnic groups and, according to the state parliament resolution of 14 November 2012, of the German Sinti and Roma in the country (Article 5), the promotion of equality between men and women (Article 6), the protection of natural resources (Article 7) or the protection and promotion of culture, including the Low German language (Article 9).
Until the establishment of a state constitutional court in Schleswig in May 2008, jurisdiction for state constitutional disputes lay with the Federal Constitutional Court.
Eckernförde is a city located in the Kreis of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. Situated on the coast of the Baltic Sea, approximately 30 km north-west of Kiel, it has a population of about 23,000. Eckernförde is a popular tourist destination.
The South Schleswig Voters' Association is a regionalist political party in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. The party represents the Danish and Frisian minorities of the state.
Heide Simonis was a German author and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She was minister of finance in Schleswig-Holstein from 1988 until 1993, when she became minister-president of Schleswig-Holstein. She was the first woman to serve as head of a state government in German history and the only woman to do so in the 20th century, serving until 2005. As of September 2023, she is also the longest serving former female minister-president of a German state.
The 2005 Schleswig-Holstein state election was held on 20 February 2005 to elect the members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. The incumbent coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Greens led by Minister-President Heide Simonis was defeated, bringing an end to 17 years of SPD governments in the state.
Peter Harry Carstensen is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From 2005 to 2012 he was Minister President of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, serving as President of the Bundesrat in 2005/06.
Schleswig-Holstein Police is a state law-enforcement agency in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is subordinated to the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Interior, Municipal Affairs, Housing and Sports.
The Schleswig-Holstein Landtag is the state parliament of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It convenes in the state's capital Kiel and currently consists of 69 members of five parties. The current majority consists of coalition of the Christian Democratic Union and the Greens, supporting the cabinet of Minister President Daniel Günther.
The 2009 Schleswig-Holstein state election was held on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. It was held on the same day as the 2009 federal election and the 2009 Brandenburg state election.
The 2012 Schleswig-Holstein state election was held on 6 May 2012 to elect the members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union and Free Democratic Party (FDP) was defeated. Though the CDU remained the largest party, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) negotiated a coalition with The Greens and the South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW). This was dubbed the "Danish traffic light" or "Namibia coalition". SPD leader Torsten Albig was subsequently elected Minister-President by the Landtag.
Torsten Albig is a German politician from the Social Democratic Party of Germany. From 2012 until 2017 he served as the 13th Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein.
Henning Schwarz was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was interim Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein during the Barschel affair.
The Minister-president is the head of state and government in thirteen of Germany's sixteen states.
Patrick Breyer is a German digital rights activist, jurist, Pirate Party Germany politician, and – since 2019 – Member of the European Parliament (MEP). From 2012 to 2017 he was a member of the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein and from April 2016 until the end of the legislative period he was also the leader of the Pirate group in that assembly. Breyer is one of four European Pirate Party MEPs in the 2019–2024 term along with three Czech Pirate Party members, all of whom are members of the Greens / EFA parliamentary group.
Aminata Touré is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens, the German green party, who has been serving as Deputy Minister-President since 1 August 2024 and Minister of Social Affairs, Youth, Family, Senior Citizens, Integration and Equality of the State of Schleswig-Holstein since 29 June 2022. She was elected on 29 June 2017, at the age of 25, to the State Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein and served as the parliament's vice-president until 2022.
The 2022 Schleswig-Holstein state election was held on 8 May 2022 to elect the 20th Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), The Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), led by Minister-President Daniel Günther.
In Germany's federal electoral system, a single party or parliamentary group rarely wins an absolute majority of seats in the Bundestag, and thus coalition governments, rather than single-party governments, are the usually expected outcome of a German election. As German political parties are often associated with particular colors, coalitions are frequently given nicknames based on the colors included. Prominent political parties in Germany are the CDU/CSU (black), the SPD (red), the Greens (green), the Left, the AfD (blue), and the FDP (yellow).
The 1987 Schleswig-Holstein state election was held on 13 September 1987 to elect the members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. The election resulted in a deadlock, with both the left-leaning parties had 37 seats, and the right-leaning parties had 37 seats, and concluded with the Barschel affair.
The public debate on whether to establish the German language as a national language in the Basic Law arises because the Basic Law contains no such provision, and never has since its entry into force in 1949. Both positions are advocated for by associations, popular demands, numerous politicians and other public figures.
The State Constitutional Court of Schleswig-Holstein is the state constitutional jurisdiction of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, established on 1 May 2008. It is based in Schleswig.
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