The Rigsdag (Danish: Rigsdagen) was the name of the national legislature of Denmark from 1849 to 1953.
The Rigsdag was Denmark's first parliament, and it was incorporated in the Constitution of 1849. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of two houses, the Folketing and the Landsting. The distinction between the two houses was not always clear, as they had equal power. In 1953, a new constitution was approved by referendum and adopted, with the result that the Rigsdag and the Landsting were eliminated in favor of a unicameral legislature under the name of the Folketing. The Rigsdag, like today's Folketing, sat in Christiansborg Palace in the centre of Copenhagen.
Membership in the Rigsdag was limited to certain sectors of society – women were not allowed to join, and neither were about a quarter of all men over 30, mostly due to their condition as servants or welfare recipients.
The name is a cognate of the names of several legislatures in other Germanic countries, such as the Reichstag in Germany, the Riksdag in Sweden, or the Riksdag in Finland. (For a discussion of the traditional Germanic councils that gave root to bodies such as these, see the article on ting-style councils.)
A thing, also known as a folkmoot, assembly, tribal council, and by other names, was a governing assembly in early Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by a lawspeaker. Things took place at regular intervals, usually at prominent places that were accessible by travel. They provided legislative functions, as well as being social events and opportunities for trade. In modern usage, the meaning of this word in English and other languages has shifted to mean not just an assemblage of some sort but simply an object of any sort.
The Folketing, also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Established in 1849, until 1953 the Folketing was the lower house of a bicameral parliament, called the Rigsdag; the upper house was the Landsting. It meets in Christiansborg Palace, on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen.
A legislative chamber or house is a deliberative assembly within a legislature which generally meets and votes separately from the legislature's other chambers. Legislatures are usually unicameral, consisting of only one chamber, or bicameral, consisting of two, but there are rare examples of tricameral and tetracameral legislatures. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is the only country documented as having a pentacameral legislature.
The Constitutional Act of the Realm of Denmark, also known as the Constitutional Act of the Kingdom of Denmark, or simply the Constitution, is the constitution of the Kingdom of Denmark, applying equally in the Realm of Denmark: Denmark proper, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The first democratic constitution was adopted in 1849, replacing the 1665 absolutist constitution. The current constitution is from 1953. The Constitutional Act has been changed a few times. The wording is general enough to still apply today.
The Landsting was the upper house of the Rigsdag, from 1849 until 1953, when the bicameral system was abolished in favour of unicameralism. The Landsting had powers equal to the Folketing, which made the two houses of parliament hard to distinguish.
Folketing elections were held in Denmark on 6 May 1915. In order to make amendments to the constitution, the government called for the dissolution of both the Folketing and the Landsting to allow a new Rigsdag to make the revisions. However, as this was during World War I, no campaigning took place, and 105 of the 115 were uncontested.
Landsting elections were held in Denmark on 11 May 1918, with the exceptions that the seats elected by the resigning parliament were elected on 20 March 1918, the Faroese member was elected on 13 May, and the electors that elected the candidates standing in the constituencies were elected on 30 April.
Landsting elections were held in Denmark on 1 October 1920, with the exceptions that the seats elected by the resigning parliament were elected on 10 September, except for the representative of South Jutland County who was elected on October 7, the Faroese member was elected on 3 February 1921, and the electors that elected the candidates standing in the constituencies were elected on 24 September 1920.
A referendum on the sale of the Danish West Indian Islands to the United States of America was held in Denmark on 14 December 1916. The non-binding referendum saw 283,670 vote in favor of the sale of the Danish West Indian Islands and 158,157 against. The residents of the islands were not allowed to vote on the matter, but in an unofficial vote on Saint Croix arranged by David Hamilton Jackson, 4,027 voted in favor of the sale and only seven voted against. As a result of the referendum the islands were formally relinquished to the United States by the Treaty of the Danish West Indies on 31 March 1917 as the United States Virgin Islands for a sum of US$25,000,000 in gold.
A constitutional referendum was held in Denmark on 23 May 1939. Voters were asked whether they approved of a new constitution. Although it was approved by 91.9% of those who voted, a turnout of only 48.9% meant that the percentage of eligible voters approving it was only 44.46%, below the 45% required by the existing constitution of 1915.
The Society of the Friends of Peasants was a liberal Danish political society founded on 5 May 1846 by members of the provincial consultative assemblies Johan Christian Drewsen and Balthazar Christensen, with the intent to promote the liberation of the peasantry and equality among the different classes of society. Among its most politically influential members were Anton Frederik Tscherning, Jens Andersen Hansen and Carl Christian Alberti.
Landsting elections were held in Denmark on 6 April 1943, with the exception that the electors were elected on 23 March. Along with the corresponding Folketing election, it was the first election during the German occupation, and although many people feared how the Germans might react to the election, the event took place peacefully.
Andreas Frederik Krieger was a Danish politician, government minister, professor of law and supreme court judge. He was a member of the National Constitutional Assembly from 1848 to 1849, a member of the Folketing from 1849 to 1852 representing the National Liberal Party and a member of the Landsting from 1863 to 1890 representing first the National Liberal Party and later the conservative party Højre.
Carl Christian Vilhelm Liebe was a Danish politician representing first the National Liberal Party and later the conservative Højre, lawyer and speaker of the Landsting, a chamber of the parliament. He was an elected member of the Folketing from 1861 to 1866, and a royally appointed member of the Landsting from 1866 to 1895.
Hans Christian Steffensen was a Danish politician, jurist and speaker of the Landsting, a chamber of the parliament.
Events from the year 1915 in Denmark.
The Treaty of the Danish West Indies, officially the Convention between the United States and Denmark for cession of the Danish West Indies, was a 1916 treaty transferring sovereignty of the Virgin Islands in the Danish West Indies from Denmark to the United States in exchange for a sum of US$25,000,000 in gold. It is one of the most recent permanent expansions of United States territory.
Landsting elections were held in Denmark in April 1953 alongside elections to the Folketing. They were the last elections to the upper house of the Rigsdagen, as the Landsting was abolished later in the year following the introduction of a new constitution approved in a June referendum, with the Folketing becoming a unicameral parliament.
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