Burgomaster
Encyclopedia : B : BU : BUR : Burgomaster
Burgomaster (alternatively spelled Burgomeister, literally translated meaning 'master of the citizens') is the English form, rendering (often the Anglo-saxon equivalent Mayor is substituted) various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate and/or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration:
Municipal government
- Bürgermeister, in German: in Germany and Switzerland. In an important city for instance, especially in a city state (e.g. Reichsstadt), there can be several posts called B. in the city's executive college, justifying the use of a compound title for the actual highest Magistrate (also rendered as Lord Mayor), such as:
- *Oberbürgermeister, 'Supreme Burgomaster', the most common version
- *Ältester Bürgermeister, 'Senior Burgomaster', e.g. in Frankfurt am Main
- *Präsidierender Bürgermeister, as in Dantzig
- *etcetera. However, in a few cases, such title was again multiplicated.
- Burgemeester in Dutch: Belgium (also Bourgmestre in French; a party-political post, though formally nominated by the regional government and answerable to it, the federal state and even the province) and in The Netherlands (more a civil servant).
- In Polish, a mayoral title, derived from German, is burmistrz.
Compound title at supra-municipal level
- Amtsbürgermeister (roughly translated: 'District Burgomaster') can be used for the Chief Magistrate of a Swiss constitutive Canton, as in Aargau 1815-1831 (next styled Landamman)
Sources and references
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