This article is part of a series on the
Politics of
Germany
Constitution (Basic Law)
Head of State
Executive
Legislature
Judiciary
  • Federal courts
Subdivisions
Elections
  • Presidential elections
  • 1949
  • 1953
  • 1957
  • Parliamentary election
  • European elections
State and local politics
  • State Politics
Foreign relations

  • Foreign relations by country
  • International Relations
Political ideologies
Part of the Politics series
Direct democracy
Referendum types
Referendums by country
Referendums by issue
Referendums by method
History of direct democracy
Related
icon Politics portal

Referendums in Germany are an element of direct democracy. On the federal level only two types of a mandatory binding referendum exist – adopting a new constitution and regional referendums in case of restructuring the states. On the state level, all states have various types of statewide and municipal referendums.

Forms of referendums

The German referendum system differentiate between three types.

The term Volksinitiative (people's initiative) is a synonym of Volksbegehren. On the municipal level the three types are paralleled with

Note that in the city states the state citizens' initiative types are commonly called Bürgerbegehren while being at the same legal level as Volksbegehren in other states. Note that the term "Bürgerinitiative" (literally citizens' initiative) is used informally for non-partisan local campaign organizations (political action groups).

Federal concept

Following World War II the new republic was founded with only minor elements of direct democracy. At the federal level, there are only two mandatory constitutional referendum types. One type is for enacting a new constitution. Changes to the constitution do not require a public vote and there is no provision for an initiative for a constitutional amendment. There has never been a referendum of this type, although there was an argument in that direction during German reunification. The other type requires a regional public vote in case of restructuring the States (Neugliederung des Bundesgebietes, "New Arrangement of the Federal Territory") which led to a number of effectless referendums to recreate states or change the territory of a state. In addition there was a referendum on the merger of Baden and Württemberg into Baden-Württemberg in 1951 (accepted) and a referendum on the merger of Berlin and Brandenburg into Berlin-Brandenburg in 1996 (rejected).

Bundesländer

Originally, only some of the Bundesländer (federated states of Germany) had provisions for a general binding referendum (Volksentscheid, "people's decision") on popular initiatives (Volksbegehren, "people's request"), with Hesse and Bavaria also having a mandatory binding referendum on changes to the state constitution. Over the years all states have changed their constitutions to allow various types of statewide and municipal referendums. In all states, there is now a general right for referendums on statewide popular initiatives, which was used in Hamburg to push the state government to pass a law on a facultative binding state referendum in 2007. Most states have a form of non-binding ballot question (Volksbefragung, "people's inquiry") which has rarely been used - the most important of these had been the 1955 Saar Statute referendum. General forms of direct democracy were introduced in the communities with facultative ballot questions (Bürgerbefragung, "citizens' inquiry") and public initiatives (Bürgerbegehren, "citizens' request") which are both non-binding. In some areas, this has been expanded into a binding referendum type (Bürgerentscheid, "citizens' decision").

Initiative quorum

Following World War II the right to petition to the government was installed with high barriers. Any popular initiative had to be filed with the authorities and the signatories have to identify before their signature is accepted. This is called official collection (German: Amtseintragung literally administrative inscription) in most legal areas. The other type is commonly referred to as free collection (German: Freie Sammlung) where letters may be accumulated before being handed over. Naturally some of the latter signatures are found to be illegal which can be a source of dispute.

In order to push the government the initiative must reach a certain amount of valid signatures. The "quorum" is defined differently by each state.

Referendums in Germany by State
State Legal foundation Signature quorum /
time limit / collection type		 Excluded of topics
Baden-Württemberg 16.67 %
14 days
Official collection		 Abgabengesetze,
Besoldungsgesetze,
Staatshaushaltsgesetz
Bavaria 10 %
(1,000,000
when demanding reelections)
14 days
Official collection		 Staatshaushalt
see also: → de:Volksgesetzgebung in Bayern
Berlin 7% (20% for constitutional changes)
4 months
Free collection		 Landeshaushaltsgesetz, Abgaben,
Tarife öffentlicher Unternehmen,
Personalentscheidungen
see also: → de:Volksgesetzgebung in Berlin
Brandenburg 80,000 (200,000
when demanding reelections)
4 Monate
Official Collection		 Landeshaushalt,
Dienst- und Versorgungsbezüge,
Abgaben, Personalentscheidungen
Bremen 10% (20% when demanding constitutional changes or reelections)
3 months
Free collection		 Haushaltsplan, Dienstbezüge,
Steuern, Abgaben, Gebühren
Hamburg 5 %
21 days
Free collection		 Bundesratsinitiativen,
Haushaltspläne, Abgaben,
Tarife der öffentlichen Unternehmen,
Dienst- und Versorgungsbezüge
see also: → de:Volksgesetzgebung (Hamburg)
Hesse 20 %
14 days
Official collection		 Haushaltsplan,
Abgabengesetze,
Besoldungsordnungen,
Verfassungsänderungen
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 120,000
no time limit
Free collection		 Haushaltsgesetze,
Abgabengesetze,
Besoldungsgesetze
Lower Saxony 10 %
6 months
Free collection		 Landeshaushalt,
öffentliche Abgaben,
Dienst- und Versorgungsbezüge
North Rhine-Westphalia 8 %
8 weeks
Official collection		 Finanzfragen,
Abgabengesetze,
Besoldungsordnungen
Rhineland-Palatinate 300,000
2 months
Official collection		 Finanzfragen,
Abgabengesetze,
Besoldungsordnung
Saarland 20 %
14 days
Official collection		 may not include topics with financial implications,[1]
Abgaben, Besoldungen,
Staatsleistungen, Staatshaushalt,
Verfassungsänderungen
Saxony 450.000
6–8 months[2]
Free collection		 Abgaben-, Besoldungs-,
Haushaltsgesetz
Sachsen-Anhalt 11 %
6 months
Free collection		 Haushaltsgesetze,
Abgabengesetze,
Besoldungsregelungen
Schleswig-Holstein 5 %
6 months
Official collection		 Landeshaushalt,
Dienst- und Versorgungsbezüge,
öffentliche Abgaben
Thuringia 10% (8%)
4 months (2 months)
Freie Sammlung (Amtseintragung)		 Landeshaushalt,
Dienst- und Versorgungsbezüge,
Abgaben und Personalentscheidungen
Federal Republic of Germany[3]
  • Art. 29 GG Abs. 4–6 of the Basic Law
  • §§ 14, 24, 26 und 36 of the law on referendums and initiatives ("Gesetzes über das Verfahren bei Volksentscheid, Volksbegehren und Volksbefragung") in 29 GG Abs. 6 GG
  • §§ 1–45 und 93 of the regulation on conduct ("Verordnung zur Durchführung des Gesetzes nach Art. 29 GG Abs. 6 GG")
 10% of the voters
in the affected area		 the referendum may only target questions of territory changes (see de:Neugliederung des Bundesgebietes")

Official collection

In the context of direct democracy, an official collection of signatures in Germany, refers to the collection of petition signatures for a referendum under supervision in a town hall or at other officially determined locations (normally a government building).[citation needed] This is in contrast to the free collection, where people may sign a petition that is freely circulated by the public. In a few German federal states, official collection is also required by law for the collection of campaign signatures for local elections.[citation needed]

In the German state of Brandenburg as a reaction to the criticism of the official collection, including from the SPD and Die Linke political parties[4] a reform in 2012 created the possibility for municipal administrations to be able to determine further registration offices (e.g. bank and post office branches, shops).[5][6]

Notable referendums in Germany

Territory of the Saar Basin (1920–1935)
Saar Protectorate (1947–1956)
Eastern Germany (1949–1990)
post-1990 Germany

References

  1. ^ Die Formulierung in der saarländischen Verfassung ist die restriktivste in Deutschland. Faktisch sind alle Volksbegehren unzulässig, die irgendeine finanzielle Auswirkung haben würden, also auch Gesetzesvorschläge die Einsparungen zur Folge hätten.
  2. ^ Art. 72 Sächsische Verfassung sieht vor, dass die Frist mindestens 6 Monate beträgt, § 20 VVVG bestimmt, dass die Frist maximal 8 Monate beträgt.
  3. ^ Ein Volksbegehren ist nur für den Fall der Gebietsneugliederung nach Art. 29 GG Abs. 4–6 GG möglich. Das Volksbegehren findet nicht bundesweit, sondern nur in dem eine Neugliederung begehrendem Gebiet statt.
  4. ^ Über 500 Unterschriften gegen Amtseintragung gesammelt at the Wayback Machine (archived June 17, 2016), Märkische Oderzeitung.
  5. ^ "Mehr Demokratie für Brandenburg oder viel Lärm um nichts? | Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung". www.politische-bildung-brandenburg.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-07-18.
  6. ^ Kost, Andreas; Solar, Marcel (2018-09-21). Lexikon Direkte Demokratie in Deutschland (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 19. ISBN 978-3-658-21783-9.
Category