Burgomaster

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"Burgermeister" redirects here. For the "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" character see Burgermeister Meisterburger.

Burgomaster (alternatively spelled Burgomeister, literally translated meaning 'master of the citizens') is the English form, rendering 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. All contemporary titles are commonly translated into English with the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of Mayor.

[edit] Municipal government

Bürgermeister, in German: in Germany, Austria, and formerly in Switzerland. In Switzerland, the title was abolished mid-19th century; various current titles for roughly equivalent offices include Gemeindepräsident, Stadtpräsident, Gemeindeammann, and Stadtamtmann.
In an important city, especially in a city state (Stadtstaat), where one of the Bürgermeister has a rank equivalent to that of a minister-president, there can be several posts called Bürgermeister 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:
- Regierender Bürgermeister (literally 'Governing Burgomaster' commonly translated as 'Lord Mayor') in Berlin
- Erster Bürgermeister (literally 'First Burgomaster') in Hamburg
- Bürgermeister und Präsident des Senats ('Burgomaster and President of the Senate') in Bremen
- Oberbürgermeister ('Supreme Burgomaster') is the most common version. The Ober- prefix is used in many ranking systems for the next level including military designations.
- Präsidierender Bürgermeister ('Presidential Burgomaster') is an obsolete formulation sometimes found in historic texts.
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.
Buergermeeschter in Luxembourg.
In Polish, a mayoral title, derived from German, is burmistrz.
Bourgmestre (French) in Belgium and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

[edit] Compound title at supra-municipal level

Amtsbürgermeister (German; roughly translated: 'District Burgomaster') can be used for the Chief Magistrate of a Swiss constitutive Canton, as in Aargau 1815-1831 (next styled Landamman)