Origins (literally citizenry) is a term in use since the Middle Ages to refer to the male inhabitants of Hamburg with citizenship. A committee of the landowning class within the city, called , was formed out of this group in the 15th century to consult with the city's ruling councillors (; later called the "Senate of Hamburg" following the Roman example), and to be consulted by them. The city council, in early times supposedly elected by male citizens, had turned into an autocratic body restaffing its vacancies by
coöptation. The system of coöptating seats was prone to corruption and it came to several major struggles in the following decades. The first relevant document organising power and tasks of citizenry and the city council (government), which was traditionally dominated by the local merchants, dates back to 1410 and is named (roughly: The first
Settlement, literally the agreement reached before parting [Lat. recedere] of the negotiating partners). The Erster Rezess came about after the city council (Senate, no parliament but the government) had cited and arrested , a
burgher of Hamburg. Brandes had claims due against
John IV, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg from a credit which Brandes had granted earlier. Brandes had taken the defaulting duke, during his visit in Hamburg in 1410, to task and dunned him in a way the duke considered insulting. The duke complained to the senate, which then interrogated Brandes. He admitted the
dunning, and thus the senate arrested him. The enfranchised citizens, grouped along their parishes, then elected from each of the then four parishes 12 representatives (deacons), the Council of the Forty-Eighters (die Achtundvierziger), who on Saint Lawrence Day (August 10) stipulated with the senate the Recess of 1410 (later called Erster Rezess). The Erster Rezess is now considered Hamburg's oldest constitutional act, establishing first principles balancing the power of the government of the city-state and its citizens. The Erster Rezess established the principle that in Hamburg nobody may be arrested at the government's will but only after a prior judicial hearing and conviction (except of in flagrante delicto). Furthermore, the Erster Rezess stipulated that the council (senate) has to synchronise with the citizens in all severe matters, such as war, contracts with foreign powers, or decisions as to levying new or raising higher taxes, by convoking the citizens in plenary assembly. The plenary assemblies met in front of the city hall. With an overall population of roughly 10,000 people and only a minority among the male adults enjoying citizenship, the plenary assemblies of the citizenry (the Bürgerschaft) formed a functioning body, though with restricted authority. The Forty-Eighters persisted, serving as opinion-forming committee within the citizenry, and developed into the first permanent representation of the citizens of Hamburg. took on the task of centralizing, administering, and uniformly distributing relief to the poor." The Forty-Eighters, now called (collegial panel of the deacons) continued to exist and the plenary assembly of citizens was replaced by the Assembly of the 144 (, or formally: ), comprising 36 representatives (12 deacons and 24 subdeacons) from each parish. Later the parishioners of
St. Michael's Church in the
New Town, established as parish independent of St. Nicholas in 1647, were granted the same rights as the burghers in one of the four parishes in the
Old Town, and the same number of representatives. "Beginning in 1685, there were thus fifteen chief elders: sixty deacons instead of forty-eight and 180 assembly members altogether, rather than 144. These structures existed into the nineteenth century, with each college recruiting new members from the next larger." Since March 23, 2011 the Hamburg Parliament has been in its 20th legislative period in the Federal Republic of Germany. A SPD-Government succeeded a coalition of CDU and the Greens. == Electoral system ==