449. What is the title of the head of government in Schleswig-Holstein?

Answer options

1. First Minister (male/female)
2. Prime Minister (male/female)
3. Mayor (male/female)
4. Minister-President (male/female)

Explanation

In Germany’s federal order, the heads of government of the territorial Länder are styled Minister-President, a designation entrenched in the respective Land constitutions. Schleswig-Holstein, reconstituted after 1946, provides for the Minister-President to be elected by the Landtag, to direct the state government and the State Chancellery, and to represent the Land in the Bundesrat and in the Conference of Minister-Presidents. Only the city-states depart from this title (Berlin’s Governing Mayor, Hamburg’s First Mayor, Bremen’s President of the Senate). This diversity of nomenclature is permissible under Article 28 of the Basic Law, which preserves Länder institutional autonomy within the republican, democratic, and social constitutional framework.