Statutory City
A
Statutory City (
Statutarstadt in
Austria, or
Statutární město in
Czech Republic) is a city with its own
municipal law or city
statute.
In Austria, a city can request this status if it has more than 20,000 inhabitants. After the
state government and the
Federal Government agree to grant the status, it is granted as long as it does not endanger any national interests. However, this is not always the case as there are smaller
Statutarstädte which were granted this right previously for historical reasons. In particular, the cities of
Eisenstadt and
Rust, which previously belonged to the
Kingdom of Hungary as
free cities, retained their own city statutes in 1921. The Statutarstädte were called urban areas and were treated according to the German
Gemeindeordnung during the period of German occupation, and as such were given no power over their own municipal constitution.
Besides local administration, the responsibilities of a Statutarstadt are to manage the
Bezirk (English: district), which places the Statutarstadt besides the municipal office as district administration authorities. The
mayor is the head of the municipality as well as the head of the district administrative authority.
Statutarstädte in Austria are:
*
Eisenstadt (
since 1921, Hungarian free city from 1648)*
Graz*
Innsbruck*
Klagenfurt (
since 1850)
*
Krems (
since 1938)
*
Linz (
since 1866)
*
Rust (
since 1921, Hungarian free city from 1681)
*
Salzburg (
since 1869)
*
St. Pölten (
since 1922)
*
Steyr (
since 1867)
*
Villach (
since 1932)
*
Waidhofen an der Ybbs (
since 1868)
*
Wels (
since 1964)
*
Vienna (
since 1850)
*
Wiener Neustadt (
since 1866)
There is a very similar model in the Czech Republic (derived from its origin in
Austria-Hungary), where there are 19 Statutory Cities defined by law, in addition to
Prague, the capital city which is a de-facto Statutory City.The three cities marked (*) will become Statutory Cities when the change to the law comes into effect in 2006.
Statutory Cities in the Czech Republic are:
*
Brno*
České Budějovice*
Děčín (*)
*
Frýdek-Místek (*)
*
Havířov*
Hradec Králové*
Chomutov (*)
*
Jihlava*
Karlovy Vary*
Karviná*
Kladno*
Liberec*
Mladá Boleslav*
Most*
Olomouc*
Opava*
Ostrava*
Pardubice*
Plzeň*
Prague (de facto)*
Přerov(*)
*
Teplice*
Ústí nad Labem*
ZlínA similar concept in Germany is called
Stadtkreis or
Kreisfreie Stadt, but these cities, such as
Munich, do not have a municipal constitution - they use the
Gemeindeordnung, a state law differing from
Bundesland to Bundesland. In the English-speaking world, especially in the U.S. state of
Virginia, a similar concept is known as
independent city.
