Hanseaten (class) in the context of "Senator"

Paul Thomas Mann (UK: /ˈmæn/ MAN, US: /ˈmɑːn/ MAHN; German: [ˈtoːmas ˈman] ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized versions of German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Schopenhauer.

Mann was a member of the hanseatic Mann family and portrayed his family and class in his first novel, Buddenbrooks (1901). Late major novels include The Magic Mountain (1924), the tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers (1933–1943), and Doctor Faustus (1947); he also wrote short stories and novellas, including Death in Venice (1912).

Grand Burgher [male] or Grand Burgheress [female] (from German: Großbürger [male], Großbürgerin [female]) is a specific conferred or inherited title of medieval German origin. It denotes a legally defined preeminent status granting exclusive constitutional privileges and legal rights (German: Großbürgerrecht). Grand Burghers were magnates, subordinate only to the monarch, and independent of feudalism and territorial nobility or lords paramount.

A member class within the patrician ruling elite, the Grand Burgher was a type of urban citizen and social order of highest rank. They existed as a formally defined upper social class, made up of affluent individuals and elite burgher families in medieval German-speaking city-states and towns under the Holy Roman Empire. They usually came from a wealthy business or significant mercantile background and estate. This hereditary title (and influential constitutional status) was privy to very few individuals and families across Central Europe. The title formally existed well into the late 19th century and early part of the 20th century.

The Mann family (UK: /ˈmæn/ MAN, US: /ˈmɑːn/ MAHN; German: [ˈman]) is a German dynasty of novelists and an old Hanseatic family of patricians from Lübeck. It is known for being the family of the Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Thomas Mann.

Buddenbrooks (German: [ˈbʊdn̩ˌbʁoːks] ) is a 1901 novel by Thomas Mann, chronicling the decline of a wealthy north German merchant family over the course of four generations, incidentally portraying the manner of life and mores of the Hanseatic bourgeoisie in the years from 1835 to 1877. Mann drew deeply from the history of his own family, the Mann family of Lübeck, and their milieu.

It was Mann's first novel, published when he was twenty-six years old. With the publication of the second edition in 1903, Buddenbrooks became a literary success. Its English translation by Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter was published in 1924. The work led to a Nobel Prize in Literature for Mann in 1929; although the Nobel award generally recognises an author's body of work, the Swedish Academy's citation for Mann identified "his great novel Buddenbrooks" as the principal reason for his prize. In 1993, a new English translation by John E. Woods was published. In 2023, Damion Searls published a translation of "A Day in the Life of Hanno Buddenbrook", which he explained "was originally part 11, chapters 2 and 3, of Mann's first novel, Buddenbrooks, but he considered it something of an independent work.... The title is provided by me". A third English translation of Buddenbrooks is reportedly forthcoming.

The government of Hamburg is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. Hamburg is a city-state and municipality, and thus its governance deals with several details of both state and local community politics. It takes place in two ranks – a citywide and state administration (Senate of Hamburg), and a local rank for the boroughs. The head of the city-state's government is the First Mayor and President of the Senate. A ministry is called Behörde (office) and a state minister is a Senator in Hamburg. The legislature is the state parliament, called Hamburgische Bürgerschaft, and the judicial branch is composed of the state supreme court and other courts. The seat of the government is Hamburg Rathaus. The President of the Hamburg Parliament is the highest official person of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. This is a traditional difference to the other German states. The president is not allowed to exert any occupation of the executive.

Prior to 1871, Hamburg was a fully sovereign country, and its government a sovereign government. Upon joining the German Empire, the city-state retained partial sovereignty as a federal state. It was one of three republics within the German Empire until 1919, which meant that its First Mayor enjoyed the same rank in the Empire as the federal princes. Prior to the constitutional reforms in 1919, the hereditary grand burghers, or Hanseaten, had a legally privileged position and were the only ones eligible for election to the senate.

Federal prince (German: Bundesfürsten, "Princes of the Federation") was the generic term for the royal heads of state (monarchs) of the various states making up the German Empire, with the exception of the states that were republics and Alsace-Lorraine which had a special status. The empire was a federal state, with its constituent states remaining sovereign states. Among the states, the majority were monarchies, 3 states were republics and Alsace-Lorraine was an imperial territory ruled by a steward. The states became part of the German Empire by an 1871 treaty. The head of the empire was granted the title German Emperor (with the title "Emperor of Germany" being deliberately avoided), and was simultaneously a federal prince as King of Prussia, the sovereign of its largest federal state. Of the princely heads of state, 4 held the title King (König) (the Kings of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg), 6 held the title Grand Duke (Großherzog), 5 held the title Duke (Herzog), and 7 held the title Prince (i.e. Sovereign Prince, Fürst). The heads of state of the city republics, where the concepts of nobility and royalty did not exist, were of equal standing to the federal princes and held the titles First Mayor and President of the Senate (Hamburg), Mayor and President of the Senate (Lübeck), and President of the Senate and Mayor (Bremen). The heads of state of the city republics were regarded as primi inter pares among the senators according to the states' republican constitutions, and these states were ruled by an oligarchy of hereditary Grand Burghers, also known as Hanseaten or patricians.

In total, there were 22 federal princes of the German Empire and additionally three republican heads of state and the steward of Alsace-Lorraine.