The city council, in early times supposedly elected by male citizens, had turned into an autocratic body restaffing its vacancies by coöptation.

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 Erster Rezess (roughly: The first Settlement, literally the agreement reached before parting [Lat.

[5] The Erster Rezess came about after the city council (Senate, no parliament but the government) had cited and arrested Heyne Brandes [de],[6] a burgher of Hamburg.

They ... formed four incorporated bodies (Petri, Nikolai, Katharinen, Jacobi) in which the "allodial" (property-owning) burghers and the heads of guilds – thus only a fraction of the male population – were entitled to vote.

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).

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.

"[8] In Hamburg the Reformation started in 1524 and was adopted by the Senate in 1529, fixed by the Langer Rezess (roughly: Long Settlement, negotiated for more than a year).

"At about the same time, three deacons from each parish (twelve altogether), acting as "chief elders",[11] took on the task of centralizing, administering, and uniformly distributing relief to the poor.

Thus, a commission, sent by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, had to secure the peace by force in 1708 and the city was once more negotiating and reforming her own administrative structures in the following years.

This resulted in even more debates and the Erbgesessene Bürgerschaft passed a new electoral law to meet the criticism in September 1848 but the restoration, supported and enforced by Prussian troops during the First Schleswig War, turned the table.

After this period, however, the SDP regained control and developed Hamburg’s political, social, and economic faucets, stretching their influence late into the 20th century.