Editing Wolfsburg (section)

==Politics==
[[File:Rathaus Wolfsburg.jpg|thumb|The city hall]]
The first mayor of the young Stadt des KdF-Wagens was the government assessor Karl Bock, on enactment #145 of the chief president of the government of [[Lüneburg]] effective from 1 July 1938. His allies were also deployed by the government.

In 1946, the military government of the British zone of occupation established a communal constitution following the British example. After this, citizens voted for a council that elected a volunteer mayor/lord mayor as the city's leader and representative. After 1946, the council elected a full-time director to lead the city council. In 2001, the city council's dual leadership was abolished. It is led by a full-time lord mayor who is also the city's representative. Since 2001, citizens directly elect the lord mayor. The council still has its own chairperson elected by the council's constitutive conference after every local election. The current Bürgermeister (mayor) of Wolfsburg is Dennis Weilmann.

The city has been described as a "social democratic utopia".<ref name="veconomist" >{{cite news|author=J.C.|title=How to keep populists small and marginal|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/kaffeeklatsch/2017/10/parable-lower-saxony|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|date=15 October 2017}}</ref>

===City council===
The city council is made up of the fractions of the different parties (47 seats) and the lord mayor with one seat. The lord mayor is head of administration, thus the superior of all employees of the city council. The lord mayor is supported by four departmental heads who are voted in by the council on his suggestion. Together, they make up the board of directors of the city administration where the most important decisions concerning administration are deliberated weekly.

Results of the local elections on 11 September 2011:<ref>{{cite journal |title=Bekanntmachung gemäß § 39 des Niedersächsischen Kommunalwahlgesetzes (NKWG) i. V. mit § 66 Abs. 6 der Niedersächsischen Kommunalwahlordnung (NKWO) über das Ergebnis der Wahl am 11.09.2011 zum Rat der Stadt Wolfsburg |journal=Amtsblatt |date=2011-09-26 |volume=7 |number=37 |publisher=Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Wolfsburg |location=Wolfsburg |language=de |url=http://www.wolfsburg.de/irj/go/km/docs/imperia/mam/portal/grundstuecks_und_gebaeudemanagement/pdf/amtsblaetter/amtsblatt_nr_37_26_09_2011.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130207214356/http://www.wolfsburg.de/irj/go/km/docs/imperia/mam/portal/grundstuecks_und_gebaeudemanagement/pdf/amtsblaetter/amtsblatt_nr_37_26_09_2011.pdf |archive-date=2013-02-07 |access-date=2024-11-14 }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Party || Seats || Votes (%) || Votes
|- 
| [[Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands|SPD]] || 17 || 37.7% || 53.355
|-
| [[Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands|CDU]] || 14 || 31.6% || 44.635
|-
| Parteipolitisch Unabhängige Gemeinschaft|PUG || 5 || 11.9% || 16.769
|-
| [[Bündnis 90/Die Grünen]] || 5 || 9.9% || 14.026
|-
| [[Pirate Party Germany|PIRATEN]] || 2 || 3.9% || 5.528
|-
| [[Freie Demokratische Partei|FDP]] || 1 || 2.4% || 3.326
|-
| [[The Left (Germany)|Wolfsburger Linke]] || 1 || 1.5% || 2.106
|-
| Wählergemeinschaft Team Zukunft Wolfsburg|WTZ || 1 || 1.2% || 1.673
|}

Voter participations: 49.4%

===Emblems===
Wolfsburg's emblem shows a silver two-tower castle with a closed gate on red ground over a green base with silver waved timbers. A golden wolf with a blue tongue paces over the castle's battlement. The city's flag is green and white.

Lower Saxony's Department of the Interior awarded the city of Wolfsburg's emblem in 1952 after it had been constituted in the association articles in 1947. In 1961, it was improved heraldically and newly awarded by the governmental executive committee of Lüneburg. The symbols of the wolf and the castle reflect the city's name (canting arm) and do not have a historical, directly conveyed reference. The flag was adopted in 1955.

Volkswagen used a modified version of the Wolfsburg coat of arms as its steering wheel emblem, (and occasionally as a hood ornament, on classic Beetles) until the early 1980s, when it was replaced by the VW roundel.

===Regional authorities===
The city of Wolfsburg is a member of the association ''Braunschweigische Landschaft e.V'', with a registered office in Braunschweig and in the ''Lüneburgischen Landschaftsverband e.V'', with a registered office in [[Uelzen]]. These associations were founded to foster cultural establishments in the regions.{{citation needed|date=June 2013}}