The first city mayor of Warsaw was Jan Andrzej Menich (1695–1696).[4] The municipal self-government existed in Warsaw until World War II and was restored in 1990 (during the communist times, the National City Council – Miejska Rada Narodowa – governed in Warsaw). Since 1990, the structure of city government has been modified several times.[5] Between 1975 and 1990 the Warsaw city mayors simultaneously led the Warsaw Voivode. In the years 1990-1994, the city mayor of Warsaw was elected by the city council.[6] Subsequently, a controversial reform was introduced, transforming the city in the years of 1994–1999 into a loose municipal union of several gminas, dominated by one of them, the gmina Centrum encompassing the entire inner city. During this period, the mayor of gmina Centrum who was elected by its council was automatically designated as the city mayor of Warsaw, in spite of representing only a fraction of the population of the city. The city was becoming increasingly unmanageable, especially after the administrative reform of Poland in 1999 which further complicated the local government structure of Warsaw. In 2002, the new Warsaw Act of the Polish parliament restored Warsaw as a single urban gmina with the status of a city with powiat rights, led by a unified local government. At the same time, a significant reform was implemented in all Polish municipal governments, introducing direct elections of the wójt/town mayor/city mayor in all Polish gminas.[6] The first city mayor of Warsaw elected according to these rules was Lech Kaczyński, who however resigned ahead of term when he was elected President of Polish Republic in 2005.
Warsaw has thereafter remained an urban gmina with the status of a city with powiat rights.[5]Legislative power in Warsaw is vested in a unicameralWarsaw City Council (Rada Miasta), which comprises 60 members.[5] Council members are elected directly every five years (since 2018 election). Like most legislative bodies, the city council divides itself into committees which have the oversight of various functions of the city government.[5] The city mayor exercises the executive power in the city, being the superior of all unelected municipal officials and other employees and supervising all subsidiary entities of the city.
Helmut Otto German Nazi Reich commissioned mayor (October 1939)
Oskar Rudolf Dengel German Nazi Reich commissioned mayor (5 November 1939 – 20 March 1940)
Ludwig Leist German Nazi plenipotentiary of Governor of the Warsaw District, since October 1941, Mayor of Warsaw. It should be clarified that the last three mentioned were appointed by the Germans during their occupation of Poland.
Between 1950 and 1973 the highest representative of the government in Warsaw was named the "Head of the Presidium of the National Council of the Capital City of Warsaw" (Przewodniczący Prezydium Rady Narodowej miasta stołecznego Warszawy).
