The Bundestag ("Federal Diet") is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 (the Grundgesetz), and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag. Current Bundestag President is Norbert Lammert. In politics, a Diet is a formal deliberative assembly. ... Insert non-formatted text hereInsert non-formatted text here:This article is about the legislative institution. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of modern Germany. ... The Reichstag (German for Imperial Diet) was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945. ... The German order of precedence is a symbolic hierarchy of officials in the Government of Germany used to direct protocol. ... Norbert Lammert Dr. Norbert Lammert (born November 16, 1948 in Bochum) is a German politician (CDU). ...

The Bundestag in Berlin. Speaking is US President George W. Bush

Image File history File links Bundestag. ... Image File history File links Bundestag. ... The presidential seal was first used by president Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ...

History

The Bundestag was also the nickname of the governing body of the German Confederation from 1815-1866 (officially called Bundesversammlung, "Federal Assembly"). This body met in Frankfurt and was presided over by the Austrian delegate. As one of the chief instruments of the reactionary forces opposed to democracy and nationalism, it was dissolved during the liberal revolution of 1848 but reconvened in 1850. It is a predecessor to the modern Bundestag in name only. While the modern parliament is elected by the people, the Bundestag of the German Confederation was appointed by the various princes and the governments of the free cities. The German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund) was a loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to organize the surviving states of the Holy Roman Empire, which had been abolished in 1806. ... // Nationalism is an ideology that holds that (ethnically defined) nations are the fundamental units for human social life, and makes certain cultural and political claims based upon that belief; in particular, the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state, and that each nation is entitled...

With the dissolution of the German Confederation in 1866 and the founding of the German Empire in 1871, the Reichstag was established as the German parliament in Berlin, and the current parliament building was erected. The Reichstag delegates were elected by direct and equal male suffrage (and not the three-class electoral system prevailing in Prussia until 1918). The Reichstag did not participate in the appointment of the Chancellor until the parliamentary reforms of October 1918. After the Revolution of November 1918 and the establishment of the Weimar Constitution, women were given the right to vote for (and serve in) the Reichstag, and the parliament could use the no-confidence vote to force the chancellor or any cabinet member to resign. The Reichstag ceded its powers to the Federal Government of Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1933 by passing the infamous Enabling Act. Afterward it met only rarely to unanimously rubber-stamp the decisions of the government. It was last convened on 26 April 1942. This article is about the German law passed in 1933 at the beginning of the Third Reich. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... This article is about the year. ...

With the new constitution of 1949, the Bundestag was established as the new (West) German parliament. Because West Berlin was not officially under the jurisdiction of the Constitution and because of the Cold War, the Bundestag met in Bonn in several different buildings, including (provisionally) a former water works facility. The former Reichstag building housed a history exhibition ("Fragen an die deutsche Geschichte") and served occasionally as a conference center. Boroughs of West Berlin West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ... The Cold War was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between the global superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, supported by their respective and emerging alliance partners. ... Bonn is a city in Germany (19th largest), in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the north of the Siebengebirge. ...

Since 1999, the German parliament has again assembled in Berlin in its original Reichstag building, which is still known as the Reichstag. This building dates from the 1870's and burned in 1933, never being actually repaired. It underwent a significant renovation under the lead of British architect Lord Foster of Thames Bank. 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... (help· info), IPA: , is the capital city as well as a state of Germany, and also the countrys largest city. ... The Reichstag building. ... Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich, was one of Fosters earliest commissions after founding Foster Associates. ...

In 2005, a small airplane crashed close to the German parliament. It was then decided to ban private air traffic over Central Berlin.

Tasks

Together with the Bundesrat, the Bundestag forms the legislative branch of the German political system; Germany does not have a bicameral parliament in the strict sense though (see Bundesrat for details). The Bundesrat (federal council) is the representation of the 16 Germany at the federal level. ... Politics of Germany takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Federal Chancellor is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. ... The Bundesrat (federal council) is the representation of the 16 Germany at the federal level. ...

The Bundestag in Berlin. Speaking is French President Jacques Chirac, who is hugely overshadowed by the German Eagle.

Although most legislation is initiated by the executive branch, the Bundestag considers the legislative function its most important responsibility, concentrating much of its energy on assessing and amending the government's legislative program. The committees (see below) play a prominent role in this process. Plenary sessions provide a forum for members to engage in public debate on legislative issues before them, but they tend to be well attended only when significant legislation is being considered. Image File history File links Bundestagssitzung (Staatsbesuch von Jacques Chirac) Lizenz () Originalbeschreibung Template:Bild-by Französisches Außenministerium, Abteilung Fotografien File links The following pages link to this file: Bundestag (Germany) ... Image File history File links Bundestagssitzung (Staatsbesuch von Jacques Chirac) Lizenz () Originalbeschreibung Template:Bild-by Französisches Außenministerium, Abteilung Fotografien File links The following pages link to this file: Bundestag (Germany) ... The President of the French Republic (French: Président de la République française) colloquially referred to as President of France, is Frances elected Head of State and also the ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the Légion dhonneur. ... H.E. (help· info), (born November 29, 1932 in Paris) is a French politician who is currently President of the French Republic. ...

The Bundestag members are the only federal officials directly elected by the public; the Bundestag in turn elects the Chancellor and, in addition, exercises oversight of the executive branch on issues of both substantive policy and routine administration. This check on executive power can be employed through binding legislation, public debates on government policy, investigations, and direct questioning of the chancellor or cabinet officials. For example, the Bundestag can conduct a question hour (Fragestunde), in which a government representative responds to a previously submitted written question from a member. Members can ask related questions during the question hour. The questions can concern anything from a major policy issue to a specific constituent's problem. Use of the question hour has increased markedly over the past forty years, with more than 20,000 questions being posed during the 1987-90 term. Understandably, the opposition parties are active in exercising the parliamentary right to scrutinize government actions. The German head of government has been known as the Chancellor (German: Kanzler) ever since the creation of the post. ...

One striking difference when comparing the Bundestag with the U.S. Congress is the lack of time spent on serving constituents in Germany. In part, that difference results from the fact that only 50 percent of Bundestag deputies are directly elected to represent a specific geographic district; the other half are elected as party representatives (see below). The political parties are thus of great importance in Germany's electoral system, and many voters tend not to see the candidates as autonomous political personalities but rather as agents of the party. Interestingly, constituent service seems not to be perceived, either by the electorate or by the representatives, as a critical function of the legislator. A practical constraint on the expansion of constituent service is the limited personal staff of Bundestag deputies. Congress in Joint Session. ...

Constituent service does, however, take place in the form of the Petition Committee, rather than through individual delegates. In 2004, the Petition Committee received over 18,000 complaints from citizens and was able to negotiate a mutually satisfactory solution to more than half of them.

Election

Members serve four-year terms; elections are held every four years, or earlier in the relatively rare case that the Bundestag is being dissolved prematurely by the President on the recommendation of the Chancellor, which has happened three times as of 2005: 1972 under chancellor Willy Brandt, 1982 under chancellor Helmut Kohl and 2005 under chancellor Gerhard Schröder. All candidates must be at least eighteen years old; there are no term limits. The election uses the MMP electoral system, a hybrid of the first-past-the-post election system and party-list proportional representation. In addition, the Bundestag has a minimum threshold of either 5% of the national party vote or three (directly elected) constituency representatives for a party to gain additional representation through the system of proportional representation; thus, small (and often extremist) minority parties cannot so easily prevent the formation of stable majority governments as they could under the Weimar constitution. The additional member system results in a varying number of seats; since the 2002 elections, there have been 603 seats. The distribution of the seats is calculated by the Largest remainder method. The additional seats are distributed to ensure that the combined total of direct and additional seats is proportional to the vote; this is calculated separately for each state . Sometimes parties win more seats directly than what their proportional share would entitle them to - these are known as overhang seats. Unlike the situation in some German state parliaments, overhang seats are not compensated in the Bundestag. The President of Germany (German: Bundespräsident, formerly Reichspräsident) is Germanys head of state. ... The German head of government has been known as the Chancellor (German: Kanzler) ever since the creation of the post. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ... Willy Brandt (December 18, 1913 – October 8, 1992) was a German politician and Chancellor of Germany from 1969 to 1974. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dr. Helmut Kohl (full name Helmut Josef Michael Kohl) (born April 3, 1930) is a German conservative politician and statesman. ... Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder [] (born April 7, 1944), German politician, was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. ... The Additional Member System (AMS) is a voting system where some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from party lists. ... The first-past-the-post electoral system is a voting system for single-member districts, variously called first-past-the-post (FPTP or FPP), winner-take-all, plurality voting, or relative majority. ... Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems used in multiple-winner elections (e. ... A political party is an organization that seeks to attain political power within a government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. ... The largest remainder method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. ... Germany is a Federal Republic made up of 16 States, known in German as Länder (transliterated as Laender in English, singular Land). ... Overhang seats can arise in elections under mixed member proportional (MMP), when a party is entitled to fewer seats as a result of party votes than it has won constituencies. ...

Election result

The Bundestag (Federal Diet) is the parliament of Germany. ... The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU - Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) is the largest conservative political party in Germany. ... The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU – ) is a conservative political party in Germany. ... SPD redirects here. ... The Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei - FDP) is a free-market liberal (libertarian) party in Germany. ... The Left Party (In German: , officially with a period at the end), formerly Party of Democratic Socialism (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus, PDS) is a left-wing socialist political party in Germany. ... Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (literally: Alliance 90/The Greens), the German Green Party, is a political party in Germany whose regional predecessors were founded in the late 1970s as part of the new social movements. ...

Seats by party (16th Bundestag, since general election on September 18th, 2005)

For a list of current members, see the List of Bundestag Members. Image File history File links German_federal_election,_2005_-_Final. ... This article needs cleanup. ... The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU – ) is a conservative Germany. ... Overhang seats can arise in elections under mixed member proportional (MMP), when a party is entitled to fewer seats as a result of party votes than it has won constituencies. ... SPD redirects here. ... The Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei - FDP) is a free-market liberal (libertarian) party in Germany. ... The Left Party (In German: , officially with a period at the end), formerly Party of Democratic Socialism (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus, PDS) is a left-wing socialist political party in Germany. ... Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (literally: Alliance 90/The Greens), the German Green Party, is a political party in Germany whose regional predecessors were founded in the late 1970s as part of the new social movements. ... This is a list of members of the 16th Bundestag - the parliament of Germany. ...

List of Bundestage by Session

Historic seat distribution in the German Bundestag

¹: 1983 to 1990 The Greens, 1990 to 1994 Alliance 90, since 1994 Alliance 90/The Greens
²: 1990 to 2005 PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism), since 2005 The Left Party
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU - Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) is the largest conservative political party in Germany. ... The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU – ) is a conservative political party in Germany. ... SPD redirects here. ... The Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei - FDP) is a free-market liberal (libertarian) party in Germany. ... Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (literally: Alliance 90/The Greens), the German Green Party, is a political party in Germany whose regional predecessors were founded in the late 1970s as part of the new social movements. ... The Left Party (In German: , officially with a period at the end), formerly Party of Democratic Socialism (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus, PDS) is a left-wing socialist political party in Germany. ... The German Party (Deutsche Partei) is a minor German political party. ... 1932 KPD poster, End This System The Communist Party of Germany (in German, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was formed in December of 1918 from the Spartacist League, which originated as a small factional grouping within the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the International Communists of Germany (IKD). ... The German Centre Party (Deutsche Zentrumspartei or merely Zentrum), often called the Catholic Centre Party, was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. ... The South Schleswig Voter Federation (German: Südschleswigscher Wählerverband, Danish: Sydslesvigsk Vælgerforening, Frisian: Söödschlaswiksche Wäälerferbånd) is a minor political party in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. ... The All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (Gesamtdeutscher Block/Bund der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten / GB/BHE) was founded in 1950 as BHE (Block der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten, Bloc of Expellees and Deprived of Rights) and changed the name to GB/BHE in 1952. ... The German Centre Party (Deutsche Zentrumspartei or merely Zentrum), often called the Catholic Centre Party, was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. ... Alliance 90 (Bündnis 90) was an alliance of opposition groups in East Germany. ... Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (literally: Alliance 90/The Greens), the German Green Party, is a political party in Germany whose regional predecessors were founded in the late 1970s as part of the new social movements. ... The Party of the Left. ... The Left Party (In German: , officially with a period at the end), formerly Party of Democratic Socialism (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus, PDS) is a left-wing socialist political party in Germany. ...

For detailed information on particular sessions of the Bundestag, please refer to the List of German Bundestage. This is a list page for the individual sessions of the German Bundestag: 20th Century First German Bundestag (1949-1953) Second German Bundestag (1953-1957) Third German Bundestag (1957-1961) Fourth German Bundestag (1961-1965) Fifth German Bundestag (1965-1969) Sixth German Bundestag (1969-1972) Seventh German Bundestag (1972-1976...

Presidents since 1949

Eugen Karl Albrecht Gerstenmaier (born 25 August 1906 in Kirchheim unter Teck; died 13 March 1986 in Bonn) was a German Evangelical theologian, resistance fighter in the Third Reich, and a CDU politician. ... Karl Carstens (December 14, 1914 - May 30, 1992) was a German politician. ... Rainer Candidus Barzel (born June 20, 1924) is a German CDU Politician. ... Rita Süssmuth (CDU), president of German Bundestag 1988-1998 Rita Süssmuth (born 17 February 1937 in Wuppertal) is a German politician and a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). ... Wolfgang Thierse is the current speaker of the Bundestag. ... Norbert Lammert Dr. Norbert Lammert (born November 16, 1948 in Bochum) is a German politician (CDU). ...

Organization

The most important organizational structures within the Bundestag are parliamentary groups (Fraktionen; sing. Fraktion), which are formed by political parties represented in the chamber which have gained more than 5% of the total votes; CDU and CSU have always formed a single united Fraktion. The size of a party's Fraktion determines the extent of its representation on legislative committees, the time slots alloted for speaking, the number of committee chairs it can hold, and its representation in executive bodies of the Bundestag. The Fraktionen, not the members, receive the bulk of government funding for legislative and administrative activities. This article needs cleanup. ... The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU – ) is a conservative Germany. ...

The leadership of each Fraktion consists of a parliamentary party leader, several deputy leaders, and an executive committee. The leadership's major responsibilities are to represent the Fraktion, enforce party discipline, and orchestrate the party's parliamentary activities. The members of each Fraktion are distributed among working groups focused on specific policy-related topics such as social policy, economics, and foreign policy. The Fraktion meets once a week to consider legislation before the Bundestag and formulate the party's position on it. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Parties which do not fulfill the criterion for being a Fraktion but which have got at least three seats by direct elections (i.e. which have got at least three MPs which represent a certain electoral district) in the Bundestag can be granted the status of a group of the Bundestag. This applied to the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) from 1990-1998. This status entails some privileges which are in general less than those of a Fraktion. In the current Bundestag, there are no such groups (the PDS only had two MPs in parliament until 2005 and was thus not even considered a group anymore; the party has now returned to the Bundestag with full Fraktion status). Party of Democratic Socialism is a political party in India; see Party of Democratic Socialism (India) the former name of a German political party; see Left Party (Germany). ... This article is about the year. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

The Bundestag's executive bodies include the Council of Elders and the Presidium. The council consists of the Bundestag leadership, together with the most senior representatives of each Fraktion, with the number of these representatives tied to the strength of the party in the chamber. The council is the coordination hub, determining the daily legislative agenda and assigning committee chairpersons based on party representation. The council also serves as an important forum for interparty negotiations on specific legislation and procedural issues. The Presidium is responsible for the routine administration of the Bundestag, including its clerical and research activities. It consists of the chamber's president (usually elected from the largest Fraktion) and vice presidents (one from each Fraktion). The Council of Elders is a joint deliberative body which includes the following stakeholders: President; Vice presidents; Bundestag members appointed by parliamentary groups in proportion to their size. ... The Presidium of the German Bundestag conisists of the President of the Bundestag and a variable number (momentarily 4) of Vice-Presidents of the Bundestag. ...

Most of the legislative work in the Bundestag is the product of standing committees, which exist largely unchanged throughout one legislative period. Although this is common practice in the U.S. Congress, it is uncommon in other parliamentary systems, such as the British House of Commons and the French National Assembly. The number of committees approximates the number of federal ministries, and the titles of each are roughly similar (e.g., defense, agriculture, and labor). Between 1987 and 1990, the term of the eleventh Bundestag, there were twenty-one standing committees. The distribution of committee chairs and the membership of each committee reflect the relative strength of the various parties in the chamber. In the eleventh Bundestag, the CDU/CSU chaired eleven committees, the SPD eight, the FDP one, and the environmentalist party, the Greens (Die Grünen), one. Unlike in the United States Congress, where all committees are chaired by members of the majority party, the German system allows members of the opposition party to chair a significant number of standing committees. These committees have either a small staff or no staff at all. Congress in Joint Session. ... The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and is now the dominant branch of Parliament. ... The National Assembly is the name of either a legislature, or the lower house of a bicameral legislature in some countries. ... This article needs cleanup. ... The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU – ) is a conservative political party in Germany. ... SPD redirects here. ... Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | German political parties | Liberal parties ... Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (literally: Alliance 90/The Greens), the German Green Party, is a political party in Germany whose regional predecessors were founded in the late 1970s as part of the new social movements. ...

See also

• Politics of Germany
• Bundesrat

Politics of Germany takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Federal Chancellor is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. ... The Bundesrat (federal council) is the representation of the 16 Germany at the federal level. ...

External links

• http://www.bundestag.de - Official site
• http://www.btw2002.de - 2002 elections