In Germany, the President of the Bundesrat (German: Bundesratspräsident) is the body's chairperson or speaker. The presidency of the Bundesrat rotates among the minister-presidents of each of the federal Länder (states) on an annual basis. As well as acting as a chairperson the President of the Bundesrat acts as deputy, or vice president, to the Federal President. The Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is one of the worlds leading industrialised countries, located in the heart of Europe. ... The Bundesrat (federal council) is the representation of the 16 Federal States (Länder) of Germany at the federal level. ... A minister-president (Ministerpräsident) is the head of government of a German federal state; the office corresponds to the governorship of a state in the United States. ... Germany is a federation of 16 states called Länder (singular Land) or unofficially Bundesländer (singular Bundesland, German federal state). ... The Federal President (German: Bundespräsident, formerly Reichspräsident) is Germanys head of state. ...

The President of the Bundesrat convenes and chairs plenary sessions of the body and is formally responsible for representing the Federal Republic in the Bundesrat. He or she is aided by three vice-presidents who play an advisory role and deputise in the president's absence. The four together constitute the Praesidium of the Bundesrat.

Election

The President of the Bundesrat usually is elected on the 1st November in a given year, and serves until the 31st October in the year that follows. The Basic Law merely provides, in Article 52.1, that "the Bundesrat elects its President for one year". However, in practice the position rotates among all Länder equally, in accordance with a predetermined order. The order in which the position rotates from one Land to another is altered periodically and is determined by population, the presidency descending in order from the most populous states to the least. (Redirected from 1st November) November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 61 days remaining. ... The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of modern Germany. ...

If the head of government of a Land changes during the term of the President of the Bundesrat then the presidency passes to the new minister-president for the remainder of its one year duration. This occurred in April 1999 when Roland Koch replaced Hans Eichel as Minister-president of Hesse. The current order of rotation of the presidency of the Bundesrat is as follows: 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Roland Koch (born March 24, 1958 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German politician. ... Hans Eichel (left) with Laurent Fabius Hans Eichel (born December 24, 1941) is a German politician (SPD), currently serving as federal Minister of Finance. ...

1. North Rhine-Westphalia
2. Bayern
3. Baden-Württemberg
4. Lower Saxony
5. Hesse
6. Saxony
7. Rhineland-Palatinate
8. Berlin
9. Saxony-Anhalt
10. Thuringia
11. Brandenburg
12. Schleswig-Holstein
13. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
14. Hamburg
15. Saarland
16. Bremen

With eighteen million inhabitants inhabiting 34,080 km² in western-northwestern Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia (German Nordrhein-Westfalen) is largest in population though only fourth in area among Germanys sixteen federal states, and contains about 22% of Germanys GDP. The capital is Düsseldorf. ... Geography Bavaria shares international borders with Austria and the Czech Republic. ... With an area of 35,742 km² and 10. ... With an area of 47,618 km and nearly eight million inhabitants, Lower Saxony (German Niedersachsen) lies in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the countrys sixteen Bundesl nder (federal states). ... Hesse is also the name of the German writer Hermann Hesse, as well as the German mathematician Otto Hesse. ... With an area of 18,400 sq. ... The Rhenish Palatinate (Rheinpfalz, sometimes Lower Palatinate or Niederpfalz) occupies rather more than a quarter of the German Bundesland (federal state) of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) and contains the towns of Ludwigshafen, Kaiserslautern, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Pirmasens, Landau and Speyer. ... Berlin (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,387,404 inhabitants (as of September 2004); down from 4. ... With an area of 20,447 km² and a population of 2. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German Freistaat Thüringen) lies in central Germany and is among the smaller of the countrys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 sq. ... For other uses, see Brandenburg (disambiguation). ... Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the 16 Bundesländer in Germany. ... Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (German: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is a Bundesland (federal state) in northern Germany. ... This article is about the city in Germany. ... With an area of 2570 km² and 1. ... For other uses, see Bremen (disambiguation). ...

Deputy to the Federal President

Article 57 of the Basic Law provides that:

If the Federal President is unable to perform his duties, or if his office falls prematurely vacant, the President of the Bundesrat shall exercise his powers.

If the Federal President is outside of the country, or the position is vacant, the President of the Bundesrat fills in as acting head of state. While doing so he or she does not continue to exercise the role of chair of the Bundesrat. If the president dies, or is removed from office, a successor is elected within thirty days. However since the establishment of the office this has never occurred. A head of state or chief of state is the chief public representative of a nation-state, federation or commonwealth, whose role generally includes personifying the continuity and legitimacy of the state and exercising the political powers, functions and duties granted to the head of state in the countrys...

If the Federal President is abroad on a state visit the President of the Bundesrat does not assume all of the Federal President's responsibilities but may "deputise" for him or her, performing on the Federal President's behalf merely those tasks that require his or her physical presence, such as the signing of documents.

See also

• List of Presidents of the German Bundesrat
• Politics of Germany

The Federal Republic of Germany (in German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is a federal representative democracy. ...

External links

• The Bundesrat - President and Presidium (http://www3.bundesrat.de/Site/Inhalt/EN/2_20Bundesrat/2.2_20President_20and_20Presidium/index,templateId=renderUnterseiteKomplett.html) from Official Bundesrat website (http://www3.bundesrat.de/Site/Inhalt/EN/index,templateId=renderStartseiteKomplett.html)