German Bundesrat
The German Bundesrat is a legislative body that represents the sixteen states of Germany at the federal level. The Bundesrat meets at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin at Leipziger Straße. Its second seat is located in the former West German capital of Bonn.
The Bundesrat legislates alongside the Bundestag. The Bundesrat consists of members appointed by state governments and the Bundestag consists of representatives directly elected by the German people. Certain laws and all constitutional changes need the consent of both houses. For its somewhat similar function, the Bundesrat is sometimes described as an upper house of parliament along the lines of the United States Senate, the Canadian Senate, Australian Senate, and the British House of Lords.
The name "Bundesrat" was used by similar bodies in the North German Confederation and the German Empire. The predecessor of the Bundesrat in the Weimar Republic was the Reichsrat.
The political makeup of the Bundesrat is affected by changes in power in the states of Germany, and thus by elections in each state. Each state delegation in the Bundesrat is appointed by the state government. In contrast to most parliaments, the members of the Bundesrat do not have a free mandate and all members of a state delegation have to vote the same way in each vote. The Bundesrat is a continuous body and has no legislative periods. For organizational reasons, the Bundesrat structures its legislative calendar in years of business, beginning each year on 1 November. Each year of business is congruous with the one-year-term of the Presidium of the Bundesrat. The sessions have been counted continuously since the first session on 7 September 1949. The Bundesrat's 1,000th plenary meeting took place on 12 February 2021 and was opened with a speech by President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
History
German Confederation
The historical predecessor of the Bundesrat was the Federal Convention of the German Confederation. That Federal Convention consisted of the representatives of the member states. The first basic law of the German Confederation listed how many votes a member state had, for two different formations of the diet. The diet was the only organ – there was no division of powers. The diet was chaired by the Austrian representative.In the revolution of 1848 the Bundestag transferred its powers to the Imperial Regent and was reactivated only in 1850/1851. Several other attempts to reform the Confederation involved retaining the Bundestag and adding a parliament and a court. One of these attempts, the proposed Reform Act of 1863, had introduced the term Bundesrath. With the dissolution of the Confederation in August 1866, the diet and the federal law ended.
North German Confederation and German Empire (1867–1918)
On 1 July 1867 the North German Confederation was established as a confederal state. The Reichstag, elected by the North German men, was one legislative body. The other one was the Bundesrath. This organ was expressly modelled after the old diet. When the Confederation was transformed and renamed Deutsches Reich in 1871, the Bundesrat kept its name.Whilst appointed by state governments just as today, the delegates of the original Bundesrat—as those of the Reichsrat—were usually high-ranking civil servants, not cabinet members. The original Bundesrat was very powerful; it had the right of legislative initiative and every bill needed its consent, equaling it to the popularly elected Reichstag. It could also, with the Emperor's agreement, dissolve the Reichstag.
Weimar Republic (1918/19–1933)
In the revolution of 1918, the revolutionary organ Rat der Volksbeauftragten limited the power of the Bundesrat to its administrative functions. A Staatenausschuss accompanied the reform of Germany but had no official role in installing the new constitution. Under that Weimar Constitution, ratified on 11 August 1919, it was replaced by the italic=no.The italic=no of the Weimar Republic had considerably less influence, since it could only veto bills—and even then be overruled by the italic=no. However, overruling the italic=no needed a majority of two-thirds in the italic=no, which consisted of many parties differing in opinion. So, in most cases, bills vetoed by the Reichsrat failed due to the lack of unity among the Reichstag's constituent parties. The italic=no was abolished by the "Law on the Abolition of the Reichsrat" on 14 February 1934, roughly a year after Hitler had come to power.
Federal Republic (since 1949)
With the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany after the Second World War and the adoption of the Basic Law as the new constitution, the chamber of states was re-established, again under the name 'Bundesrat'. The new Bundesrat, in terms of its power, occupies an intermediate position between the very powerful Bundesrat of the empire and the relatively weak Reichsrat of the Weimar Republic. The Bundesrat now once again has the right of legislative initiative, but its absolute right of veto applies only to certain laws that directly affect the federal states; otherwise its vetos can be overruled by the Bundestag with an absolute majority. The latter also applies to the federal budget.Tasks
Legislative process
The Bundesrat is one of three constitutional bodies that have the right of initiative for the legislative process. In addition, government legislative initiatives must be formally brought to the attention of the Bundesrat, which has to respond to them with a statement. The bill can only be discussed in the Bundestag once this statement has been made. Conversely, a bill proposed by the Bundesrat must first be submitted to the Federal Government for a statement before the Bundestag can deal with it. When the Bundestag has finally approved a bill, it is forwarded to the Bundesrat. There are two possibilities here:- If a proposed law directly affects the states or if they would have to participate in its enforcement, it is called an "approval bill": The Bundesrat must approve such a bill by a majority vote in order for it to become a law.
- If the stated condition is not met, one speaks of an "objection bill": Such a bill becomes a law if the Bundesrat does not object to it within 14 days. However, the Bundestag can overrule the objection with a majority of its members. If the Bundesrat lodges an objection with a two-thirds majority, the Bundestag can only overrule it with a two-thirds majority.
Under no circumstances can the Bundesrat amend a bill. However, in the case of "approval laws" in particular, if the Bundesrat rejects a bill, the matter is often referred to the so-called mediation committee, a body made up of an equal number of members of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, which attempts to negotiate whether the bill can find the approval of both chambers with certain amendments. A version amended in this way must then be passed again by a majority in both chambers in order to become law.
One important difference between the Bundesrat and an upper house in a true bicameral legislature is that the Bundesrat always decides on a bill only after the Bundestag and can adopt it only in the form adopted by the Bundestageven if the bill originated in the Bundesrat itself. It is even possible for the Bundesrat to first propose a bill and then reject it after the law has been passed in the Bundestag because the majority in the chamber has changed in the meantime.
Election of judges to the federal constitutional court
The Bundesrat shares responsibility with the Bundestag for electing the judges of the Federal Constitutional Court. Both chambers elect four judges to each of the court's two senates. They also elect the president and vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court in alternating order. This requires a two-thirds majority, which currently stands at 46 of 69 votes.Emergency powers
The Bundesrat also has certain powers that can be brought to use in special states of emergency.- In the event of an internal emergency, e.g. a natural disaster, the federal government can deploy the armed forces to support the police forces of the federal states and the federal police in protecting civilian objects and fighting organised and military armed insurgents. The Federal Government can then order the police of a federal state and the police forces of other federal states to follow its instructions and deploy units of the federal police if the endangered federal state is not willing or able to combat the danger itself. However, the Bundesrat can prohibit the Federal Government from doing so by majority decision.
- If a vote of confidence by the Chancellor fails and the Federal President does not dissolve the Bundestag, the President may, at the request of the Chancellor and with the consent of the Bundesrat, declare a legislative emergency. If the Bundestag then rejects a bill designated by the government as urgent, or adopts it in a version designated by the federal government as unacceptable, the law shall be deemed to have been passed if the Bundesrat approves it. The Basic Law cannot be amended, repealed or suspended, either in whole or in part, by means of this procedure. This legislative emergency is limited to a period of six months and can only be declared once during a Chancellor's term of office.