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German Bundesrat

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German Federal Council

Deutscher Bundesrat
78th year of business
Coat of arms or logo
History
Founded23 May 1949; 77 years ago (1949-05-23)
Leadership
Hendrik Wüst, CDU
since 1 November 2026
First Vice President
Andreas Bovenschulte, SPD
since 1 November 2026
Second Vice President
Markus Söder, CSU
since 1 November 2026
Structure
Seats69 seats
Elections
Appointment by State Governments
Meeting place
Former chamber of the Prussian House of Lords, Berlin
Website
bundesrat.de

The German Bundesrat (German: [ˈbʊndəsˌʁaːt] ⓘ, lit. 'Federal Council') is a constitutional body that represents the sixteen states of Germany (German: Länder) 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 is part of the legislative branch, alongside the more powerful Bundestag. In this respect, it bears a distant resemblance to an upper house of a bicameral parliament. However, the Bundesrat is a constitutional body distinct from the Bundestag and, more importantly, it is not a parliamentary chamber. Rather, it is an assembly of delegations (from the sixteen state governments) that are subject to an imperative mandate. This particular form of state participation in federal legislation stems from the tradition of similar bodies in the North German Confederation (1867–1870/71), the German Empire (1870/71–1918/19) and the Weimar Republic (1919–1934).

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 and has to act in the Bundesrat according to agreements by the state cabinet. The Bundesrat is a continuous body and has no legislative periods. For organizational reasons, the Bundesrat structures its legislative calendar in years of business (Geschäftsjahre), 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.[1]

History

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German Confederation

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The historical predecessor of the Bundesrat was the Federal Convention (Confederate Diet) of the German Confederation (1815–1848, 1850/1851–1866). That Federal Convention consisted of the representatives of the member states. The first basic law (Bundesakte) 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[2] 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,[3] the diet and the federal law ended.

North German Confederation and German Empire (1867–1918)

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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 (old spelling). This organ was expressly modelled after the old diet.[4] When the Confederation was transformed and renamed Deutsches Reich (German Empire) in 1871, the Bundesrat kept its name.

The imperial Bundesrat had the right of legislative initiative and every bill adopted by the Reichstag (including the budget) needed its consent. It could also, with the Emperor's agreement, dissolve the Reichstag, making it – at least in theory – the more powerful of the two legislative bodies.

Whilst appointed by the 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.

Weimar Republic (1918/19–1933)

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In the revolution of 1918, the revolutionary organ Rat der Volksbeauftragten ("Council of People's Representatives") limited the power of the Bundesrat to its administrative functions. A Staatenausschuss (committee of states) 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 Reichsrat (1919–1934).

The Reichsrat of the Weimar Republic had considerably less influence: It could no longer initiate legislation and could only veto bills adopted by the Reichstag. Such vetoes could be overruled by the Reichstag. However, overruling the Reichsrat needed a majority of two-thirds in the Reichstag, 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 Reichsrat 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)

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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 powerful imperial Bundesrat and the relatively weak Reichsrat of the Weimar Republic. The Bundesrat now once again has the right of legislative initiative and has an absolute right of veto with respect to bills, the content of which directly affects the states; otherwise its vetos can be overruled by the Bundestag. The latter also applies to the federal budget.

Tasks

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The position of the Bundesrat (Federal Council) in the political system of Germany

Legislative process

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The Bundesrat is one of three constitutional bodies (along with the Bundestag and the federal government) that have the right of initiative for the legislative process. Legislative initiatives by the federal government must be formally brought to the attention of the Bundesrat, which may respond to them with a statement within six weeks or within three weeks if the government considers the bill to be urgent. The bill can only be discussed in the Bundestag once this statement has been made or the deadline runs out. The Bundesrat can demand an extension of the deadline to nine weeks or, in the case of an urgent bill, to six weeks. If instead the Bundesrat proposes a bill, it must first be submitted to the Federal Government for a statement before the Bundestag can deal with it.[5]

If the Bundestag adopts a bill, it must be 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 (Chancellor majority). If the Bundesrat lodges an objection with a two-thirds majority, the Bundestag can only overrule it with a two-thirds majority.

The two variants differ significantly because, due to the special voting procedures in the Bundesrat, a positive vote is always more difficult to achieve than a negative one. This is because a majority of all possible votes (currently 35 out of 69) is always required for a positive vote. A delegation can only vote yes on a motion if there is a consensus in the respective state government. If such a consensus does not exist (which is often the case, as most state governments are multi-party coalitions), the delegation must abstain, which in effect has the same result as a no vote. In short, for approval bills, a majority must be present in the Bundesrat, while for objection laws, it is sufficient if no majority is formed against them.

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 (in this case the rules of procedure of both chambers provide for an abbreviated legislative procedure).

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 Bundestag – even 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

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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

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The Bundesrat also has certain powers that can be brought to use in special states of emergency.

  • Article 81 of the Basic Law provides for a state of legislative emergency. This state may be triggered only after a motion of confidence proposed by the Chancellor has failed and the Bundestag has not been dissolved thereupon; if the Bundestag then rejects a bill designated by the federal government as urgent, at the request of the Chancellor and with the consent of the Bundesrat, the President may declare a legislative emergency with regard to that bill. If the Bundestag then rejects the bill again, adopts it in a version deemed by the federal government to be unacceptable, or refuses to act within four weeks, the bill is 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. The state of legislative emergency lasts six months, and any other bill meeting the conditions in that time may be passed in the same manner. Only one legislative emergency can be declared during a Chancellor's term of office.[6]
  • Article 91 of the Basic Law provides that in the event of an "an imminent danger to the existence or free democratic basic order of the Federation", the federal government may place the police forces of one or more states under its command and deploy units of the Federal Police to combat the danger. Any order given under this provision may be countermanded by a majority vote of the Bundesrat.[7]

Seat

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Bundesrat building, Berlin in 2007

From 1894 to 1933, the Bundesrat/Reichsrat met in the same building as the Reichstag, today known as Reichstagsgebäude. After 1949, the Bundesrat gathered in the Bundeshaus in Bonn, along with the Bundestag, at least most of the time. A wing of the Bundeshaus was specially built for the Bundesrat.[citation needed]

In 2000, the Bundesrat moved to Berlin, as the Bundestag had done the year before. The Berlin seat of the Bundesrat is the former Prussian House of Lords building. The Bundesrat wing in Bonn is still used as a second seat.[citation needed]

Composition and Voting procedure

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Historically

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For the Federal Diet of 1815, the basic law (Bundesakte) established two different formations. In the Plenary, for the most important decisions, every state had at least one vote. The larger states Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hannover and Württemberg had four votes each; eight lesser states two or three, and the remaining 25 had only one vote.

The North German Confederation was a different entity from the German Confederation, but it can also be regarded as the brainchild of a long lasting reform debate within the German Confederation. The new Bundesrat even referred to the old diet in Article 6, when it redistributed the votes for each states. Prussia, originally with four votes, gained the votes of the states it had annexed in 1866, i.e. Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Holstein, Nassau, and Frankfurt, totaling 17 votes. The total number of votes in 1867 was 43 votes.

When the South German states joined in 1870/71, the revised federal constitutions allocated new votes for them. Bavaria had six votes, Württemberg four, Baden three, and (the whole of) Hesse-Darmstadt three. The total number went up to 58 votes, and in 1911, with three new votes for Alsace-Lorraine, to 61 votes. The Prussian votes remained 17.

To put the Prussian votes in context: 80% of North Germans lived in Prussia, and after 1871, Prussia made up two thirds of the German population and territory. Prussia was always underrepresented in the Bundesrat.

State Notes Votes
Prussia (including states annexed in 1866) 17
Bavaria 6
Saxony 4
Württemberg 4
Baden 3
Hesse 3
Mecklenburg-Schwerin 2
Brunswick 2
17 other small states each with 1 vote 17
Alsace-Lorraine after 1911 3
Total 61

Weimar Republic

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The Reichsrat, as a first, had no fixed numbers of votes for the member states. Instead, it introduced the principle that the number depended on the actual number of inhabitants. Originally, states had one vote for every 1 million inhabitants. In 1921, this was reduced to 700,000 inhabitants per vote.

No state was allowed to have more than 40 percent of the votes. This was regarded as a clausula antiborussica, counterbalancing the dominant position of Prussia, which still contained roughly two-thirds of the German population. Also, since 1921, half of the Prussian votes were not cast by the Prussian state government but by the administrations of the Prussian provinces.

For example, of the 63 votes in 1919, Prussia had 25 votes, Bavaria seven, and Saxony five. 12 states had only one vote each.

Today

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Composition of the German states' governing coalitions

The composition of the Bundesrat is fundamentally different from other similar legislative bodies representing states (such as the U.S. Senate). Bundesrat members are not elected — either by popular vote or by the state parliaments — but are delegated by the respective state government. They do not enjoy a free mandate (for example, most privileges in the Bundesrat can be exercised only by a Land, not an individual member) and serve only as long as they are representing their state, not for a fixed period of time. Members of the Bundesrat (suffix "MdBR") do however enjoy the same immunity from prosecution that Members of the German Bundestag have. In addition, Members of the Bundesrat have unlimited access to sessions of the Bundestag (where they have their own benches to the left of the President of the Bundestag) and its committees and can address it at any time.[8]

Normally, a state delegation consists of the Minister-President (called Governing Mayor in Berlin, President of the Senate in Bremen and First Mayor in Hamburg) and other cabinet ministers (called senators in Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg). State cabinets may appoint as many delegates as the state has votes, and usually do, but may also send a single delegate to exercise all of the state's votes. All other ministers/senators are usually appointed as deputy delegates. In any case, the state has to cast its votes en bloc, i.e., without vote splitting. If a delegation casts inconsistent votes, all of that delegation's votes are invalid. Since every procedural or substantive motion in the Bundesrat requires at least a majority of all possible votes (currently 35 out of 69), in practice, no-votes, abstentions, and invalid votes have the same negative effect.

In theory, it is up to the states to decide how they will coordinate their voting positions. In practice, this is determined in coalition agreements at the state level, and it has become established practice that a state votes "yes" or "no" on a motion if there is a consensus within the respective coalition, and otherwise abstains.

The number of votes a state is allocated is based on a form of degressive proportionality according to its population. This way, smaller states have more votes than a distribution proportional to the population would grant. The presence of the small city-states of Bremen, Hamburg, and Berlin prevents the Bundesrat from having the rural and conservative bias of other similar legislative bodies biased in favor of small states. The allocation of votes is regulated by the German constitution (Grundgesetz).[9] Each state is allocated at least three votes, and a maximum of six. States with more than

  • 2 million inhabitants have 4 votes,
  • 6 million inhabitants have 5 votes,
  • 7 million inhabitants have 6 votes.

By convention, SPD-led Länder are summarized as A-Länder, while those with governments led by CDU or CSU are called B-Länder.

Current distribution of votes
State Population[10] Votes Population per vote Governing parties Last election Presidency
Baden-Württemberg 10,879,618 6 1,813,270 Greens, CDU 2026 2028/29
Bavaria 12,843,514 6 2,140,586 CSU, FW 2023 2027/28
Berlin 3,520,031 4 880,008 CDU, SPD 2026 2033/34
Brandenburg 2,484,826 4 621,207 SPD, CDU 2024 2035/36
Bremen 671,489 3 223,830 SPD, Greens, The Left 2023 Current
Hamburg 1,787,408 3 595,803 SPD, Greens 2025 2038/39
Hesse 6,176,172 5 1,235,234 CDU, SPD 2023 2030/31
Lower Saxony 7,926,599 6 1,321,100 SPD, Greens 2022 2029/30
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 1,612,362 3 537,454 SPD, The Left 2026 2039/40
North Rhine-Westphalia 17,865,516 6 2,977,586 CDU, Greens 2022 2026/27
Rhineland-Palatinate 4,052,803 4 1,013,201 CDU, SPD 2026 2032/33
Saarland 995,597 3 331,866 SPD 2022 2040/41
Saxony 4,084,851 4 1,021,213 CDU, SPD 2024 2031/32
Saxony-Anhalt 2,245,470 4 561,368 CDU, SPD, FDP 2026 2036/37
Schleswig-Holstein 2,858,714 4 714,679 CDU, Greens 2022 2034/35
Thuringia 2,170,714 4 542,679 CDU, Thüringen.Gerecht, SPD 2024 2037/38
Total 82,175,684 69 1,190,952

While legislative terms of the Bundestag are numbered, with the 21st Bundestag taking office in 2025, the Bundesrat has none, being a permanent institution with membership changes staggered state by state. Meetings have been numbered in a single sequence since 1949: it had its 1,000th plenary meeting on 12 February 2021.[1]

Current members

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The following is the list of current members of the Bundesrat:[11]


Party vetoes

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Due to the unique nature of the Bundesrat’s composition and voting procedures, the power of political parties is measured not so much by their number of members in the chamber as by their participation in state governments. Every state in which a party is part of the governing coalition increases its access to votes in the Bundesrat. This is particularly true when it comes to obstructive voting behavior: In every state where a party is part of the governing coalition, that party can force a (de facto) "no" vote against a substantive or a procedural motion. By contrast, a party has positive control over a state's votes only if it governs alone in that state—which is very rare in Germany's multiparty system.

Thus, the parties that are particularly powerful in the Bundesrat are those that, at any given time, have access to 35 votes, as these parties can block approval bills at any time. During times in which an opposition party holds such a veto, the government seeks its prior approval for legislative initiatives. If an agreement fails, the government tends to shelve laws to avoid appearing incapable of acting.[12][13]

Veto power in the Bundesrat
(as of September 2026)
Party Participation in
Bundesrat seats
CDU/CSU 51 (veto)
SPD 47 (veto)
Greens 28 (veto, if a two-thirds majority is required)
The Left 6
FW 6
Thüringen.Gerecht 4
FDP 4

Presidency

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Originally from 1867 to 1918, the Bundesrat was chaired by the chancellor, although he was not a member and had no vote. This tradition was kept to a degree when since 1919 the Reichsrat still had to be chaired by a member of the imperial government (often the minister of the interior).

Since 1949, the presidency rotates annually among the Minister-Presidents of each of the states. This is fixed by the Königsteiner Abkommen, starting with the federated state with the largest population going down. The President of the Bundesrat convenes and chairs plenary sessions of the body and is formally responsible for representing Germany in matters of the Bundesrat. The president is aided by two Vice Presidents who play an advisory role and deputise in the president's absence; the predecessor of the current President is first, his presumptive successor second Vice President. The three together make up the Bundesrat's executive committee.

The President of the Bundesrat ("Bundesratspräsident"), is fourth in the order of precedence after the Federal President, the President of the Bundestag, the Chancellor and before the President of the Federal Constitutional Court. The President of the Bundesrat becomes acting Federal President of Germany, in case that the office of the Federal President should be vacant.

Organizational structure

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The House of Lords of Prussia on Leipziger Straße, seat of the Bundesrat

Because the Bundesrat is so much smaller than the Bundestag, it does not require the extensive organizational structure of the Bundestag.[citation needed] The Bundesrat typically schedules plenary sessions once a month for the purpose of voting on legislation prepared in committee. In comparison, the Bundestag conducts about fifty plenary sessions a year.

The voting Bundesrat delegates themselves rarely attend committee sessions; instead, they delegate that responsibility to civil servants from their ministries, as allowed for in the Basic Law (art. 52,2[14]). The delegates themselves tend to spend most of their time in their state capitals, rather than in Berlin. The delegations are supported by the Landesvertretungen, which function basically as embassies of the states in the federal capital Berlin.

Ausschüsse

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The Bundesrat has 16 standing committees (ständige Ausschüsse):[15]

  • Committee on Agricultural Policy and Consumer Protection (Ausschuss für Agrarpolitik und Verbraucherschutz (AV))
  • Committee on Labour, Integration and Social Policy (Ausschuss für Arbeit, Integration und Sozialpolitik (AIS))
  • Committee on Foreign Affairs (Ausschuss für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten (AA))
  • Committee on European Union Questions (Ausschuss für Fragen der Europäischen Union (EU))
  • Committee on Family and Senior Citizens (Ausschuss für Familie und Senioren (FS))
  • Committee on Finance (Finanzausschuss (Fz))
  • Committee on Women and Youth (Ausschuss für Frauen und Jugend (FJ))
  • Committee on Health (Gesundheitsausschuss (G))
  • Committee on Internal Affairs (Ausschuss für Innere Angelegenheiten (In))
  • Committee on Culture Affairs (Ausschuss für Kulturfragen (K))
  • Committee on Legal Affairs (Rechtsausschuss (R))
  • Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Ausschuss für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (U))
  • Committee on Transport (Verkehrsausschuss (Vk))
  • Committee on Defense (Ausschuss für Verteidigung (V))
  • Committee on Economy (Wirtschaftsausschuss (Wi))
  • Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Regional Planning (Ausschuss für Städtebau, Wohnungswesen und Raumordnung (Wo))

Criticism

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Some observers claim that the opposing majorities lead to an increase in backroom politics, where small groups of high-tier leaders make all the important decisions and the Bundestag representatives have a choice only between agreeing with them or not getting anything done at all. The German "Federalism Commission" was looking into this issue, among others. There have been frequent suggestions of replacing the Bundesrat with a US-style elected Senate,[16] which would be elected at the same date as the Bundestag. This is hoped to increase the institution's popularity, reduce Land bureaucracy influence on legislation,[clarification needed] make opposing majorities less likely, make the legislative process more transparent, and generally set a new standard of democratic, rather than bureaucratic leadership.

Other observers emphasize that different majorities in the two legislative bodies ensure that all legislation, when approved, has the support of a broad political spectrum, a particularly valuable attribute in the aftermath of unification, when consensus on critical policy decisions is vital. The formal representation of the states in the federal government, through the Bundesrat, provides an obvious forum for the coordination of policy between the states and the federal government. The need for such coordination, particularly given the specific, crucial needs of the eastern states, has become only more important.

Supporters of the Bundesrat claim that the Bundesrat serves as a control mechanism on the Bundestag in the sense of a system of checks and balances. Since the executive and legislative functions are closely intertwined in any parliamentary system, the Bundesrat's ability to revisit and slow down legislative processes is often seen as making up for that loss of separation.

See also

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Notes

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  1. The Bundesrat is sometimes referred to as the second chamber of the German legislature, but this designation is disputed by some.[17] The Federal Constitutional Court itself has used the term upper house in the English translations of its decisions,[18][19] and refers to the Bundesrat as a "second chamber existing beside the parliament".[20]
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "not upper house" is not used in the content (see the help page).

References

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  1. 1 2 "Ein Verfassungsorgan – 1000 Sitzungen" (in German). Berlin: Bundesrat. Retrieved 17 February 2025.
  2. ↑ Ralf Heikaus: Die ersten Monate der provisorischen Zentralgewalt für Deutschland (Juli bis Dezember 1848). Diss. Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al., 1997, p. 48.
  3. ↑ Christopher Clark: Preußen. Aufstieg und Niedergang 1600–1947. DVA, München 2007, p. 624.
  4. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Vol. III: Bismarck und das Reich. 3rd edition. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1988, p. 651.
  5. ↑ https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html#p0404. Basic law for the Federal Republic of Germany. pp. Art. 76. {{cite book}}: |chapter-url= missing title (help)
  6. ↑ "Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany". www.gesetze-im-internet.de.
  7. ↑ "Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany". www.gesetze-im-internet.de.
  8. ↑ "Art 43 GG - Einzelnorm".
  9. ↑ "Artikel 51 GG". Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (in German). Federal Ministry of Justice. 23 May 1949. Retrieved 18 January 2009.
  10. ↑ "Amtlicher Bevölkerungsstand am 31. Dezember 2015". Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  11. ↑ "Mitglieder des Bundesrates". Bundesrat.
  12. ↑ Stecker, Christian (26 October 2021). "Blockierte Mehrheit: Warum die Vetomacht des Bundesrates ein Demokratieproblem ist". Verfassungsblog (in German). doi:10.17176/20211026-182916-0.
  13. ↑ Simone Burkhart; Philip Manow (9 January 2006). "Kompromiss und Konflikt im parteipolitisierten Föderalismus der Bundesrepublik Deutschland". Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft (in German). 16 (3): 807–824. doi:10.5771/1430-6387-2006-3-807. ISSN 1430-6387.
  14. ↑ "Art 52 GG - Einzelnorm". www.gesetze-im-internet.de.
  15. ↑ bundesrat.de, retrieved 8 August 2025.
  16. ↑ Zur Reform des Bundesrates - Lehren eines internationalen Vergleiches der Zweiten Kammern - II. Reform des Bundesrates - welches Vorbild?, Roland Sturm, Federal Agency for Civic Education
  17. Reuter, Konrad (2003). "Zweite Kammer?". Bundesrat und Bundesstaat: Der Bundesrat der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (PDF) (in German) (12th ed.). Berlin: Direktor des Bundesrates. p. 50. ISBN 3-923706-22-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 June 2007. Retrieved 4 January 2007. Im Ausland wird ein solches parlamentarisches System im Allgemeinen als Zweikammer- System bezeichnet. Für Bundestag und Bundesrat ist dagegen eine gemeinsame Bezeichnung nicht allgemein üblich, und es ist sogar umstritten, ob der Bundesrat eine Zweite Kammer ist. (English: Abroad, such a parliamentary system is in general called a bicameral one. For Bundestag and Bundesrat such a common designation is not usual and it is even contentious whether the Bundesrat is a second chamber at all.)
  18. "BVerfG, Judgment of the First Senate of 17 July 2002 – 1 BvF 1/01". 17 July 2002. Para 2. ECLI:DE:BVerfG:2002:fs20020717.1bvf000101. Retrieved 19 November 2016. If the Federal Government or the Bundestag (lower house of the German parliament) divides a subject-matter between a number of statutes in order to prevent the Bundesrat (upper house of the German parliament) from preventing provisions that in themselves are not subject to its consent, this is constitutionally unobjectionable.
  19. "BVerfG, Judgment of the First Senate of 24 April 1991 – 1 BvR 1341/90 1". 24 April 1991. Para 2. ECLI:DE:BVerfG:1991:rs19910424.1bvr134190. Retrieved 19 November 2016. The Unification Treaty was signed by the federal government and the government of the German Democratic Republic on 31 August 1990. The Bundestag (lower house of the German parliament) and the Bundesrat (upper house of the German parliament) approved this Treaty, the Protocol, the Annexes I to III and the agreement of 18 September 1990 by the Act of 23 September 1990 – the Unification Treaty Act (Federal Law Gazette II p. 885).
  20. "BVerfG, Judgment of the Second Senate of 30 June 2009 – 2 BvE 2/08". 30 June 2009. Para 286. ECLI:DE:BVerfG:2009:es20090630.2bve000208. Retrieved 19 November 2016. In federal states, such marked imbalances are, as a general rule, only tolerated for the second chamber existing beside the parliament; in Germany and Austria, the second chamber is the Bundesrat, in Australia, Belgium and the United States, it is the Senate.
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