German Bundestag

The German Bundestag (commonly referred to as Bundestag) is the legislature of Germany. It meets in Berlin, in the Reichstag building, which was specially rebuilt ready for the Bundestag to move from Bonn.

German Bundestag Deutscher Bundestag
20th Bundestag
History
Established	7 September 1949; 75 years ago (1949-09-07)
Preceded by	Reichstag (Nazi Germany, 1933–1945)
Leadership
President of the Bundestag	Bärbel Bas, SPD since 26 October 2021
Vice presidents of the Bundestag	Aydan Özoğuz, SPD since 26 October 2021
	Yvonne Magwas, CDU/CSU since 26 October 2021
	Katrin Göring-Eckardt, Alliance 90/The Greens since 9 December 2021
	Wolfgang Kubicki, FDP since 24 October 2017
	Petra Pau, The Left since 7 April 2006
	Vacant, AfD[a]
Father of the House	Wolfgang Schäuble, CDU/CSU since 26 October 2021
Chancellor	Olaf Scholz, SPD since 8 December 2021
Leader of the Opposition[b]	Friedrich Merz, CDU/CSU since 15 February 2022
Structure
Seats	736[1]
Political groups	Government (416)   SPD (206)   Greens (118)   FDP (92) Opposition (320)   Union (197)   CDU (152)   CSU (45)   AfD (79)   The Left (39)   Non-attached (5)   Ind. (2)   AfD (2)   SSW (1)
Elections
Voting system	Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP)
Last election	26 September 2021
Next election	On or before 26 October 2025
Meeting place
Reichstag building Mitte, Berlin, Germany
Website
www.bundestag.de/en
Rules
Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag and Mediation Committee (English)

The plenary of the German Bundestag.

The Bundestag has at least 598 members. Every 4 years the German people vote. After the 2017 election there were 709 members. In the election of 26 September 2021, 736 members were assigned - the base 598 seats plus 138 overhang and leveling seats. The next elections are in 2025.

A party gets seats when it gets at least 5% of the votes or 3 direct mandates. Every voter has two votes, one for a person and one for a party. 299 members each represent a constituency, just as in the British House of Commons or the US House of Representatives. The other half are elected from a party list in each Land. The total number of seats a party gets depends on the number of the second "party votes" it gets.

But if a party wins more constituency seats than its share of the party votes, then it keeps those extra seats. These extra seats, or extra mandates, are the reason the Bundestag sometimes has more than 598 members. If a party gets extra mandates, the other parties get some extra seats too to make sure every party gets exactly its share of party seats. This system of giving extra mandates was changed in 2013. Before 2013, if a party won extra mandates, then it got to put more members in the Bundestag, which gave the party more influence over the Bundestag than it won in the elections.

The Bundestag president is named Bärbel Bas. She oversees the sessions of the body.

Related pages

• Politics of Germany#Bundestag (election results of 2013)
• German federal election, 2017

Notes

1. The Rules of Procedure of the Bundestag (German: Geschäftsordnung) allocate one Vice-President to each political group (Fraktion). However, each candidate must still be elected by a parliamentary majority. Due to the AfD's rejection by other parties, no AfD candidate has reached such a majority.
2. Though the by-laws of the Bundestag do not mention such a position, the leader of the largest opposition Fraktion is called leader of the opposition by convention.