Bundestag

The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag was established by Title III of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (, ) in 1949 as one of the legislative bodies of Germany, the other being the Bundesrat. It is thus the historical successor to the earlier Reichstag.

The members of the Bundestag are representatives of the German people as a whole, are not bound by any orders or instructions and are only accountable to their conscience. As of the 20th legislative period, the minimum legal number of members of the Bundestag () is 598; however, due to the system of overhang and leveling seats the current 20th Bundestag has a total of 735 members, making it the largest Bundestag to date and the largest freely elected national parliamentary chamber in the world. From the 21st legislative period on, however, due to changes in the electoral law, it will have a fixed number of 630 members.

The Bundestag is elected every four years by German citizens aged 18 and older. Elections use a mixed-member proportional representation system which combines First-past-the-post voting for constituency-seats with proportional representation to ensure its composition mirrors the national popular vote. The German Bundestag cannot dissolve itself; only the President of Germany can do so under certain conditions.

Together with the Bundesrat, the Bundestag forms the legislative branch of government on federal level. The Bundestag is considerably more powerful than the Bundesrat, which represents the state governments. All bills must first be passed in the Bundestag before they are discussed in the Bundesrat. The Bundesrat can only accept laws passed by the Bundestag without amendment. Only in some areas, where laws directly affect the states, can the Bundesrat reject laws; otherwise, it can only lodge an objection to them, which the Bundestag can overrule. Above all, however, the Chancellor and the federal government are solely responsible to the Bundestag. The Bundestag also has sole budgetary authority.

The Bundestag's presiding officer is the President of the Bundestag; he or she is deputized by the Vice Presidents of the Bundestag. Since 2021, Bärbel Bas of the SPD is the president of the Bundestag. In the protocol order of the federation, the President of the Bundestag ranks second after the President and before the Chancellor.

Since 1999, the Bundestag has met in the Reichstag building in Berlin. The Bundestag also operates in multiple new government buildings in Berlin around the neo-renaissance house and has its own police force (the ''Bundestagspolizei''), directly subordinated to the Bundestag Presidency. Provided by Wikipedia