n`dĕstäkh'), lower house of the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is a popularly elected body that elects the chancellor, passes all legislation (subject to executive veto on budget matters), and ratifies the most important treaties. It can remove the chancellor in a vote of no confidence by electing a new chancellor, but can be dissolved by the President if deadlocked on a new government. The upper house of the parliament, the Bundesrat [federal council] cannot be dissolved, represents the states (Länder), and receives all government draft legislation before the Bundestag. Its approval is required for most laws.Bundestag
Lower house of the German bicameral legislature. It represents the nation as a whole and is elected by universal suffrage under a system of mixed direct and proportional representation. Members serve four-year terms. The Bundestag in turn elects the chancellor. The term was formerly used to refer to the federal Diet of the German Confederation (1815–66), known as the Reichstag under the Weimar Republic (1919–34). Its building burned down in 1933 (see Reichstag fire), and its members were not allowed to meet again for the duration of the Nazi regime (1933–45). The Reichstag was reconstituted as the Bundestag in the governmental reorganization of 1949. Its membership was again reorganized after German unification in 1990.
Bundestag
highest representative body of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundestag is elected for four years. (Half of the deputies are elected in one-member constituencies, the other half on party lists presented in each Land.) The social composition of the Bundestag is characterized by a predominance of industry magnates and representatives of party and state bureaucracies. Three parties are represented in the Bundestag elected in 1969—the Christian Democratic Union, the Social Democratic Party, and the Free Democratic Party. In an emergency situation the Bundestag may be replaced by a so-called joint committee composed of 33 deputies of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
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