Bundesrat of Germany
in Berlin, GermanyCategory: Attraction
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Leipziger Straße 3-4, 10117 Berlin, Germany Print route »
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The German Bundesrat (literally "Federal Council"; pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁaːt]) is a legislative body that represents the sixteen Länder (federal states) of Germany at the national level. The Bundesrat meets at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin. Its second seat is located in the former West German capital Bonn.The Bundesrat participates in legislation, alongside the Bundestag, the directly elected representation of the people of Germany, with laws affecting state competences and all constitutional changes requiring the consent of the body. For its similar function, it is often described as an upper house of parliament along the lines of the US Senate, the Canadian Senate or the British House of Lords. The German constitution, however, does not define the Bundesrat and the Bundestag as the upper and lower houses of a bicameral legislature. Officially, it is generally referred to as a "constitutional body" alongside the Bundestag, the Federal President, the Federal Cabinet and the Federal Constitutional Court.
Bundesrath (from 1901 on: Bundesrat, according to a general spelling reform) was the name of similar bodies in the North German Confederation (1867) and the German Empire (1871). Its predecessor in the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) 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 essentially a representation of the state government and reflects the political makeup of the ruling majority or plurality of each state legislature (including coalitions).
