The
President of the Bundestag ( or ) presides over the sessions of the
BundestagThe Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
, the parliament of
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, with functions similar to that of a
speakerThe term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the powers to discipline members who break the...
in other countries. In the
German order of precedenceThe German order of precedence is a symbolic hierarchy of officials in the Government of Germany used to direct protocol. It has no official status, but has been established in practical use....
, his office is ranked second after the
PresidentThe President of Germany is Germany's head of state. The position is largely a ceremonial one, with the president acting in accordance with the advice and directives of the legislature...
and before the Chancellor. The current President of the Bundestag is
Norbert LammertDr. Norbert Lammert is a German politician . As of 2005, he is the President of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament...
, since October 18, 2005.
The President of the Bundestag is elected during the constituent session of each election period after the
Federal electionsThe following information deals with elections in Germany, including elections to the Federal Diet , the Landtags of the various states, and local elections.-Election system:...
by all members of the Bundestag.
The
President of the Bundestag ( or ) presides over the sessions of the
BundestagThe Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
, the parliament of
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, with functions similar to that of a
speakerThe term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the powers to discipline members who break the...
in other countries. In the
German order of precedenceThe German order of precedence is a symbolic hierarchy of officials in the Government of Germany used to direct protocol. It has no official status, but has been established in practical use....
, his office is ranked second after the
PresidentThe President of Germany is Germany's head of state. The position is largely a ceremonial one, with the president acting in accordance with the advice and directives of the legislature...
and before the Chancellor. The current President of the Bundestag is
Norbert LammertDr. Norbert Lammert is a German politician . As of 2005, he is the President of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament...
, since October 18, 2005.
Election and customs
The President of the Bundestag is elected during the constituent session of each election period after the
Federal electionsThe following information deals with elections in Germany, including elections to the Federal Diet , the Landtags of the various states, and local elections.-Election system:...
by all members of the Bundestag. The president has to be a member. Until the election of the president, the session is chaired by the
Father of the HouseFather of the House is a term that has by tradition been unofficially bestowed on certain members of some national legislatures, most notably the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. In some legislatures the term refers to the oldest member, but in others it refers the longest-serving member.The...
, the so called
Alterspräsident, the oldest member of the Bundestag.
Usually, the President of the Bundestag is a member of the largest parliamentary group. This custom had emerged already in times of the
Weimar RepublicThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
, but this is not required by law. The term ends with the election period, and there is no provision for an early deposition. He can be reelected in the next election period provided he becomes a member of the Bundestag again.
Traditionally, the President of the Bundestag is elected uncontested, and the only exception so far has been in 1954. After the unexpected death of
Hermann EhlersHermann Ehlers was a German politician. He was President of the Bundestag from 19 October 1950 - 29 October 1954.He was a member of the Christian Democratic Union....
, Ernst Lemmer competed with the "official" CDU/
CSUThe Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It was founded as a continuation of the Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People's Party. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union ,...
candidate
Eugen GerstenmaierEugen Karl Albrecht Gerstenmaier was a German Evangelical theologian, resistance fighter in the Third Reich, and a CDU politician...
and lost after three ballots with a difference of 14 votes (204 for Gerstenmaier, 190 for Lemmer, 15 abstentions).
Vice presidents
The President of the Bundestag has several deputies, the Vice Presidents of the Bundestag ( or ), who are supplied by the other parliamentary groups. The number of vice presidents was not fixed in the Bundestag's
Geschäftsordnung (
rules of orderRules of order, also known as standing orders or rules of procedure, are the written rules of parliamentary procedure adopted by a deliberative assembly, which detail the processes used by the body to make decisions....
) until 1994, when it was decided that each parliamentary group should be represented by one vice president. After the
2005 electionGerman federal elections took place on September 18, 2005 to elect the members of the 16th German Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany. They became necessary after a motion of confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder failed on July 1...
, the CDU/CSU and SPD changed the rules of order to grant a second vice presidential post to the SPD, a move that was opposed by the other parties, so there are six vice presidents in the 16th Bundestag: Susanne Kastner and
Wolfgang ThierseWolfgang Thierse is a German politician.Thierse was born in Breslau . He is Roman Catholic, grew up in East Germany and studied German language and literature at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. Later, he worked for the East German Ministry for Cultural Affairs...
for the SPD, Gerda Hasselfeldt for the CDU/CSU,
Hermann Otto SolmsHermann Otto Solms is a Hessian prince and a German politician of the Free Democratic Party .From 1991 to 1998 he was Chairman of the FDP Bundestag parliamentary party...
for the FDP,
Katrin Göring-EckardtKatrin Göring-Eckhart , a German politician, has served as a member of the German Green Party in the Bundestag since 1998.Born in Friedrichroda in Thuringia as Katrin Dagmar Eckardt, she started political activity in the German Democratic Republic in the late 1980s...
for
Alliance '90/The GreensThe Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany which originated from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
and
Petra PauPetra Pau is a member of the Left Party.PDS in the German parliament, the Bundestag. First elected in 1998, from 2002 - 2005 she was one of just two party representatives, having been directly elected as the representative of Marzahn-Hellersdorf, a working-class area of east Berlin...
for the
Left PartyThe Party of Democratic Socialism was a democratic socialist political party active in Germany from 1989 to 2007. It was the legal successor to the Socialist Unity Party , which ruled the German Democratic Republic until 1990. From 1990 through to 2005, the PDS had been seen as the left-wing...
.
Legal background
The legal foundation for the office is Article 40 of the
Basic LawThe Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is the constitution of Germany. It was formally approved on 8 May 1949, and, with the signature of the Allies, came into effect on 23 May 1949, as the constitution of West Germany....
which states that the Bundestag elects a president and his vice presidents and is to give itself rules of order. Due to a 1952
Federal Constitutional CourtThe Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
decision, the
Geschäftsordnung has to be enacted afresh in every election period, but usually the old rules are reenacted without change. The
Geschäftsordnung regulates the duties of the President of the Bundestag and his vice presidents as well as their number.
Duties
The president's most important duty is to chair the sessions of the Bundestag. He determines the order of speakers and opens and closes the debates, and ensures that debates take place in an orderly fashion. In the case of grave disruption, he may exclude a member of parliament for up to 30 session days. All draft legislation initiated by the Federal Government, the Bundestag or the
BundesratThe German Bundesrat is a legislative body that represents the sixteen Länder of Germany at the federal level...
is addressed to him as well as all submissions and petitions from within or addressed to the Bundestag. The President of the Bundestag also chairs the
Council of EldersThe Council of Elders of the German parliament Bundestag is a joint deliberative body which includes the following members:* President;* Vice presidents;* Bundestag members appointed by parliamentary groups in proportion to their size...
, which manages the internal affairs of the Bundestag. For the election of a new
Federal PresidentThe President of Germany is Germany's head of state. The position is largely a ceremonial one, with the president acting in accordance with the advice and directives of the legislature...
, the President of the Bundestag convenes and chairs the
BundesversammlungThe Federal Convention is a special body in the institutional system of Germany, convened solely for the purpose of electing the German Federal President every five years....
.
Additionally, he receives the statements of account of the political parties, monitors party financing and regulates campaign cost reimbursement. The president also has police power over the premises of the parliament and oversees its police force, can veto any
search and seizureSearch and seizure is a legal procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems whereby police or other authorities and their agents, who suspect that a crime has been committed, do a search of a person's property and confiscate any relevant evidence to the crime.Most countries have...
there to protect the independence of the parliament, and acts as the employer of the Bundestag's public servants.
Books
Michael F. FeldkampMichael F. Feldkamp, is a German historian and journalist.Feldkamp was born in Kiel. After completing his high school studies at the Gymnasium Carolinum in Osnabrück, he studied history, Catholic theology, teaching, and philosophy at the Rhineland Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn...
(ed.),
Der Bundestagspräsident. Amt - Funktion - Person. 16. Wahlperiode, München 2007, ISBN 978-3-7892-8201-0