The Landtag of Bavaria, officially known in English as the Bavarian State Parliament, is the
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
legislature of the German
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
. The parliament meets in the
Maximilianeum
The Maximilianeum, a palatial building in Munich, was built as the home of a gifted students' foundation but since 1949 has housed the Bavarian State Parliament. It sits grandly and as a focal point on the bank of the Isar River above Maximilian ...
in Munich.
Elections to the
Landtag
A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non- ...
are held every five years and have to be conducted on a Sunday or public holiday. The following elections have to be held no earlier than 59 months and no later than 62 months after the previous one, unless the Landtag is dissolved. The most recent elections to the Bavarian Landtag were held on 14 October 2018.
Bavaria's current state government, formed after the 2018 election, is a coalition of the
Christian Social Union (CSU) and the
Free Voters
Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...
(FW).
Markus Söder
Markus Thomas Theodor Söder (born 5 January 1967) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Bavaria since 2018 and Leader of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) since 2019.
Background, education and military service
Söde ...
has been
Minister-President
A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...
of
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
since March 2018, when he succeeded
Horst Seehofer
Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician who served as Minister of the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the 18 ...
.
History
File:Medal Bavarian Constitution 1819, obv.jpg, Presentation medal of the ''Bayerische Ständeversammlung'' 1819 to King Maximilian I Joseph, on the first anniversary of the constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
of 1818, obverse.
The ''Landtag'' of Bavaria was founded in 1818, in the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
. The first assembly was held on 4 February 1819. Originally it was called the ''Ständeversammlung'' and was divided into an upper house, the ''
Kammer der Reichsräte'' (House of Councillors), and a lower house, the ''
Kammer der Abgeordneten'' (House of Representatives). With the act to reform the election of the representatives in 1848 the ''Ständeversammlung'' was de facto renamed the ''Landtag'' (state diet). The name Landtag was used occasionally before this act.
In the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
, from 1919 on, under the
Bamberg Constitution
Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castle. C ...
, the upper house of the ''Landtag'' was abolished and its lower house became a unicameral democratic elected assembly. In 1933, in
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, the ''Landtag'' suffered ''
Gleichschaltung
The Nazi term () or "coordination" was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and societies occupied b ...
'' like all German state parliaments. It was dissolved on 30 January 1934.
After the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the new
Constitution of Bavaria
The Constitution of the Free State of Bavaria was enacted on 8 December 1946. It is the fourth constitutional document in Bavarian history after the Constitution of 1808, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1818 and the Bamberg Con ...
was enacted and the first new Landtag elections took place on 1 December 1946. Between 1946 and 1999 there was again an upper house, the
Senate of Bavaria
The Bavarian Senate (German ''Bayerischer Senat'') was the corporative upper chamber of Bavaria's parliamentary system from 1946 to 1999, when it was abolished by a popular vote (referendum) changing the Constitution of Bavaria.
Composition
...
. The CSU has dominated the Bavarian Landtag for nearly the entire post-war period.
The CSU's
2003 election victory was the first time in the history of the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
that any party had won a two-thirds majority of seats in an assembly at any level. Five years later in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, the CSU saw a stunning reversal of fortunes, and failed to win a majority of seats in Bavaria for the first time in 46 years. In the aftermath of this result, the SPD floated the idea that the four other parties should all unite to form a government excluding the CSU, as it had "lost its mandate to lead": however, the FDP were not interested.
Composition
![Bayern Landtagswahlkreise 2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Bayern_Landtagswahlkreise_2018.svg)
Like the ''
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
'' at the federal level, the Bavarian ''Landtag'' is elected through
mixed-member proportional representation
Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...
. There are at least 180 seats, but more are sometimes added as
overhang and
leveling seat
Leveling seats ( da, tillægsmandat, sv, utjämningsmandat, no, utjevningsmandater, is, jöfnunarsæti, german: Ausgleichsmandat), commonly known also as adjustment seats, are an election mechanism employed for many years by all Nordic countrie ...
s.
As of the 2018 election, the state is divided into 91 electoral districts, which each elect one representative in the same manner as under
first-past-the-post
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
. To achieve a proportional result, another 89 seats are on
open party lists in the 7
administrative districts
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
of the state, which the constitution define as constituencies. Every constituency elect a fixed number of seats. The 89 seats are assigned such that, also taking into account the 91 districts seats, each party is represented in proportion to its share of the vote in the constituencies. On election day, people vote separately for a candidate in their electoral districts (called the "first vote") and for a candidate in their constituency (called the "second vote").
As of the 2018 election, seats are assigned to the constituency as follows:
Election results 1946–2018
Source:
Parties:
* AfD: Alternative for Germany – ''Alternative für Deutschland''
* B'90/Grüne: Alliance 90/The Greens – ''Bündnis 90/Die Grünen''
* BP: Bavaria Party – ''Bayernpartei''
* CSU: Christian Social Union of Bavaria – ''Christlich Soziale Union Bayerns''
* FDP: Free Democratic Party – ''Freie Demokratische Partei''
* FW: Independents – ''Freie Wähler''
* GB/BHE:
All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights
The All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (german: Gesamtdeutscher Block/Bund der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten or GB/BHE) was a right-wing political party in West Germany, which acted as an advocacy group of the German ...
– ''Gesamtdeutscher Block/Block der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten''
* KPD: Communist Party of Germany – ''Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands''
* Linke: The Left – ''Die Linke''
* NPD: National Democratic Party of Germany – ''Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands''
* ÖDP: Ecological Democratic Party – ''Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei''
* REP: The Republicans – ''Die Republikaner''
* SPD: Social Democratic Party of Germany – ''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland''
* WAV: ''Wirtschaftliche Aufbau Vereinigung''
See also
*
Bavarian Landtag elections in the Weimar Republic
This article is concerned with the elections to the Landtag of Bavaria (''State Diet of Bavaria'') in years of 1919–1933, the period known as the Weimar Republic.
12 January 1919
6 June 1920
6 April 1924
20 May 1928
24 April 1932
Refer ...
*
1998 Bavarian state election
The 1998 Bavarian state election was held on 13 September 1998 to elect the members of the 14th Landtag of Bavaria. The Christian Social Union (CSU) led by Minister-President Edmund Stoiber retained its majority with minor gains, while the opposi ...
*
2003 Bavarian state election
The 2003 Bavarian state election was held on 21 September 2003 to elect the members to the 15th Landtag of Bavaria. The Christian Social Union in Bavaria, Christian Social Union (CSU) led by List of Ministers-President of Bavaria, Minister-Presiden ...
*
2008 Bavarian state election
The 2008 Bavarian state election was held on 28 September 2008 to elect the members of the Landtag of Bavaria. The result was a historic defeat for the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, Christian Social Union (CSU), which had governed with a major ...
*
2013 Bavarian state election
The 2013 Bavarian state election was held on 15 September 2013 to elect the 180 members of the 17th Landtag of Bavaria. It was held one week before the 2013 German federal election. The CSU regained the absolute majority it had lost in 2008, whil ...
*
2018 Bavarian state election
The 2018 Bavarian state election took place on 14 October 2018 to elect the 180 members of the 18th Landtag of Bavaria. The outgoing government was a majority of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), led by Minister President Markus Söder.
...
References
External links
Official website of the ''Bavarian Landtag''(in German)
Official website of the ''Bavarian Landtag''(in English)
(in German)
*
ttp://www.bayern.de/ Website of the Bavarian government(in German)
*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080530230517/http://www.bayern.de/English-.594/index.htm Website of the Bavarian government(in English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landtag Of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
Politics of Bavaria