Member of the German Parliament () is the official name given to a deputy in the

German Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the lower house of 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 ...

. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the

Reichstag building The Reichstag (; ) is a historic legislative government building on Platz der Republik in Berlin that is the seat of the German Bundestag. It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the President of Germany. The Ne ...

in Berlin. In German a member is called ' (Member of the Federal

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

) or officially ' (Member of the German Federal Diet), abbreviated ''MdB'' and attached. Unofficially the term ''Abgeordneter'' (literally: "delegate", i.e. of a certain electorate) is also common (abbreviated ''Abg.'', never follows the name but precedes it). However, Members of the Bundestag are more commonly referred to as ''Bundestagsabgeordneter'' if the Member of the Bundestag is male or ''Bundestagsabgeordnete'' if the member is female. These terms literally translate to "deputy/delegate of the Bundestag". From 1871 to 1918, legislators were known as Member of the Reichstag and sat in the

Reichstag of the German Empire The Reichstag (, "Diet of the Realm"), of the German Empire was Germany's lower House of Parliament from 1871 to 1918. Within the governmental structure of the Reich, it represented the national and democratic element alongside the federalism of t ...

. In accordance with article 38 of the

Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany () is the constitution of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came into effect on 23 May after having been approved b ...

, which is the German constitution, " mbers of the German Bundestag shall be elected in general, direct, free, equal, and secret elections. They shall be representatives of the whole people, not bound by orders or instructions, and responsible only to their conscience." An important though not constitutionally required feature of German parliamentarianism is a slightly modified proportional representation. The 16 federal

States of Germany The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

(''Länder'') are represented by the Bundesrat at the former

Prussian House of Lords The Prussian House of Lords () in Berlin was the upper house of the Landtag of Prussia (), the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the lower house, the House of Representatives (), it formed the Prussian bicameral legislature ...

, whose members are representatives of the respective ''Länders'' governments and not directly elected by the people. The

2021 German federal election The 2021 German federal election was held in Germany on 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag. State elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were also held. Incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel, first elected in 2005, ...

resulted in the most MdBs elected in history, 736.

References

{{Authority control Members of the Bundestag Parliamentary titles Organisation of the Bundestag

See also

References