The president of the Bundestag (german: Präsident des Deutschen Bundestages or ) presides over the sessions of 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 ...
, the federal parliament 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 betwe ...
, with functions similar to that of a
speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
in other countries. In the
German order of precedence
The German order of precedence is a symbolic hierarchy of the five highest federal offices in Germany used to direct protocol. It has no official status, but has been established in practical use.
# The President of Germany, the head of state of ...
, the office is ranked second after the
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
and before the
chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
.
The current office-holder is
Bärbel Bas
Bärbel Bas (; born 3 May 1968) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has served as the President of the Bundestag since 2021. She has been a member of the German Bundestag since the federal election in 2009. She served ...
(
SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
), who was elected during the first session of the 20th Bundestag on 26 October 2021.
Election and customs
The president of the Bundestag is elected during the constituent session of each election period after the
federal elections or in a later session, if the office has fallen vacant, by all members of the Bundestag. The president has to be a member of the Bundestag. Until the election of the president, the session is chaired by the
father of the House, the so-called ''Alterspräsident''. Since 2017, this has been the longest serving member of the Bundestag; in 1949-2017, it was the oldest member of the Bundestag by age.
[Deutscher Bundestag]
The Bundestag's constituent sitting
Usually, the president of the Bundestag is a member of the largest parliamentary group. This
constitutional convention had emerged already in times of 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 ...
, but this is not required by law. The term ends with the election period, and there is no provision for an early removal. The term of the president can only end prematurely if they resign the position, leaves the Bundestag or dies. They can be reelected in the next election period provided they become a member of the Bundestag again.
Traditionally, the president of the Bundestag is elected uncontested. The only exception so far has been in 1954 after the unexpected death of
Hermann Ehlers.
Ernst Lemmer
Ernst Lemmer (April 28, 1898 – August 16, 1970) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former member of the German Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the ...
competed with the "official"
CDU/
CSU candidate,
Eugen Gerstenmaier
Eugen Karl Albrecht Gerstenmaier (25 August 1906 – 13 March 1986, in Oberwinter) was a German Evangelical theologian, resistance fighter in the Third Reich, and a CDU politician. From 1954 to 1969, he served as President of the Bundestag. With ...
, and lost after three ballots with a difference of 14 votes (204 for Gerstenmaier, 190 for Lemmer, 15 abstentions).
Presidium of the Bundestag
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 order
Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or ...
) until 1994, when it was decided that each parliamentary group should be represented by at least one vice president.
However, no
AfD candidate for vice president has been elected for the
20th Bundestag. There is some controversy over this
cordon sanitaire
''Cordon sanitaire'' () is French for "sanitary cordon". It may refer to:
*Cordon sanitaire (medicine), a cordon that quarantines an area during an infectious disease outbreak
*Cordon sanitaire (politics), refusal to cooperate with certain politic ...
imposed against the
far-right AfD, but the
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its in ...
has ruled that even though the rules of order of the Bundestag give the AfD the right to a Vice-Presidential post, there is no obligation for any given member of the Bundestag to vote for any given candidate for Vice-President of the Bundestag and the office requires election by a majority vote of the Bundestag. Together, the president and the vice presidents make up the
Presidium of the Bundestag.
In the current 20th Bundestag, the vice presidents are:
*
Aydan Özoğuz
Aydan Özoğuz (, born 31 May 1967) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who has been serving as a Vice-president of the German Bundestag since October 2021. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009 and served as ...
(SPD)
*
Yvonne Magwas
Yvonne Magwas (born 28 November 1979) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). A member of the German Bundestag since 2013, she has been its Vice President as of October 2021.
Education and early career
Yvonne Magwas gre ...
(CDU/CSU)
*
Katrin Göring-Eckardt
Katrin Dagmar Göring-Eckardt (born Katrin Dagmar Eckardt; 3 May 1966) is a German politician of the German Green Party (officially known as Alliance 90/The Greens). Starting her political activity in the now-former German Democratic Republic (E ...
(
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (for ...
)
*
Wolfgang Kubicki
Wolfgang Kubicki (born 3 March 1952) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) and member of the Bundestag from 1990 until 1992 and 2017 onwards. He has been vice chairman of the FDP in Germany since December 2013. Sin ...
(FDP)
*
Petra Pau
Petra Pau (born 9 August 1963) is a German politician of The Left. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 1998. Since 2006, she has also served as one of the Vice Presidents of the Bundestag, being the first member of her party to hold t ...
(
Die Linke)
Legal background
The legal foundation for the office i
Article 40of the
Basic Law which states that the Bundestag elects a president and vice presidents and is to give itself rules of order. Due to a 1952
Federal Constitutional Court
The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its in ...
decision, the ''Geschäftsordnung'' has to be enacted afresh in every election period, but usually the old rules are reenacted without change.
[ Deutscher Bundestag]
Erläuterungen zur Geschäftsordnung
The ''Geschäftsordnung'' specifies 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. The president determines the order of speakers and opens and closes the debates, and ensures that debates take place in an orderly fashion.
[Deutscher Bundestag]
In the case of grave disruption, they may exclude a member of parliament for up to 30 session days.
[Deutscher Bundestag]
All draft legislation initiated by the Federal Government, the Bundestag or the
Bundesrat is addressed to the president, as well as all submissions and petitions from within or addressed to the Bundestag. The president of the Bundestag also chairs the
Council of Elders, which manages the internal affairs of the Bundestag.
[Deutscher Bundestag]
Council of Elders
For the election of a new
Federal president, the president of the Bundestag convenes and chairs the
Bundesversammlung.
[Deutscher Bundestag]
The Federal Convention
Additionally, the president 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 seizure
Search and seizure is a procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems by which police or other authorities and their agents, who, suspecting that a crime has been committed, commence a search of a person's property and confiscat ...
there to protect the independence of the parliament,
[ Deutscher Bundestag]
Gesetzliche Grundlage
für die Polizei beim Bundestag and acts as the employer of the Bundestag's public servants.
List of presidents
Political parties
Books
Michael F. Feldkamp (ed.), ''Der Bundestagspräsident. Amt - Funktion - Person.'' 16. Wahlperiode, München 2007,
References
{{Authority control
Bundestag
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 ...