State Parliament (Germany)
In the federal system of the Federal Republic of Germany, the state parliaments embody the legislative power in the sixteen states. In thirteen of the sixteen German states, the state parliament is known as the Landtag. In the states Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the state parliament is called Bürgerschaft, in Berlin it is called Abgeordnetenhaus.
Election process, constitutional functions and powers
As the German constitution defines the Federal Republic of Germany as a federation, each German state has its own constitution. The Basic Law gives the states a broad discretion to determine their respective state structure, only stating that each German state has to be a social and democratic republic under the rule of law and that the people in every state must have an elected representation, without giving further details. In practice, all states are parliamentary republics in which the legislative branch of government is assigned to an elected parliament. Since the abolition of the Bavarian Senate in 1999, all sixteen state parliaments are unicameral.Among the most important functions of the state parliaments are the election of the Minister President, the control of the state government and the adoption of state laws. They have no influence on federal legislation, but participate in the election of the President of Germany by electing state electors to the Federal Convention.
In terms of these functions, the state parliaments work very similarly. However, there are also some significant differences between the states. This begins with the electoral system: Similar to federal elections, many states use a mixed-member proportional representation system in which each voter casts one vote for a constituency candidate and a second vote determines the proportional share of seats. However, this is not the case in all states, the main exception being Baden-Württemberg, which uses a complex first-past-the-post voting system in which seats are allocated to "lucky-loser" candidates in addition to the elected constituency candidates in order to establish proportionality. In all states there is a 5%-threshold which must be exceeded for a party to be considered in the proportional distribution of seats, although in Bremen it is sufficient to exceed the threshold in only one of the two cities that make up the state. The electoral system of some states also includes a basic mandate clause which allows parties to be taken into account in the proportional distribution of seats regardless of the 5%-threshold if they win a certain number of constituencies. As at the federal level, parties representing national minorities are excluded from both the 5%-threshold and the basic mandate clause. This provision is of particular importance in Schleswig-Holstein, where the SSW, a party which represents the minorities of Danes and Frisians, regularly participates in state elections.
In contrast to the Bundestag on federal level, all states have adopted legislative periods of five years, with the sole exception of Bremen, which still uses four-year-terms. Another difference to the Bundestag are the conditions for early new elections: While the Bundestag does not have the right of self-dissolution and can only be dissolved by the President of Germany, the state parliaments have the right of self-dissolution. In addition to this, some state constitutions also provide for an automatic dissolution of the parliament in certain situations and in some states, the parliament can also be dissolved by a referendum. Neither an automatic dissolution nor a dissolution by referendum has ever happened in any state, though.
| State | Name | Election system | Threshold conditions | Seats | Term | Premature dissolution procedures |
| Baden-Württemberg | Landtag of Baden-Württemberg | first-past-the-post in 70 constituencies with at least 50 "lucky loser"-seats, in order to achieve proportional representation | 5% of votes statewide | 120+ | 5 years | -self dissolution -referendum |
| Free State of Bavaria | Landtag of Bavaria | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of votes statewide | 180+ | 5 years | -self dissolution -referendum -automatic dissolution |
| Berlin | House of Representatives of Berlin | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide or one constituency | 130+ | 5 years | -self dissolution -referendum |
| Brandenburg | Landtag of Brandenburg | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide or one constituency | 88+ | 5 years | -self dissolution |
| Free Hanseatic City of Bremen | Bürgerschaft of Bremen | Personalized proportional representation with cumulative voting and panachage in two separate voting areas | 5% of votes in one of the two voting areas | 84 | 4 years | -self dissolution -referendum |
| Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg | Bürgerschaft of Hamburg | Personalized proportional representation with cumulative voting and panachage on state level and in multi member constituencies | 5% of state list-votes | 121+ | 5 years | -self dissolution |
| Hesse | Landtag of Hesse | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide | 110+ | 5 years | -self dissolution |
| Lower Saxony | Landtag of Lower Saxony | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide | 135+ | 5 years | -self dissolution |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide | 71+ | 5 years | -self dissolution |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide | 181+ | 5 years | -self dissolution |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide | 101+ | 5 years | -self dissolution -automatic dissolution |
| Saarland | Landtag of Saarland | proportional representation with one vote, which counts both for a list in a multi member constituency and a state list | 5% of votes statewide | 51 | 5 years | -self dissolution -automatic dissolution |
| Free State of Saxony | Landtag of Saxony | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide or two constituencies | 120+ | 5 years | -self dissolution -automatic dissolution |
| Saxony-Anhalt | Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide | 87+ | 5 years | -self dissolution |
| Schleswig-Holstein | Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide or one constituency | 69+ | 5 years | -self dissolution |
| Free State of Thuringia | Landtag of Thuringia | mixed-member proportional representation with two votes | 5% of second votes statewide | 88+ | 5 years | -self dissolution -automatic dissolution |
List of state parliaments
The following list shows the sixteen state parliaments in their current composition. The arc-diagrams show the strength of the parties, from left to right first the governing parties from the largest to the smallest, then the opposition parties from the largest to the smallest. The actual seating arrangements may differ.| Plenar hall | Name | Legislative period | Diagram | Composition | Presidium | Last election | Next election | |
Baden-Württemberg | Landtag | 16th | Government Alliance 90/The Greens CDU Opposition SPD AfD FDP Non-inscrits | Muhterem Aras President Sabine Kurtz Vice President | 2016 | 2021 | ||
Free State of Bavaria | Landtag | 18th | Government CSU Free Voters Opposition Alliance 90/The Greens SPD AfD FDP Non-inscrits | Ilse Aigner President Karl Freller Thomas Gering Alexander Hold Markus Rinderspacher Wolfgang Heubisch Vice Presidents | 2018 | 2023 | ||
Berlin | Abgeordnetenhaus | 18th | Government SPD The Left Alliance 90/The Greens Opposition CDU AfD FDP Non-inscrits | Ralf Wieland President Cornelia Seibeld Manuela Schmidt Vice Presidents | 2016 | 2021 | ||
Brandenburg | Landtag | 7th | Government SPD CDU Alliance 90/The Greens Opposition AfD The Left BVB/Free Voters | Ulrike Liedtke President Andreas Galau Barbara Richstein Vice Presidents | 2019 | 2024 | ||
Free Hanseatic City of Bremen | Bürgerschaft | 20th | Government SPD Alliance 90/The Greens The Left Opposition CDU FDP AfD Non-inscrits | Frank Imhoff President Sülmez Dogan Antje Grotheer Vice Presidents | 2019 | 2023 | ||
Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg | Bürgerschaft | 22nd | Government SPD Alliance 90/The Greens Opposition 36 CDU The Left AfD Non-inscrits | Carola Veit President André Trepoll Deniz Çelik Vice Presidents | 2020 | 2025 | ||
Hesse | Landtag | 20th | Government CDU Alliance 90/The Greens Opposition SPD AfD FDP The Left Non-inscrits | Boris Rhein President Frank Lortz Karin Müller Heike Hofmann Jörg-Uwe Hahn Ulrich Wilken Vice Presidents | 2018 | 2023 | ||
Lower Saxony | Landtag | 18th | Government SPD CDU Opposition Alliance 90/The Greens FDP AfD Non-inscrits | Gabriela Andretta President Petra Emmerich-Kopatsch Bernd Busemann Frank Oesterhellweg Meta Janssen-Kucz Vice Presidents | 2017 | 2022 | ||
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | Landtag | 7th | Government SPD CDU Opposition AfD The Left Non-inscrits | Birgit Hesse President Beate Schlupp Mignon Schwenke Vice Presidents | 2016 | 2021 | ||
North Rhine-Westphalia | Landtag | 17th | Government CDU FDP Opposition SPD Alliance 90/The Greens AfD Non-inscrits | André Kuper President Carina Gödecke Angela Freimuth Oliver Keymis Vice Presidents | 2017 | 2022 | ||
Rhineland-Palatinate | Landtag | 17th | Government SPD FDP Alliance 90/The Greens Opposition CDU AfD Non-inscrits | Hendrik Hering President Astrid Schmitt Hans-Josef Bracht Vice Presidents | 2016 | 2021 | ||
Saarland | Landtag | 16th | Government CDU SPD Opposition The Left AfD Non-inscrits | Stephan Toscani President Isolde Fries Günter Heinrich Vice Presidents | 2017 | 2022 | ||
Free State of Saxony | Landtag | 7th | Government CDU Alliance 90/The Greens SPD Opposition AfD The Left | Matthias Rößler President Andrea Dombois André Wendt Luise Neuhaus-Wartenberg Vice Presidents | 2019 | 2024 | ||
Saxony-Anhalt | Landtag | 7th | Government CDU SPD Alliance 90/The Greens Opposition AfD The Left Non-inscrits | Gabriele Brakebusch President Willi Mittelstädt Wulf Gallert Vice Presidents | 2016 | 2021 | ||
Schleswig-Holstein | Landtag | 19th | Government CDU Alliance 90/The Greens FDP Opposition SPD AfD SSW Non-inscrits | Klaus Schlie President Kirsten Eickhoff-Weber Aminata Touré Annabell Krämer Vice Presidents | 2017 | 2022 | ||
Free State of Thuringia | Landtag | 7th | Government The Left SPD Alliance 90/The Greens Confidence and Supply CDU Opposition AfD FDP | Birgit Keller President Michael Kaufmann Henry Worm Dorothea Marx Astrid Rothe-Beinlich Dirk Bergner Vice Presidents | 2019 | 2024 |