German Bundesrat
organ representing the German states since 1949
The German Bundesrat (German: [ˈbʊndəsˌʁaːt] , lit. 'Federal Council') is a legislative body that represents the sixteen states of Germany (German: Länder) at the federal level (German: Bundesebene). The Bundesrat meets at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin at Leipziger Straße. Its second seat is located in the former West German capital of Bonn.
In Germany's bicameral system, the Bundesrat legislates alongside the Bundestag. The Bundesrat members are appointed by state governments; the Bundestag representatives are elected by the German people. While all constitutional changes need the consent of both houses, only certain laws require bicameral consent. Thus Bundesrat is not an equal second house like United States Senate, Swiss Ständerat, or Australian Senate. Its power is closer to the Canadian Senate and the British House of Lords.
The name "Bundesrat" was used by similar bodies in the North German Confederation (1867) and the German Empire (1871). The predecessor of the Bundesrat in the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) was the Reichsrat.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q146138. VIAF identifies the subject as 127816149. The Library of Congress control number is n50082947. Authority coordinates are 52.509, 13.381. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1871, 1919 and 1933.
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This entry incorporates text from “German Bundesrat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.