Bundestag and Bundesrat
The "Bundestag" (German parliament) sits in the capital, Berlin. The parliament is made up of elected members. The electoral system is a mixture of majority voting and proportional representation. Half of the seats in parliament are awarded by direct voting, the other half are awarded via lists of candidates drawn up by the political parties in each federal state.
The Bundestag is the highest legislative organ in Germany. All federal legislature stems from the Bundestag.
Germany is a federal parliamentary democracy, made up of 16 federal states. Many laws and decrees can only come into force after they have also been passed by the federal states. The federal states meet in the Bundesrat, also called "Länderkammer" (chamber of parliament), which comprises elected members of each state government. The Bundesrat also sits in Berlin.
The Bundestag sits in the building known as the Reichstag. It was built at the end of the 19th century during the "German Empire". The name Reichstag means Empire Building.
The politicians represented in the Bundestag are the members of parliament. They are called "Mitglieder des Bundestages" (MdB).
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