The Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (House of Deputies) () is the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

parliament (''

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non ...

'') of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

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 ...

according to the

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

's constitution. In 1993 the parliament moved from

Rathaus Schöneberg Rathaus Schöneberg is the city hall for the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin. From 1949 until 1990 it served as the seat of the state senate of West Berlin and from 1949 until 1991 as the seat of the Governing Mayor. History The sa ...

to its present house on

Niederkirchnerstraße Niederkirchnerstraße () is a street in Berlin, Germany and was named after Käthe Niederkirchner. The thoroughfare was known as Prinz-Albrecht-Straße until 1951 but the name was changed by the socialist German government. The street was the ...

in Mitte, which until 1934 was the seat of the

Prussian Landtag The Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag) was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower House of Represent ...

. The current president of the parliament is

Dennis Buchner Dennis Buchner (born 31 March 1977) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who is serving as President of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin since 2021 to 2023. He has been a member of the Abgeordnetenhaus since 2011. Life and ed ...

(

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 ...

History

The Abgeordnetenhaus was established by the new constitution of

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

in 1951. It replaced the former city legislature called ''Stadtverordnetenversammlung'' (city deputies assembly), established by the

Prussian Reforms The Prussian Reform Movement was a series of constitutional, administrative, social and economic reforms early in nineteenth-century Prussia. They are sometimes known as the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms, for Karl Freiherr vom Stein and Karl August ...

in 1808 and re-established by Allied-initiated state elections of 1946. Between 1951 and 1990 the Abgeordnetenhaus was a parliament of restricted autonomy, since the Allied Control Council required that all its legislation and its elections, such as those of mayors and the senators (then still elected and not yet appointed by the mayor), be subject to Western Allied confirmation or rejection. After

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governm ...

the Abgeordnetenhaus continued to be the parliament of united Berlin.

Elections

The parliament of Berlin is chosen every five years in a general, free, secret and direct ballot according to the principle of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. It consists of at least 130 representatives, 78 chosen directly in the electoral districts of the Berlin boroughs, and 52 indirectly from land or district lists. If a party wins more constituency seats than its overall share of the vote, the overall size of the Abgeordnetenhaus increases because of these overhang mandates. The current distribution of seats as of the 2021 election (compared to the 2016 election) is: *

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SPD): 36 seats (-2) * Alliance 90/The Greens: 32 seats (+5) * Christian Democratic Union (CDU): 30 seats (-1) * The Left: 24 seats (-3) * Alternative for Germany (AfD): 13 (-12) * Free Democratic Party (FDP): 12 (±0) In 2016, the

Pirate Party Berlin The Pirate Party Berlin (german: Piratenpartei Berlin) is the state chapter of the Pirate Party Germany in the city-state of Berlin and was the first chapter of the Pirates to enter a ''Landtag'' (state parliament), getting elected to the Abgeor ...

lost the 15 seats it won for the first time in the 2011 election due to their failure to cross the 5%

election threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

necessary to qualify for representation while the AfD joined the assembly for the first time and the FDP returned following a recovery in voter support.

Functions

The consideration and passing of

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

is the most important task, including the government budget. In addition, the parliament chooses the Governing Mayor, and checks the city's government, the

Senate of Berlin The Senate of Berlin (german: Berliner Senat) is the executive body governing the city of Berlin, which at the same time is a state of Germany. According to the the Senate consists of the Governing Mayor of Berlin and up to ten senators appoint ...

Presidents

References

External links