Referendums in Germany are an element of

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...

. On the

federal level Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General * Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies * Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states ...

only two types of a mandatory binding referendum exist – adopting a new constitution and regional referendums in case of restructuring the states. On the state level, all states have various types of statewide and municipal referendums.

Forms of referendums

The German referendum system differentiate between three types. * Volksbegehren (literally ''people's request'') is a citizens' initiative – if the state parliament ignores the request it could directly lead into a "Volksentscheid" * Volksbefragung (literally ''people's inquiry'') is a non-binding ballot question and * Volksentscheid (literally ''people's decision'') is a binding plebiscite. The term ''Volksinitiative'' (''people's initiative'') is a synonym of ''Volksbegehren''. On the municipal level the three types are paralleled with * Bürgerbegehren (literally ''citizens' request'') as the local citizens' initiative * Bürgerbefragung (literally ''citizens' inquiry'') for a local non-binding ballot question and * Bürgerentscheid (literally ''citizens' decision'') for a local binding plebiscite. Note that in the city states the state citizens' initiative types are commonly called ''Bürgerbegehren'' while being at the same legal level as ''Volksbegehren'' in other states. Note that the term "Bürgerinitiative" (literally ''citizens' initiative'') is used informally for non-partisan local campaign organizations (political action groups).

Federal concept

Following World War II the new republic was founded with only minor elements of direct democracy. At the federal level, there are only two mandatory constitutional referendum types. One type is for enacting a new constitution. Changes to the constitution do not require a public vote and there is no provision for an initiative for a constitutional amendment. There has never been a referendum of this type, although there was an argument in that direction during

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

. The other type requires a regional public vote in case of restructuring the States (''Neugliederung des Bundesgebietes'', "New Arrangement of the Federal Territory") which led to a number of effectless referendums to recreate states or change the territory of a state. In addition there was a referendum on the merger of Baden and Württemberg into Baden-Württemberg in 1951 (accepted) and a referendum on the merger of Berlin and Brandenburg into Berlin-Brandenburg in 1996 (rejected).

Bundesländer

Originally, only some of the Bundesländer (federated states of Germany) had provisions for a general binding referendum (''Volksentscheid'', "people's decision") on popular initiatives (''Volksbegehren'', "people's request"), with Hesse and Bavaria also having a mandatory binding referendum on changes to the state constitution. Over the years all states have changed their constitutions to allow various types of statewide and municipal referendums. In all states, there is now a general right for referendums on statewide popular initiatives, which was used in Hamburg to push the state government to pass a law on a facultative binding state referendum in 2007. Most states have a form of non-binding ballot question (''Volksbefragung'', "people's inquiry") which has rarely been used - the most important of these had been the

1955 Saar Statute referendum A referendum on the Saar statute was held in the Saar Protectorate on 23 October 1955.

Initiative quorum

Following World War II the right to petition to the government was installed with high barriers. Any popular initiative had to filed with the authorities and the signatories have to identify before their signature is accepted. This is called official collection (German: ''Amtseintragung'' literally ''administrative inscription'') in most legal areas. The other type is commonly referred to as free collection (German: ''Freie Sammlung'') where letters may be accumulated before being handed over. Naturally some of the latter signatures are found to be illegal which can be a source of dispute. In order to push the government the initiative must reach a certain amount of valid signatures. The "quorum" is defined differently by each state.

Official collection

In the context of

, an official collection of signatures in Germany, refers to the collection of petition signatures for a referendum under supervision in a

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

or at other officially determined locations (normally a government building). This is in contrast to the free collection, where people may sign a petition that is freely circulated by the public. In a few German federal states, official collection is also required by law for the collection of campaign signatures for

local election In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

s. In the German state of Brandenburg as a reaction to the criticism of the official collection, including from the SPD and

Die Linke The Left (german: Die Linke; stylised as and in its logo as ), commonly referred to as the Left Party (german: Die Linkspartei, links=no ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of th ...

political parties a reform in 2012 created the possibility for municipal administrations to be able to determine further registration offices (e.g. bank and post office branches, shops).

Notable referendums in Germany

; Territory of the Saar Basin (1920–1935) *

1935 Saar status referendum A referendum on territorial status was held in the Territory of the Saar Basin on 13 January 1935. Over 90% of voters opted for reunification with Germany, with 9% voting for the status quo as a League of Nations mandate territory and less than ...

; Saar Protectorate (1947–1956) *

1955 Saar Statute referendum A referendum on the Saar statute was held in the Saar Protectorate on 23 October 1955.1951 East German referendum A referendum on militarisation and peace was held in East Germany on 5 June 1951.1954 East German referendum * 1968 East German referendum ; post-1990 Germany * 1995 Bavarian referendum on introduction of local referendums * 1998 Bavarian referendum on the abolition of the Bavarian Senate * 2010 Bavarian referendum on a smoking ban in gastronomy * 2011 Baden-Württemberg referendum on Stuttgart 21 *

2011 Berlin water referendum Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''El ...

2013 Berlin energy referendum A referendum on the remunicipalization of the energy supply in Berlin was held on 3 November 2013. Prompted by the ''Neue Energie für Berlin'' (New Energy for Berlin) citizens' initiative in June 2013, it was approved by 83% of those who voted ...

* 2021 Berlin referendum

References

{{German elections