How the Bundesrat, Germany's chamber of the states, works

The Bundesrat is the body through which Germany's 16 states, the Länder, take part in the legislation and administration of the federal government and in matters concerning the European Union. That is its job under Article 50 of the Basic Law, Germany's constitution. It sits alongside the Bundestag, the directly elected parliament, but it works very differently: its members are not elected to it, and on many laws it has a veto, while on others it can only object.

Who sits in it

The Bundesrat consists of members of the state governments, which appoint and recall them (Article 51). In practice that means the heads of the state governments, known as minister-presidents in most states, and their ministers; in the city-states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, mayors and senators. The Bundesrat describes itself as a ‘parliament of the federal states’ governments’ and notes that the opposition parties in the states have no direct voice in it.

There are no Bundesrat elections and no electoral terms. The chamber is a permanent body whose membership changes when a state election produces a new government. Until the new government has been sworn in, members of the old one cast the state's votes. State elections therefore always matter for national politics, because they decide who sits in the Bundesrat.

How the 69 votes are shared

Every state has at least three votes. States with more than two million inhabitants have four, those with more than six million have five and those with more than seven million have six (Article 51). The Bundesrat calls this a compromise between treating all states equally and reflecting their populations: it is meant to stop the large states from overpowering the others, and the small ones from outvoting the large.

A state's votes can only be cast as a unit. A state governed by a coalition therefore has to settle on one position before a vote. Decisions require at least a majority of the chamber's votes, which means 35; a two-thirds majority, needed in some cases, is 46. Because 35 votes in favour are needed whatever the turnout, a state that abstains has the same effect on the outcome as one that votes no.

Consent bills and objection bills

No federal law comes into being without the Bundesrat. How much power it has depends on the type of law, and the opening words of every law show which type it is: either ‘The Bundestag has adopted the following bill’ or ‘The Bundestag has adopted the following bill with Bundesrat consent’.

Consent bills (Zustimmungsgesetze) can only become law if the Bundesrat agrees. If it finally rejects one, the bill fails. The Basic Law lists which bills need consent. According to the Bundesrat, they fall into three groups:

• amendments to the constitution, which need a two-thirds majority, or 46 votes
• laws that affect the states' finances, such as laws on taxes whose revenue goes wholly or partly to the states or municipalities – income tax, VAT and trade tax are examples – and laws that oblige the states to make payments or provide services to third parties
• laws that regulate how the states organise their administration without allowing them to deviate

All other bills are objection bills (Einspruchsgesetze). To hold one up, the Bundesrat must first call the Mediation Committee, described below; once that procedure is over, it can lodge an objection within two weeks, but the Bundestag can overrule it. An objection adopted by a majority of the Bundesrat's votes can be overturned by a majority of the Bundestag's members; one adopted by two thirds needs a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag, including at least a majority of its members.

How a law passes through

About two thirds of all bills are introduced by the federal government. The Bundesrat sees them first: it can give an opinion within six weeks, or three or nine weeks in particular cases, and the government answers with a counter-statement before the bill goes to the Bundestag. The states did this for the 2027 income tax reform on 16 October 2026 – see our report on the states' opinion on the income tax reform.

After the Bundestag has adopted a bill, it goes back to the Bundesrat. Within three weeks the Bundesrat can call the Mediation Committee (Vermittlungsausschuss), a joint committee of members of both chambers. The Bundestag and the federal government can call it only when the Bundesrat has refused consent to a consent bill. The committee can propose amendments, which both chambers must then confirm. Once the parliamentary procedure is complete, the law is countersigned by the responsible minister and the Chancellor, certified by the Federal President and published in the Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt).

The Bundesrat can also propose laws itself. Its bills go to the Bundestag via the federal government. It also adopts resolutions urging the government to act; these are not legally binding.

Plenary sessions and the presidency

The Bundesrat meets in public every three to four weeks, on a Friday, starting at 9.30 a.m. Agendas usually run to 50 or 60 items and sometimes more than 80, and the chamber votes on several items together where it can, so that a session usually ends after three to four hours.

The chamber elects its President for one year (Article 52). By an agreement the minister-presidents reached in Königstein im Taunus in 1950, the office rotates among the heads of the state governments in an order set by population, so that changing majorities and party politics do not decide who holds it. A new President takes office every 1 November. On 16 October 2026 the Bundesrat unanimously elected Hendrik Wüst (CDU), Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, to succeed Andreas Bovenschulte of Bremen. Bovenschulte becomes First Vice-President and Bavaria's Minister-President, Markus Söder, Second Vice-President. If the Federal President cannot carry out the duties of the office, the Bundesrat President steps in and exercises those powers.

The Bundesrat and the EU

The states also take part in EU affairs through the Bundesrat (Article 23). Its Committee on European Union Questions examines draft EU laws that matter to the states, including whether the EU has a sufficient legal basis and respects the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The Bundesrat can send opinions to the European Commission under the EU's subsidiarity early-warning system, and the Basic Law gives it, like the Bundestag, the right to challenge an EU law before the Court of Justice of the European Union on subsidiarity grounds. On 16 October 2026 it used the early-warning route against the Commission's proposed Affordable Housing Act: see our report.