• Organization and working methods
  • Introduction
  • Beginning of the electoral term
  • Organs of the Bundestag
  • Plenary sittings
  • Rights of the Bundestag to participate in mixed institutions
  • Membership of executive bodies
• Members
• Legislation
• Information counter
• Databases
• Europe
• International
• Parliamentary Library
• Virtual tour of the Parliament Quarter

• Imprint and copyright

The Members of the Bundestag are elected in general, direct, free, equal and secret elections for a period of four years (electoral term) (Arts. 38, 39 of the Basic Law);

• "general" means that every citizen over the age of 18 has the right to vote;
• "direct" means that voters vote for candidates directly - the election of delegates to an electoral college would be unconstitutional;
• "free"means that voters may not be put under pressure of any kind to vote in a particular way;
• "equal" means that each vote carries the same weight with respect to the final composition of the Bundestag;
• "secret"means that nobody may know how anybody else has voted, unless voters provide this information themselves.

For the successful candidates, election to the Bundestag constitutes a mandate to represent the interests of the people as a whole and thus, through the system of representative democracy enshrined in the Basic Law, to realize the rule of the people by the people. They carry out this mandate by performing the functions assigned to the Bundestag by the constitution: to form a governing majority, to appoint the Government and the members of the other constitutional organs, to scrutinize the work of the executive, to pass laws, to approve the budget and to act as a unifying force in society.