The constituent sitting of the 1st German Bundestag on 7 September 1949 at the former Pädagogische Akademie in Bonn © dpa

1945-1948: East and West go separate ways

Following the unconditional capitulation of the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) on 8 May 1945, the whole of Germany was occupied by the four victorious powers, the USA, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union, who also assumed the authority of the state.

Ideological differences provoked conflicts between East and West. As a result, the three Western powers and the Soviet Union went separate ways as far as their approaches to policy on Germany were concerned.

The Western powers began the construction of a state in (the western parts of) Germany based on a model of parliamentary democracy. By contrast, in its occupation zone the Soviet Union created a state that increasingly took its lead from the Soviet model of socialist-communist dictatorship.

1948/49: The Parliamentary Council and the Basic Law

The division of Germany was sealed on 1 September 1948 when the Parliamentary Council met for the first time to carry out the task allotted to it by the Western powers. It assembled at the Pädagogische Akademie in Bonn, which – as the “Bundeshaus” (Federal House) – subsequently became the parliament building.

Many of the Council’s 65 members had parliamentary experience from the Weimar period. Their task was now to draft the Basic Law for the future Federal Republic of Germany. Chaired by their President, Konrad Adenauer, the members of the Council deliberated on a draft constitution that had already been drawn up in advance.

By May 1949, everything was ready: The Basic Law was adopted, ratified and promulgated. In contrast to the Weimar Constitution, political decision-making competencies were now to lie solely with parliaments legitimated to play this role by free elections and the governments those parliaments would appoint.

1949: First electoral term of the German Bundestag

The first elections to the German Bundestag were held on 14 August 1949. A large number of parties and independent candidates competed for the approval of the electorate. But even in those first elections a concentration of votes was already becoming evident around three parliamentary groups, the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

The German Bundestag and the Bundesrat met for their constituent sittings in Bonn on 7 September. The CDU politician Erich Köhler was elected President of the German Bundestag.

The Federal Convention elected Theodor Heuss (FDP) as Federal President on 12 September. Three days later, the 73-year-old Konrad Adenauer (CDU), who had been the President of the Parliamentary Council, was elected Federal Chancellor by the Bundestag with the narrowest imaginable majority of one vote. He took charge of a coalition government made up of the parliamentary groups of the CDU/CSU, the FDP and the German Party (DP).

The 1950s: Fundamental decisions

The Bundestag also met repeatedly in West Berlin, in the great hall of the Technical University or the city’s new Congress Hall. In its first decade, the Bundestag was called upon to a particularly great extent to act as a legislative body. New laws were needed to help the state respond to acute crises and deal with the consequences of the war and the National Socialist tyranny.

Furthermore, many pieces of legislation were dedicated to the development of the justice system and administrative structures as well as the realisation of the concept of the social market economy.

Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer showed great determination in pursuing a policy of western orientation. This was intended to promote European integration, help the Federal Republic of Germany join NATO and enable it to build up its own armed forces.

Intra-German policy was prominent on the agenda throughout this period. The Bundestag remained committed to the goal of German reunification.

The 1960s: Strong decision-making role for Parliament

With his authoritative leadership style, Konrad Adenauer remained Federal Chancellor until 1963. He was succeeded in office by Ludwig Erhard (also CDU). The Bundestag continued to grow more powerful.

In 1965, the statute of limitations on the prosecution of Nazi crimes was due to expire, which would have made it impossible to punish war criminals any longer. This issue was one that had to be resolved by Parliament alone, and it decided in a free vote held on 25 March to extend the statute of limitations. Ludwig Erhard, who ultimately lost the support of his coalition partner, the FDP, in a budget crisis, was compelled to resign by his own parliamentary group.

The grand coalition government that succeeded Erhard in 1966 was also dependent on decisions reached in Parliament when it sought to push through the changes of course it was seeking in economic policy and the introduction of a constitution applicable in a state of emergency. The Bundestag decided that parliamentary rights of participation and control should be maintained even in a state of emergency.

The 1970s: Ostpolitik and votes of no confidence

Following the parliamentary elections in 1969, the SPD formed a coalition government together with the FDP, and Willy Brandt became Federal Chancellor.

In the early 1970s, the government’s new policy towards Eastern Europe, its Ostpolitik, led to the agreement of treaties with the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia and, most significant of all, the conclusion of the Basic Treaty between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany.

However, Brandt’s Ostpolitik also provoked a vehement struggle between the governing coalition and the opposition. In 1972, the CDU and CSU moved a constructive vote of no confidence in an attempt to topple Willy Brandt and have Rainer Barzel (CDU) elected to replace him as Chancellor. However, this attempt failed.

The ensuing elections confirmed the Social Democrat-Liberal coalition in power. Its legislative programme held out the prospect of numerous reforms, but the government – led from 1974 by Helmut Schmidt (SPD) – and the Bundestag found themselves having to cope with unprecedented problems, such as the energy crisis and terrorist attacks.

The 1980s: A new government and a new opposition

Another constructive vote of no confidence was held in October 1982 – but this time it was successful: Helmut Kohl (CDU) was elected Federal Chancellor. The new coalition consisting of the CDU/CSU and FDP was confirmed in power by the electorate in elections called in 1983.

That same year, the Bundestag cleared the way for the modernisation of the armed forces and the deployment of the latest American medium range ballistic missiles on German territory.

New faces were beginning to make their mark in the Bundestag. The Members elected for the Green Party now constituted a second opposition parliamentary group, which had particularly close ties to alternative campaigning organisations, the opponents of nuclear power and the peace movement.

In the 1980s, unemployment, energy policy, environmental policy, the influx of asylum seekers and the future of the European Community became important themes in the deliberations of the German Bundestag.

1989/90: German unification

The news that the Berlin Wall had been opened reached the Bundestag on 9 November 1989. From that moment on, events moved with dizzying speed:

On 28 November 1989, Helmut Kohl put forward a ten-point plan sketching out a possible path to unification. Kohl succeeded in gaining the consent of the Federal Republic’s Western allies and the Soviet Union to German unification. The presidiums of the German Bundestag and the GDR’s Volkskammer (People’s Chamber) agreed to cooperate closely and each formed a committee on unity.

The German Bundestag and the Volkskammer approved the German-German Treaty on Currency, Economic and Social Union on 21 June 1990 and, three months later, the Unification Treaty.

The GDR acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany at midnight on 3 December 1990. The following day, the all-German Bundestag met in the Reichstag Building for its first sitting.