Reichstag

Reichstag is a German word which in political terms means Parliament but directly translated is Diet of the Realm or National Diet or Imperial Diet. It may refer to:

Buildings

Reichstagsgebäude, the specific German word for Parliamentary buildings, often simply shortened to Reichstag. In this context it may refer to:

Institutions

Various historic legislative bodies in German-speaking countries have been referred to as Reichstags, including:

Reichstag building

The Reichstag building (German: Reichstagsgebäude; officially: Plenarbereich Reichstagsgebäude) is a historical edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Imperial Diet (German: Reichstag), of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was severely damaged after it was set on fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse; the parliament of the German Democratic Republic (the Volkskammer) met in the Palast der Republik in East Berlin, while the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (the Bundestag) met in the Bundeshaus in Bonn.

The ruined building was made safe against the elements and partially refurbished in the 1960s, but no attempt at full restoration was made until after German reunification on 3 October 1990, when it underwent a reconstruction led by architect Norman Foster. After its completion in 1999, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the modern Bundestag.

The term Reichstag, when used to connote a diet, dates back to the Holy Roman Empire. The building was built for the Diet of the German Empire, which was succeeded by the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. The latter would become the Reichstag of Nazi Germany, which left the building (and ceased to act as a parliament) after the 1933 fire and never returned; the term Reichstag has not been used by German parliaments since World War II. In today's usage, the German word Reichstag (Imperial Diet Building) refers mainly to the building, while Bundestag (Federal Diet) refers to the institution.

Bundestag

The Bundestag (German pronunciation: [ˈbʊndəstaːk], "Federal Diet") is a constitutional and legislative body at the federal level in Germany. For its similar function, it is often described as a lower house of parliament along the lines of the US House of Representatives and the Canadian or the British House of Commons. The German constitution, however, does not define the Bundestag and the Bundesrat as the lower and upper houses of a bicameral legislature.

The Bundestag was established by the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Constitution) in 1949 as the Lower House of the German Federal Parliament and thus the historical successor to the earlier Reichstag.

Since 1999 it meets in the Reichstag Building in Berlin. Norbert Lammert is the current President of the Bundestag. Members (Abgeordnete) of the Bundestag are usually elected every four years by all adult German citizens in a mixed system of constituency voting and list voting. However, the election day can be earlier if the Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler) loses a vote of no confidence and asks the Federal President (Bundespräsident) to dissolve the Bundestag in order to hold new general elections.