What is German Bundesrat?
{{GovGermany}} The '''German Bundesrat''' (commonly referred to as ''Bundesrat'') is part of the [[parliament]] of [[Germany]]. The cabinets of the 16 [[states of Germany]] appoint the delegations that represent them in the Bundesrat. They can remove them at any time. Normally, a state delegation is headed by the head of government. The delegation is made up of members of the state government.<ref>Grundgesetz Article 51</ref> Thirteen of the states of Germany (in German: ''Bundesländer'') have a [[Minister President|Minister-Präsident]] (Prime Minister), the other 3 are city-states which have a [[Mayor]]. These prime ministers or mayors each act as chairman of the Bundesrat for one year at a time. Germany does not have a vice president. Instead if the [[President of Germany|Bundespräsident]] (Federal President) cannot do his job the [[President of the Bundesrat of Germany|President]] of the Bundesrat can act in his place if necessary. [[File:Bundesrat.jpg|left|thumb|The old [[Prussia]]n House of Lords building]] == Building == Although it is a part of the German Parliament, the Bundesrat does not meet in the same building as the [[Bundestag]]. Instead new offices and a modern meeting chamber were built inside the old [[Prussian House of Lords]] building. == Number of members == There are 58 members of the Bundesrat. How many delegates a ''land'' (state) has depends on its population. The smallest state, [[Bremen (state)|Bremen]], has three members. [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] is the ''most populous'' (has the most people) ''land''. It sends six members to the Bundesrat. The Bundesrat decides most things by ''absolute majority'' (at least half of the number of members). That is 35 votes. Some important decisions need two-thirds of all of the possible votes. That is 46 votes. Each ''land'' votes as a block. This means that [[Berlin]], for example, can only cast four yes votes or four no votes. Its delegates cannot choose to vote in different ways. If a ''land'' decided to send only one person to the Bundesrat