Landtag

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Floor of the Lower Saxony Landtag in Hanover in 2007

A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non-federal matters.

The

Austria are governed by Landtage. In addition, the legislature of the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol is known in German as a Landtag. Historically, states of the German Confederation also established Landtage. The Landtag of Liechtenstein
is the small nation's unicameral assembly.

Name

The German word Landtag is composed of the words Land (state, country or territory) and Tag (day). The German word Tagung (meeting) is derived from the German word Tag, as such meetings were held at daylight and sometimes spanned several days.

Historic Landtag assemblies

States of the Holy Roman Empire

In feudal society, the formal class system was reflected in the composition of the

Imperial States' representative assemblies (Landstände), regardless of their name well described as estates of the realm: it was not intended as an elected reflection of public opinion, but a fixed expression of established power as recognized in formal privileges, including the right to be seated in person (granted to many nobles (knightage) and prelates
, as well as certain cities) or to be represented as elector in a college that is entitled to one or more seats. Therefore, the representatives primarily defended class interests, and decisions were based on a class-based electoral system.

In some of the Imperial States that were known as Land, the name of such estates assembly was Landtag, analogous to the

Free imperial cities
. The precise composition obviously varied greatly, and could change over time, as the result of privileges granted or lost, entities split or merged, border changes et cetera.

Prussia

Prussian Landtage
were held:

See also

Preußischer Landtag
.

States of the German Confederation

As Austria and Prussia escaped the French 'exporting the revolution', and Napoleon was happy to maintain satellite monarchies in most German territories under his control (members of the Confederation of the Rhine), the more democratic principles of the Enlightenment would have less effect in the German-speaking lands, or only much later.

In 1815 the German Confederation ("Deutscher Bund") was founded as successor to the Holy Roman Empire. § 13 of the "Bundesakte" (the constitution of the German Confederation) forced the German states to pass constitutions and implement parliaments called Landstände or Landtage.

The first constitution was passed in

Nassau in 1814. Until[clarification needed] 1841 (Luxembourg) all but two states got[clarification needed
] their constitution and parliaments.

States of the German Empire

In 1871 the German Empire was founded. All 25 states of the German Empire and Alsace-Lorraine (the "

Prussian Landtag
.

States of the Weimar Republic

In the

DNVP a working majority. This was followed by the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich" of 30 January 1934 that formally abolished all the Landtage and transferred the sovereignty of the states to the central government. Although the states themselves continued in existence, the federalism of the Republic was effectively supplanted by a unitary state
.

East Germany

Under its

five Länder, each with its own Landtag. Each Landtag was responsible for electing the Chamber of States, the upper house
of the national parliament.

In 1952, the Länder were dissolved and replaced by

reunification of Germany
.

Finland

The Diet of Finland, which was created when the country was ceded from Sweden to Russia in 1809, was called lantdag in Swedish until 1906 when it was replaced by the unicameral Parliament of Finland. Parliament continued using the name lantdag in Swedish until 1919, when Finland adopted its first constitution following the declaration of independence in 1917. Since then, the official term in Swedish has been riksdag, equivalent of the German Reichstag. The Finnish name is eduskunta.

Baltic countries

The first Landtag of the

Courland. After the independence of Estonia and Latvia in 1918, they were ultimately replaced by the Riigikogu and the Saeima
.

Modern legislatures

In the contemporary

unicameral legislature
for a constitutive federal state (Bundesland). In the
Principality of Liechtenstein, the Landtag
is the sole national parliament, because Liechtenstein has no federal structure due to its size.

German legislatures

Main articles:
List of current minister-presidents of the German federal states

In most of the German constitutive federal states (Bundesländer), the unicameral legislature is called Landtag:

In the German

city council serves the function of the state parliament within the federal system - in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
it is called the Bürgerschaft (municipal assembly):

In the

Prussian Landtag
.

The national bicameral Parliament comprises the

Bundesrat
which represents the state governments in Federal matters which affect the Länder.

Austrian legislatures

See also:
Distribution of seats in the Austrian Landtage

Rathaus, Vienna
, serves as City Hall and Gemeinderat

According to the

states of Austria (Bundesländer), dealing with all matters not explicitly allotted to federal
level:

As the Austrian capital Vienna (like Berlin) is both a city-state and a municipality, the Gemeinderat (municipal assembly) of Vienna also serves as the state Landtag. However, the city constitution states that municipal and state affairs are kept separate, and the two bodies hold separate meetings even though their memberships are identical.

The representatives are elected in general, free, secret and direct ballots according to the principle of

crown lands of the Austrian Empire. Exceptions are the city of Vienna, which belonged to the Lower Austria Kronland until 1920, and Burgenland, ceded to Austria by the Kingdom of Hungary
in 1921.

Austria's national bicameral parliament consists of the directly elected National Council and the Federal Council, which represents the Landtage parliaments at the federal level. The two chambers meet in the Federal Assembly, held for the ceremonial swearing-in of the Austrian president.

Sources and references

See also

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