In the federal system of the Federal Republic of Germany, the state parliaments embody the legislative power in the sixteen states. In thirteen of the sixteen German states, the state parliament is known as the Landtag (an old German term that roughly means state parliament). In the states Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the state parliament is called Bürgerschaft (Citizenry), in Berlin it is called Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives).
Constitutional functions and powers As the German constitution (Basic Law) defines the Federal Republic of Germany as a federation, the states retain a limited degree of sovereignty. The Basic Law gives the states a broad discretion to determine their respective state structure in their state constitutions, only stating that each German state has to be a social and democratic republic under the rule of law and that the people in every state must have an elected representation, without giving further details (Article 28.1). This provision only excludes a constitutional monarchy (as the states have to be republics) and otherwise theoretically allows for a wide range of democratic forms of government. In practice however, all states are parliamentary republics in which the legislative branch of government is assigned to an elected parliament and the executive branch of government is subject to parliamentary confidence, as is the case on federal level. Some details differ between the individual states, though. Since the abolition of the Bavarian Senate in 1999, which had previously been the upper house of a bicameral legislature, all sixteen state parliaments are unicameral.
Among the most important functions of the state parliaments are the election of the Minister-President (in some states also the cabinet ministers), the control of the state government and the adoption of state laws. With the exception of the Bavarian State Parliament, they also have the right to remove a sitting Minister-President from office by means of a vote of no confidence – in some states, however, this is only possible through a constructive vote of no confidence, in which a new Minister-President must be elected at the same time. In Bavaria, the State Parliament cannot formally remove the Minister-President; however, the State Constitution stipulates that a Minister-President must resign “if political circumstances make it impossible for him to work in a spirit of trust with the State Parliament” (Art. 44.3).
They have no influence on federal legislation, but indirectly participate in the election of the President of Germany by electing state delegates to the Federal Convention.
Election process Similar to federal elections, many states use a mixed-member proportional representation-system in which each voter casts one vote for a constituency candidate and a more significant second vote determines the proportional share of seats between the parties. However, this is not the case in all states, the exceptions being Bremen, where an open-list proportional representation system is used in one tier (the two cities that make up the state, Bremen city and Bremerhaven, serving as separate constituencies); Hamburg, where open-list proportional representation system is used in two tiers (3- to 5-member constituencies as well as leveling seats from a statewide list); Saarland, where voters have only one vote and a closed-list proportional representation system is used in two tiers (three constituencies and statewide leveling seats); and Bavaria, where there is a two-vote system, but both votes count towards the percentage composition of the parliament. In all states there is a 5%-threshold which must be exceeded for a party to be considered in the proportional distribution of seats, although in Bremen it is sufficient to exceed the threshold in only one of the two cities. The electoral systems of Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein also include a basic mandate clause which allows parties to be taken into account in the proportional distribution of seats regardless of the 5%-threshold if they win a certain number of constituencies (in Saxony two, in the other states one). As at the federal level, parties representing national minorities are excluded from both the 5%-threshold and the basic mandate clause. This provision is of particular importance in Schleswig-Holstein, where the SSW, a party which represents the minorities of Danes and Frisians, regularly participates in state elections.
Over the decades since the foundation of the Federal Republic, most states have adopted legislative periods of five years, the only exception nowadays being Bremen, which still uses four-year-terms as is also still the case on federal level (a cross-party attempt to introduce five-year-terms in Bremen was defeated in a referendum in 2017).
An important difference to the Bundestag on federal level are the conditions for the dissolution of parliament and subsequent early new elections: While the Bundestag does not have the right of self-dissolution and can only be dissolved by the President of Germany (and even this only under certain conditions which are precisely defined in the Basic Law), all state parliaments have the right of self-dissolution (even if the procedure differs according to the state constitutions). In addition to this, some state constitutions also provide for an automatic dissolution of the parliament in certain parliamentary deadlock-situations and in some states, the parliament can also be dissolved by the people via a referendum.
Even though snap elections are thus easier to call in the states than at the federal level, they are still quite rare. In the 21st century (as of 2026), there have only been 9 snap elections in all 16 states combined: 2001 Berlin state election 2004 Hamburg state election 2009 Hesse state election 2009 Schleswig-Holstein state election 2011 Hamburg state election 2012 Saarland state election 2012 Schleswig-Holstein state election 2012 North Rhine-Westphalia state election 2017 Lower Saxony state election By comparison, there have been two snap elections at the federal level alone during this period (2005 and 2025).
Comparative table State Name Election system Threshold conditions Seats Term Premature dissolution procedures Baden-Württemberg Landtag of Baden-Württemberg mixed-member proportional representation with two votes 5% of second votes statewide 120+ 5 years self dissolution: motion must be tabled by at least one quarter and accepted by at least two-thirds of members referendum: request must be made by at least one sixth of the state population eligible to vote and must be accepted by a majority of the population eligible to vote Free State of Bavaria Landtag of Bavaria mixed-member proportional representation with two votes (both votes counting towards proportional representation) 5% of votes statewide 180+ 5 years self dissolution: simple motion sufficientreferendum: request must be made by at least one million citizens eligible to vote and must be accepted by a simple majorityautomatic dissolution: if the Landtag fails to elect a Minister-President within four weeks after a vacancy occurred Berlin House of Representatives of Berlin mixed-member proportional representation with two votes 5% of second votes statewideorone constituency 130+ 5 years self dissolution: motion must be accepted by two-thirds of membersreferendum: state constitution does not specify details Brandenburg Landtag of Brandenburg mixed-member proportional representation with two votes 5% of second votes statewideorone constituency 88+ (maximum of 110) 5 years self dissolution: motion must be accepted by two-thirds of members; a simple majority is sufficient within 20 days after a lost motion of confidence by the Minister-president)dissolution by the Minister-president: if he or she has lost a motion of confidence and if the state parliament did not elect a new officeholder or dissolve itself within 20 days thereafter; he or she may only do so for 20 days (days 21 to 40 after the lost motion of confidence) Free Hanseatic City of Bremen Bürgerschaft of Bremen Open-list proportional representation with cumulative voting and panachage (five votes) in two separate voting areas (Bremen City and Bremerhaven) 5% of votes in one of the two voting areas 87 (72 for Bremen City and 15 for Bremerhaven) 4 years self dissolution: (motion must be tabled by at least one third and must be accepted by at least two-thirds of membersreferendum: request must be made by at least one fifth of the state population eligible to vote and must be accepted by a majority of the population eligible to vote Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Bürgerschaft of Hamburg Open-list proportional representation with cumulative voting and panachage on state level and in multi member constituencies (10 votes: 5 for open state lists, 5 for open constituency lists) 5% of state list-votes 121+ 5 years self dissolution: motion must be tabled by at least one quarter and must be accepted by a majority of members Hesse Landtag of Hesse mixed-member proportional representation with two votes 5% of second votes statewide 110+ 5 years self dissolution: motion must be accepted by a majority of members Lower Saxony Landtag of Lower Saxony mixed-member proportional representation with two votes 5% of second votes statewide 135+ 5 years self dissolution: the state constitution defines two scenarios for a self dissolution: (A) one third of members may table a motion of self dissolution, which must be accepted by two-thirds of members present, who have to equal at least a majority of all members (Art. 10). (B) Nonwithstanding variant A, the Landtag may dissolve itself with a majority of members, if it has failed to elect a Minister-President within 21 days after a vacancy occurred – alternatively it may elect a Minister-President with a plurality of votes (Art. 30) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern mixed-member proportional representation with two votes 5% of second votes statewide 71+ 5 years self dissolution: the state constitution defines two scenarios for a self dissolution: (A) one third of members may table a motion of self dissolution, which must be accepted by two-thirds of members (Art. 42.2).