For example, the Bundestag can conduct a question hour ( Fragestunde ), in which a government representative responds to a previously submitted written question from a member.

Germany, as mentioned earlier, has a " regular " threshold of 5 %, but a party winning three constituency seats in the Bundestag can gain additional representation even if it has achieved under 5 % of the total vote.

In order to garner legislative support in the Bundestag, the chancellor can also call for a regular Motion of Confidence, either combined with a legislative proposal or as a standalone vote.

" The president can dismiss the Chancellor, but only in the event that the Bundestag passes a Constructive Vote of No Confidence.

In the event that the Bundestag elects an individual for the office of chancellor by a plurality of votes, rather than a majority, the president can, at his or her discretion, either appoint that individual as chancellor or dissolve the Bundestag, triggering a new election.

In contrast to the Weimar president, the new federal president can neither take the initiative to dissolve the Bundestag nor appoint a new chancellor without the consent of the Bundestag.

The Chancellor is elected for a full term of the Bundestag and can only be dismissed by parliament electing a successor in a vote of no confidence.

Neither the chancellor nor the Bundestag has the power to call elections, and the president can do so only if the government loses a confidence vote if the chancellor so requests.

In particular, he cannot rule by decree and he can only dissolve the Bundestag ( parliament ) if the Chancellor loses a motion of confidence and asks the President to do so.

( 1 ) The Bundestag can express its lack of confidence in the Federal Chancellor only by electing a successor with the majority of its members and by requesting the Federal President to dismiss the Federal Chancellor.

The federal government must present all its legislative initiatives first to the Bundesrat ; only thereafter can a proposal be passed to the Bundestag.

Against all other legislation the Bundesrat has a suspensive veto ( Einspruch ), which can be overridden by passing the law again, but this time with 50 % plus one vote of all Bundestag members, not just by majority of votes cast, which is frequent in daily parliamentary business.

If the absolute veto is used, the Bundesrat, the Bundestag, or the government can convene a joint committee to negotiate a compromise.

Such a division of authority can complicate the process of governing when the major parties disagree, and, unlike the Bundestag, the Bundesrat cannot be dissolved under any circumstances.

In the German Bundestag the president can call for the so-called Hammelsprung ( literally, ram's leap ) if an undisputed majority couldn't be established by either MPs raising their hands or standing in order to cast their votes.

According to the German constitution, the Bundestag can be dissolved by the federal president if the Chancellor loses a vote of confidence, or if a newly elected Bundestag proves unable to elect a chancellor with absolute majority.

The candidate whose party or parties have the majority in the Bundestag is considered to be the likely winner and, in the main, has achieved the necessary majority-however, the Assembly can be turned around by state delegates ( if the Bundestag opposition has done well in state elections ), this can indicate the result of an upcoming general election ( If you can create a president, you can form a government ).

The Chancellor cannot be removed from office during a four year term unless the Bundestag has agreed on a successor.

A party must receive either five percent of the national vote or win at least three directly elected seats to be eligible for non-constituency seats in the Bundestag.

The number of Bundestag Deputies was reduced from 656 to 598 beginning in 2002, although under the additional member system, more deputies may be admitted if a party wins more directly elected seats than it would be entitled to under proportional representation.

The Bundestag had earlier changed the Code of Criminal Procedure so that several of the attorneys who were accused of serving as links between the inmates and the RAF's second generation could be excluded.

Zenker's speech was so controversial that a special session of the Bundestag was called in March 1956 to debate the issue of whatever Raeder and Dönitz were sort of examples that Bundesmarine officers should be following.

The Social Democratic politician Carlo Schmid read out in the Bundestag the anti-Semitic lines from Raeder's Heroes ' Day Speech of 1939 ; noted that Raeder had not only refused to apologise for that speech, but testified at Nuremberg that he believed that Germany was threatened by " International Jewry "; and argued that Germans to have a better future meant Raeder could not be a role model or seen as a hero as Zenker and Heye wanted.

This vote is one of the few cases where a majority of all elected members of the Bundestag must be achieved, as opposed to a mere majority of those that are currently assembled.

Each time the incumbent chancellor called for the vote of confidence with the stated intention of being defeated, in order to be able to call for new elections before the end of their regular term, as the Basic Law does not give the Bundestag a right to dissolve itself.

Article 79 states the Basic Law may be amended by an absolute two-thirds majority of the Bundestag along with a simple two-thirds majority of the Bundesrat, excluding amendment of those areas defined by the eternity clause.

In accordance with article 38 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, which is the German constitution, " embers of the German Bundestag shall be elected in general, direct, free, equal, and secret elections.

It is provided that the Bundeskanzler may be removed from office by majority vote of the Bundestag ( parliament ) only if a prospective successor also has the support of a majority.

Functioning similarly, it is often said to be an upper house such as the US Senate or the Russian Federation Council or the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, although the German constitution does not declare the Bundestag and Bundesrat to form houses of a bicameral parliament ( the word " Parliament " does not even appear in the Constitution ).

As an added provision, however, a law vetoed with a majority of 2 / 3 must be passed again with a majority of 2 / 3 in the Bundestag.

That compromise cannot be amended and both chambers ( Bundesrat and Bundestag ) are required to hold a final vote on the compromise as is.

There have been frequent suggestions of replacing the Bundesrat with a US-style elected Senate, which would be elected at the same date as the Bundestag.

In the German Bundestag at least half of the members ( 311 out of 622 ) must be present so that it is empowered to make resolutions.

In 2007, the Bundestag definitively voted for the Prussian-era Stadtschloss to be rebuilt.

When the new Bundestag was constituted on 18 October, however, he failed three times to be elected.

* 1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin, the first German parliamentary body to meet there since the Reichstag was dissolved in 1945.

Members serve four-year terms ; elections are held every four years, or earlier in the relatively rare case that the Bundestag is dissolved prematurely by the president.

Because of this stalemate, the Bundestag was dissolved and new elections were called.

If the Bundestag rejects a motion of confidence, but neither a new chancellor is elected nor the Bundestag is dissolved, the president may, by request of the cabinet, declare a " legislative state of emergency ", which is quite different from a conventional state of emergency: If it is declared, during a limited period of time, bills proposed by the cabinet and designated as " urgent ", but rejected by the Bundestag, become law nonetheless, if the Bundesrat does pass them.

President Gustav Heinemann dissolved the Bundestag at the request of Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1972, and in 1982 President Karl Carstens did so at the request of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Most recently, on 1 July 2005, President Horst Köhler dissolved the Bundestag at the request of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

On 7 January 1983, President Carstens nonetheless dissolved the Bundestag and called for new elections.

On 23 October 1952 the court according to Article 21 Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law adjudicated the party unconstitutional and dissolved, prohibited the founding of any successor organisations, withdraw all Bundestag and Landtag mandates and seized the party's assets ( BVerfGE 2, 1 ).

The second possibility has never occurred yet but the Bundestag has been dissolved in 1972, 1982, and 2005 when the then-ruling chancellors Brandt, Kohl, and Schröder deliberately lost votes of confidence in order that there could be fresh elections.

The Bundestag is automatically dissolved four years after the last General Election, and most Bundestags have lasted the full term.

According to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, which incorporates lessons learned from the failed Weimar Republic, the Bundestag cannot dissolve itself or be dissolved by a political representative ahead of schedule, except under very rare circumstances.