Bundestag

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The Bundestag is the legislature of Germany. It meets in Berlin, in the Reichstag building, which was specially rebuilt ready for the Bundestag to move from Bonn

The Bundestag has at least 598 members. Every 4 years the German people vote.

Each party gets seats, if they got at least 5% of the votes. Every voter has two votes, one for a person and one for a party. 299 members represent a constituency, just like in the British House of Commons or the US House of Representatives.

The other half are elected from a party list in each Land. The total number of seats a party gets depends on the number of the second "party votes" it gets.

But if a party is wins more constituency seats then its share of the party votes then it keeps those seats but extra Land-list seats are created, to keep the percentage of seats correct. The extra seats, or extra mandates are the reason the Bundestag sometimes has more than 598 members.