Government & politics — Germany
Government structure, legal system, citizenship, and international relations.
Profile updated 2026-06-02
⚡ Government & politics at a glance
Government structure, legal system, citizenship, and international relations. Key figure for Germany: Federal Republic of Germany
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Identity & names
- Full Country Name
Federal Republic of Germany
- Country Name
Germany
- Local - Long
Bundesrepublik Deutschland
- Local - Short
Deutschland
- Former Name
German Reich
- Etymology- history of name
the Gauls (Celts) of Western Europe may have referred to the newly arriving Germanic tribes who settled in neighboring areas east of the Rhine during the first centuries B.C. as "Germani," a term the Romans adopted as "Germania"; the native designation "Deutsch" comes from the Old High German "diutisc" meaning "of the people"
- Independence
- 18 January 1871 (establishment of the German Empire)
- divided into four zones of occupation (UK, US, USSR, and France) in 1945 following World War II
- Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany) proclaimed on 23 May 1949 and included the former UK, US, and French zones
- German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) proclaimed on 7 October 1949 and included the former USSR zone
- West Germany and East Germany unified on 3 October 1990
- all four powers formally relinquished rights on 15 March 1991
- notable earlier dates: 10 August 843 (Eastern Francia established from the division of the Carolingian Empire)
- 2 February 962 (crowning of OTTO I, recognized as the first Holy Roman Emperor)
- National Holiday
German Unity Day, 3 October (1990)
Political system
- Government Type
federal parliamentary republic
- Constitution
- history: previous 1919 (Weimar Constitution); latest drafted 10-23 August 1948, approved 12 May 1949, promulgated 23 May 1949,
- entered into force 24 May 1949 amendments: proposed by Parliament; passage and enactment into law require two-thirds majority vote by both the Bundesrat (upper house) and the Bundestag (lower house) of Parliament; articles including those on basic human rights and freedoms cannot be amended; amended many times, last in 2020; note - in early 2021, the German federal government introduced a bill to incorporate children’s rights into the constitution
- Legal System:
civil law system
- Executive Branch:
- chief of state: President Fra
- Chancellor Friedrich MERZ (since 6 May 2025) cabinet: Cabinet or Bundesminister (Federal Ministers) recommended by the chancellor,
- appointed by the president election/appointment process: president indirectly elected by a Federal Convention consisting of all members of the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) and an equivalent number of delegates indirectly elected by the state parliaments; president serves a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); following the most recent Federal Parliament election, the party or coalition with the most representatives usually elects the chancellor, who is appointed by the preside
- president: 13
- February 2022 chancellor: 6
- May 2025 election results: 2025: Friedrich MERZ (CDU) elected chancellor in second round;
- Federal Parliament vote - 325 to 289 2022: Frank-Walter STEINMEIER reelected president; Federal Convention vote count - Frank-Walter STEINMEIER (SPD) 1,045, Max OTTE (CDU) 140, Gerhard TRABERT (The Left) 96, Stefanie GEBAUER (Free Voters) 58,
- president: February 2027
- Legislative Branch:
Description
bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of: Federal Council or Bundesrat (69 seats statutory, 71 current; members appointed by each of the 16 state governments) Federal Diet or Bundestag (736 seats statutory, 736 for the 2021-25 term - total seats can vary each electoral term; currently includes 4 seats for independent members; approximately one-half of members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote and approximately one-half directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote; members' terms depend upon the states they represent)
Elections
- Bundesrat - none
- determined by the composition of the state-level governments
- the composition of the Bundesrat has the potential to change any time one of the 16 states holds an election Bundestag - last held on 26 September 2021 (next to be held in September 2025 at the latest)
- almost all postwar German governments have been coalitions
Election Results
Bundesrat -
Composition
- men 46, women 23, percent of women 33.3% Bundestag - percent of vote by party - SPD 28%, CDU/CSU 26.8%, Alliance '90/Greens 16%, FDP 12.5%, AfD 11%, The Left 5.3%, other .04%
- seats by party - SPD 206, CDU/CSU 197, Alliance '90/Greens 118, FDP 92, AfD 81, The Left 39, other 3;
Composition
men 479, women 257, percent of women 34.9%;
Note
total Parliament percent of women 34.8%
Note
due to Germany's recognition of the concepts of "overhang" (when a party's share of the nationwide votes would entitle it to fewer seats than the number of individual constituency seats won in an election under Germany's mixed member proportional system) and "leveling" (whereby additional seats are elected to supplement the members directly elected by each constituency in order to ensure that each party's share of the total seats is roughly proportional to the party's overall shares of votes at the national level), the 20th Bundestag is the largest to date
- Judicial Branch:
- highest court(s): Federal Court of Justice (court consists of 127 judges, including the court president, vice presidents, presiding judges, other judges and organized into 25 Senates subdivided into 12 civil panels, 5 criminal panels, and 8 special panels); Federal Constitutional Court or Bundesverfassungsgericht (consists of 2 Senates each subdivided into 3 chambers, each with
- a chairman and 8 members) judge selection and term of office: Federal Court of Justice judges selected by the Judges Election Committee, which consists of the Secretaries of Justice from each of the 16 federated states and 16 members appointed by the Federal Parliament; judges appointed by the president; judges serve until mandatory retirement at age 65; Federal Constitutional Court judges - one-half elected by the House of Representatives and one-half by the Senate; judges appointed for 12-year
- terms with mandatory retirement at age 68 subordinate courts: Federal Administrative Court; Federal Finance Court; Federal Labor Court; Federal Social Court; each of the 16 federated states or Land has its own constitutional court and a hierarchy of ordinary (civil, criminal, family) and specialized (administrative, finance, labor, social) courts; two English-speaking commercial courts opened in late 2020 in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg - English-speaking Stuttgart Commercial Court and English-speaking Mannheim Commercial Court
- Regions or States:
16 states (Laender, singular - Land); Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bayern (Bavaria), Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen (Hesse), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony), Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia), Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate), Saarland, Sachsen (Saxony), Sachsen-Anhalt (Saxony-Anhalt), Schleswig-Holstein, Thueringen (Thuringia); note - Bayern, Sachsen, and Thueringen refer to themselves as free states (Freistaaten, singular - Freistaat), while Bremen calls itself a Free Hanseatic City (Freie Hansestadt) and Hamburg considers itself a Free and Hanseatic City (Freie und Hansestadt)
- Political Parties and Leaders:
- Alliance '90/Greens [Ricarda LANG and Omid NOURIPOUR]
- Alternative for Germany or AfD [Alice WEIDEL and Tino CHRUPALLA]
- Christian Democratic Union or CDU [Friedrich MERZ]
- Christian Social Union or CSU [Markus SOEDER]
- Free Democratic Party or FDP [Christian LINDNER]
- Free Voters [Hubert AIWANGER]
- The Left or Die Linke [Janine WISSLER and Martin SCHIRDEWAN]
- Social Democratic Party or SPD [Saskia ESKEN and Lars KLINGBEIL]
- Suffrage:
- 18 years of age
- universal
- age 16 for some state and municipal elections
- Citizenship Criteria:
- no citizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a German citizen or a resident alien who has
- lived in Germany at least 8 years dual citizenship recognized: yes, but requires prior permis
- sion from government residency requirement for naturalization: 8 years
Capital & time
- Capital Name
Berlin
- Capital - geographic coordinate
52 31 N, 13 24 E
- Capital Time Difference
UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
- Daylight Savings Time
+1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October
International role
- International Organization Participation:
ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS, CD, CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECB, EIB, EITI (implementing country), EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, FATF, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, G-20, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD (partners), IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, MINURSO, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Pacific Alliance (observer), Paris Club, PCA, Schengen Convention, SELEC (observer), SICA (observer), UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNHRC, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMISS, UNOOSA, UNRWA, UNSOM, UNWTO, UPU, Wassenaar Arrangement, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
- International Law Organization Participation:
accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations; accepts ICCt jurisdiction
- Diplomatic Representation from US:
chief of mission
Ambassador Amy GUTMANN (since 17 February 2022) embassy: Pariser Platz 2, 10117 Berlin Clayallee 170, 14191 Berlin (administrative services) mailing address: 5090 Berlin Place, Washington DC 20521-5090
telephone
[49] (30) 8305-0
FAX
[49] (30) 8305-1215
Email address and website
- BerlinPCO@state.gov
- https://de.usembassy.gov/
consulate(s) general
Dusseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich
- Diplomatic Representation in the US:
chief of mission
Ambassador Andreas MICHAELIS (since 15 September 2023)
chancery
4645 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20007
telephone
[1] (202) 298-4000
FAX
[1] (202) 298-4261
Email address and website
- info@washington.diplo.de
- https://www.germany.info/us-en
consulate(s) general
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco