16th German Bundestag

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Logo of the German Bundestag

The 16th German Bundestag existed between October 18, 2005 and October 27, 2009. The 16th German Bundestag held a total of 233 sessions, with the last meeting on September 8, 2009. The 16th Bundestag was constituted by the 2005 Bundestag election , which took place on September 18, 2005 due to the early dissolution of the 15th Bundestag .

Old president was Otto Schily of the SPD, until November 22, 2005 Minister of the Interior.

On November 22, 2005, the 16th Bundestag elected Angela Merkel with 397 votes in favor, 202 votes against and 12 abstentions in the first ballot for Chancellor (see also Merkel I cabinet ).

Members of the Bundestag


Parliamentary groups in the plenary session of the 16th parliamentary term
(until October 28, 2009)
      
A total of 611 seats

The 16th Bundestag had a total of 614 members at the beginning of the legislative period and 611 members at the end of the legislative period. The CDU / CSU had the highest share of seats with 226 seats (222 at the end), followed by the SPD with 222 seats (221 at the end). In addition, the FDP (61 seats), Die Linke.PDS (54 seats, 53 at the end) and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen (51 seats) were represented in the 16th Bundestag . Due to the resignation of MPs, there were at times a total of three non-attached MPs.

Presidium of the Bundestag

Norbert Lammert was elected President of the Bundestag in the first session with 564 votes in favor, 25 against and 17 abstentions. While the election of the CDU / CSU, SPD, FDP and Greens candidates for the position of Vice President was unproblematic, there was a scandal when Die Linke.PDS candidate Lothar Bisky with 225 yes votes, 312 no Votes and 55 abstentions was rejected. Bisky was not elected in the second ballot either. A vice-president of the parliamentary group was elected only in the 33rd session, Petra Pau .

job

Overall, the 16th legislative period resulted in a balance of 14,163 Bundestag printed matter , which was a new record up to this point in time. This number was exceeded by the 17th German Bundestag , which produced a total of 14,732 printed matter.

Laws

A total of 905 legislative initiatives were introduced in the Bundestag, of which 537 are based on government proposals, 104 on initiatives by the Bundesrat and 264 on initiatives by the Bundestag. 852 laws were dealt with in the first consultation and a total of 616 were passed by the Bundestag.

The federalism reform , which was passed on June 30, 2006 in the 44th session of the 16th Bundestag with 428 votes in favor, 162 against and 3 abstentions, was of particular importance . With the Federalism Reform II , the debt brake was included in the Basic Law. The reform was resolved in the 225th session on May 29, 2009 as a "law amending the Basic Law (Articles 91 c, 91 d, 104 b, 109, 109 a, 115, 143 d)".

The 16th Bundestag also introduced parental allowance by passing the Federal Parental Allowance and Parental Leave Act on September 29, 2006 , which came into force on January 1, 2007. The parental allowance replaced the childcare allowance that existed up to this point in time (see also the Federal Childcare Allowance Act ).

With the law to strengthen competition in the statutory health insurance , a health reform was passed on February 2, 2007 . (see also The Health Reform 2007 ).

The Access Barrier Act , which was passed on June 18, 2009 in the 227th session of the 16th Bundestag, caused controversy . The law came into force in 2010 but was not applied and was officially repealed on December 29, 2011. With regard to network policy , the "Law on the new regulation of telecommunications surveillance and other covert investigative measures as well as the implementation of Directive 2006/24 / EC" caused controversy, which regulated data retention and was declared unconstitutional on March 2, 2010 following constitutional complaints.

In the course of the financial crisis from 2007 onwards , the 16th Bundestag passed the Financial Market Stabilization Act , which was passed as an emergency act on October 17, 2008. Changes to this law were made by the Financial Market Stabilization Amendment Act , which was passed on March 20, 2009, and the Financial Market Stabilization Development Act , which was passed on July 3, 2009. In the wake of the financial crisis, there were also two economic stimulus programs that were passed in the Bundestag on December 4, 2008 ( stimulus package I ) and February 13, 2009 ( stimulus package II ).

Furthermore, during the 16th legislative period, the BKA law and the VW law were revised , which were passed on November 12, 2008 and November 14, 2008, respectively.

Committees

The 16th Bundestag had 22 standing committees. Compared to the 15th German Bundestag, there were the Committee on Economics and Technology, the Committee on Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, the Committee on Labor and Social Affairs, the Committee on Health, and the Committee on Transport, Building and Urban Development. Instead, the Committee on Economy and Labor, the Committee on Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, the Committee on Health and Social Security, and the Committee on Transport, Building and Housing no longer existed.

Bodies

The 16th Bundestag constituted ten bodies , including special control bodies . The task of the committees was to “prepare political debates”, whereby the “areas of work would go beyond the consultation of concrete legislative proposals”. The committees also include study commissions .

Committee Chair Members CDU / CSU SPD FDP Die Linke.PDS Alliance 90 /
The Greens
Committee according to Article 13 Paragraph 6 of the Basic Law Norbert Geis 9 3 3 1 1 1
Study Commission Culture in Germany Gitta Connemann 11 (+11 experts) 4th 4th 1 1 1
Parliamentary advisory board on questions of ethics, especially in the life sciences (ethics advisory board) René Röspel 9 3 3 1 1 1
Committee in accordance with Section 10a of the Financial Market Stabilization Act 9 3 3 1 1 1
Commission for the modernization of federal-state financial relations Peter Struck 16 Bundestag (+16 Bundesrat) 6th 6th 2 1 1
G 10 commission 4 (2 members + 2 people who are not members of the German Bundestag) 1 1
Parliamentary Control Body (PKGr) Max Stadler 9 3 3 1 1 1
Committee according to Section 23c (8) of the Customs Investigation Service Act Ruprecht Polenz 9 3 3 1 1 1
Parliamentary Advisory Council on Sustainable Development Günter Krings 20th 7th 7th 2 2 2
Electoral Committee 12 5 4th 1 1 1

The parliamentary groups that chair the respective committee are marked in color.

Parliamentary control

Inquiries, current hours and surveys

In total there were 63 large inquiries and 3,299 small inquiries during the 16th Bundestag . In addition, there were 113 current hours , 67 question hours and 59 surveys of the federal government .

Committees of inquiry

During the legislative period of the 16th Bundestag, there were two committees of inquiry .

1. Committee of Inquiry

On April 7, 2006, the first committee of inquiry, which is also known as the "BND committee of inquiry", was set up. Between April 7, 2006 and June 18, 2009, 125 meetings were held to clarify unanswered questions about the Federal Government's report on "Incidents in connection with the Iraq war and the fight against international terrorism", which was submitted to the Parliamentary Control Committee on April 20. February 2006 was submitted. The focus of the investigation was also on the Kurnaz and al-Masri cases .

The committee consisted of four members of the CDU / CSU ( Siegfried Kauder , Kristina Schröder , Günter Krings, Stephan Mayer ), four members of the SPD ( Michael Bürsch , Wolfgang Gunkel , Michael Hartmann , Johannes Jung ) and one member of the FDP each (Max Stadler ), the left ( Norman Paech ) and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ( Hans-Christian Ströbele ). Siegfried Kauder was the chairman.

The final report of the committee of inquiry is 1,430 pages long and was published on June 18, 2009.

2. Committee of Inquiry

The 2nd committee of inquiry was set up on April 23, 2009; it was also referred to as the "Hypo Real Estate Committee". It was about the role of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Bundesbank in the "grievances at Hypo Real Estate Holding AG ". Up to September 18, 2009, 23 meetings had taken place.

The committee consisted of four members of the CDU / CSU ( Leo Dautzenberg , Christian Hirte , Daniela Raab , Klaus-Peter Willsch ), four members of the SPD ( Nina Hauer , Hans-Ulrich Krüger , Reinhard Schultz , Jörg-Otto Spiller ) and one each Members of the FDP ( Volker Wissing ), the Left ( Axel Troost ) and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ( Gerhard Schick ). The chairman was Hans-Ulrich Krüger.

The final report of the committee of inquiry is 372 pages long and was published on September 18, 2009.

Special sessions

During the 16th electoral period, the Federal Chancellor had motivated two special meetings, the 49th meeting on September 19, 2006 and the 198th meeting on January 14, 2009.

The 49th session dealt with the “participation of armed German forces in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ”. The topics of the 198th meeting were the government declaration by the Chancellor and a debate on the “current situation in the Middle East”.

Speeches by foreign guests in front of the members of the German Bundestag

On January 27, 2007, the Nobel Prize Laureate Imre Kertész read from his novel Kaddisch for an unborn child on the occasion of the commemoration of the German Bundestag on the "Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism" .

On January 25th, 2008, Lenka Reinerová was invited to give the opening speech of the memorial hour for the victims of National Socialism. She could not take part due to health reasons, which is why the actress Angela Winkler read texts by Reinerová.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Bundestag: Plenary Protocol 16/1 (PDF; 1.1 MB), accessed on September 13, 2013.
  2. ^ German Bundestag: Plenary Protocol 17/1 (PDF; 477 kB), accessed on September 13, 2013.
  3. ↑ German Bundestag plenary proceedings 16/233 (PDF; 998 kB), accessed on September 13, 2013.
  4. ^ Editing of parliamentary printed matter : 16th electoral period: record of parliamentary printed matter , Bundesanzeiger Verlag , October 28, 2009, accessed on September 18, 2013.
  5. ↑ See printed matter 17/14732 of September 9, 2013 (PDF; 104 kB), as of September 29, 2013
  6. ↑ Statistics of Legislation - Overview of the 16th electoral term. (PDF; 9 kB) In: bundestag.de. German Bundestag, April 21, 2010, p. 1 , accessed on June 16, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Shorthand report. (PDF; 1.67 MB) 44th meeting. In: bundestag.de. German Bundestag, June 30, 2006, pp. 69–70 , accessed on June 16, 2017 .
  8. ↑ a b part 16: Federalism reform and financial crisis (2005–2009). In: bundestag.de. German Bundestag, accessed on June 16, 2017 .
  9. ^ German Bundestag: 225th session (plenary minutes 16/225) (PDF; 1.5 MB), May 29, 2009, accessed on September 14, 2013.
  10. ↑ German Bundestag: 227th session (plenary minutes 16/227) (PDF; 5.8 MB), June 18, 2009, accessed on September 14, 2013.
  11. ↑ 8.2 List of committees. (PDF; 616 kB) 15th electoral term (2002–2005) / 16th electoral term (2005–2009). In: Data Handbook on the History of the German Bundestag 1990 to 2010. German Bundestag, June 7, 2017, pp. 14–20 , accessed on June 16, 2017 .
  12. ^ German Bundestag: Further bodies , April 27, 2010, accessed on September 14, 2013.
  13. ↑ 11.1 Inquiries. (PDF; 890 kB) Number of inquiries received, broken down by political group. In: Data Handbook on the History of the German Bundestag 1990 to 2010. German Bundestag, February 9, 2015, p. 4 , accessed on June 16, 2017 .
  14. ^ Statistics of parliamentary control activities. (PDF; 7 kB) Overview of the 16th electoral term. In: bundestag.de. German Bundestag, April 21, 2010, p. 1 , accessed on June 16, 2017 .
  15. ^ German Bundestag (archive): 1st committee of inquiry , accessed on September 14, 2013.
  16. ↑ German Bundestag: Printed matter 16/990 (PDF; 98 kB), March 17, 2006, accessed on September 14, 2013.
  17. ↑ a b c 8.9 Committees of inquiry. (PDF; 739 kB) Tabular overview of the committees of inquiry - 16th electoral term (2005–2009). In: Data Handbook on the History of the German Bundestag 1990 to 2010. German Bundestag, January 5, 2017, pp. 10–11 , accessed on June 15, 2017 .
  18. ^ German Bundestag (archive): Members of the 1st Committee of Inquiry , accessed on September 14, 2013.
  19. ↑ German Bundestag: Recommendation for a resolution and report of the 1st committee of inquiry under Article 44 of the Basic Law (Printed matter 16/13400) (PDF; 12.7 MB), June 18, 2009, accessed on September 14, 2013.
  20. ↑ German Bundestag: Printed matter 16/12480 (PDF; 83 kB), March 25, 2009, accessed on September 14, 2013.
  21. ^ German Bundestag (archive): 2nd committee of inquiry , accessed on September 14, 2013.
  22. ^ German Bundestag (archive): Members of the 2nd Committee of Inquiry , accessed on September 14, 2013.
  23. ↑ German Bundestag: Recommendation for a resolution and report of the 2nd committee of inquiry under Article 44 of the Basic Law (Printed matter 16/14000) (PDF; 5.4 MB), September 18, 2009, accessed on September 14, 2013.
  24. ↑ a b 7.4 Special Sessions. (PDF; 203 kB) In: Data handbook on the history of the German Bundestag 1990 to 2010. German Bundestag, October 20, 2015, p. 6 , accessed on June 16, 2017 .
  25. ^ German Bundestag: Imre Kertész (January 29, 2007) , accessed on September 17, 2013.
  26. ^ German Bundestag: Lenka Reinerová (January 25, 2008) , accessed on September 17, 2013.

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