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ALandtag (StateDiet) is generally thelegislative assembly orparliament of afederated state or other subnational self-governing entity inGerman-speaking nations. It is usually aunicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non-federal matters.
TheStates of Germany andAustria are governed byLandtage. In addition, the legislature of the Italian autonomous province ofSouth Tyrol is known in German as aLandtag. Historically, states of theGerman Confederation also establishedLandtage. TheLandtag of Liechtenstein is the nation's unicameral assembly.
The German wordLandtag is composed of the wordsLand (state, country or territory) andTag (day). The German wordTagung (meeting) is derived from the German wordTag, as such meetings were held at daylight and sometimes spanned several days.
In feudal society, the formal class system was reflected in the composition of theImperial States' representative assemblies (Landstände), regardless of their name well described asestates of the realm: it was not intended as an elected reflection of public opinion, but a fixed expression of established power as recognized in formal privileges, including the right to be seated in person (granted to manynobles (knightage) andprelates, as well as certain cities) or to be represented as elector in a college that is entitled to one or more seats. Therefore, the representatives primarily defended class interests, and decisions were based on a class-based electoral system.
In some of the Imperial States that were known asLand, the name of such estates assembly wasLandtag, analogous to theReichstag (Imperial Diet), which mainly comprised most of thePrinces of the Holy Roman Empire plusReichsgrafen,Imperial prelates andFree imperial cities. The precise composition obviously varied greatly, and could change over time, as the result of privileges granted or lost, entities split or merged, border changeset cetera.
Prussian Landtage were held:
See alsoPreußischer Landtag.
AsAustria andPrussia escaped the French 'exporting the revolution', andNapoleon was happy to maintain satellite monarchies in most German territories under his control (members of theConfederation of the Rhine), the more democratic principles of theEnlightenment would have less effect in the German-speaking lands, or only much later.
In 1815 theGerman Confederation ("Deutscher Bund") was founded as successor to the Holy Roman Empire. § 13 of the "Bundesakte" (theconstitution of the German Confederation) forced the German states to pass constitutions and implement parliaments called Landstände or Landtage.
The first constitution was passed inNassau in 1814. Until[clarification needed] 1841 (Luxembourg) all but two states got[clarification needed] their constitution and parliaments.
In 1871 theGerman Empire was founded. All 25 states of the German Empire and Alsace-Lorraine (the "Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen") (from 1911) had Landtage as legislative authorities. The most important one was thePrussian Landtag.
In theWeimar Republic (1919 – 1933) all German states had Landtage that were democratically elected byuniversal suffrage, and to which the state governments were responsible. After theNazi seizure of power, they embarked on the process ofGleichschaltung (coordination). On 31 March 1933, theProvisional Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich was enacted, which dissolved all the sitting Landtage and reconstituted them on the basis of the recentReichstag election results, which had given theNazi Party and its coalition partner theDNVP a working majority. This was followed by the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich" of 30 January 1934 that formally abolished all the Landtage and transferred thesovereignty of the states to the central government. Although the states themselves continued in existence, thefederalism of the Republic was effectively supplanted by aunitary state.
Under itsoriginal constitution,East Germany was afederal republic withfive Länder, each with its own Landtag. Each Landtag was responsible for electing theChamber of States, theupper house of the national parliament.
In 1952, the Länder were dissolved and replaced byBezirke (districts). The Landtage were accordingly abolished and their functions transferred to the Bezirke governments. The Länder were eventually restored after thePeaceful Revolution, but their Landtage did not convene until after thereunification of Germany.
TheDiet of Finland, which was created when the country was ceded from Sweden to Russia in 1809, was calledlantdag in Swedish until 1906 when it was replaced by the unicameralParliament of Finland. Parliament continued using the namelantdag in Swedish until 1919, when Finland adopted its first constitution following the declaration of independence in 1917. Since then, the official term in Swedish has beenriksdag, equivalent of the German Reichstag. The Finnish name iseduskunta.
The first Landtag of theLivonian Confederation was called by archbishop of RigaJohannes Ambundii in 1419 and reconvened on a regular basis until the incorporation of Livonian lands into theGrand Duchy of Lithuania,Sweden andDenmark in 1561. Separate Landtags forLivonia,Courland andEstonia continued to exist as bodies of the Duchies ofLivonia,Estonia,Courland and Semigallia, and later the Russian Governorates ofLivonia,Estonia andCourland. After the independence of Estonia and Latvia in 1918, they were ultimately replaced by theRiigikogu and theSaeima.
In the contemporaryFederal Republic of Germany, theRepublic of Austria and theItalian Republic's province ofSouth Tyrol (with a German-speaking majority), a Landtag is aunicameral legislature for a constitutive federal state (Bundesland).In thePrincipality of Liechtenstein, theLandtag is the sole national parliament, because Liechtenstein has no federal structure due to its size.
In most of the German constitutivefederal states (Bundesländer), the unicameral legislature is calledLandtag:
In the Germancity states, the parliamentarycity council serves the function of the state parliament within the federal system - in theFree Hanseatic City of Bremen and in theFree and Hanseatic City of Hamburg it is called theBürgerschaft (municipal assembly):
In theGerman capital and city state ofBerlin, the legislature since 1951 (then ofWest Berlin) is calledAbgeordnetenhaus ("House of Representatives"), adopting the tradition of thePrussian Landtag.
The national bicameral Parliament comprises thedirectly electedBundestag and theBundesrat which represents the state governments in Federal matters which affect theLänder.
According to theConstitution of Austria, theLandtage are the unicameral legislatures of the ninestates of Austria (Bundesländer), dealing with all matters not explicitly allotted tofederal level:
As the Austrian capitalVienna (like Berlin) is both a city-state and amunicipality, the Gemeinderat (municipal assembly) of Vienna also serves as the state Landtag. However, the city constitution states that municipal and state affairs are kept separate, and the two bodies hold separate meetings even though their memberships are identical.
The representatives are elected in general, free, secret and direct ballots according to the principle ofproportional representation. The largest of the parliamentary groups (calledKlubs in Austria) usually nominates theLandeshauptmann governor. The modernLandtage are the democratic successors of theestates assemblies in the correspondingcrown lands of theAustrian Empire. Exceptions are the city of Vienna, which belonged to the Lower Austria Kronland until 1920, and Burgenland, ceded to Austria by theKingdom of Hungary in 1921.
Austria's national bicameral parliament consists of the directly electedNational Council and theFederal Council, which represents theLandtage parliaments at the federal level. The two chambers meet in theFederal Assembly, held for the ceremonial swearing-in of theAustrian president.
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