Bundesrat of Germany in the context of "Australian Senate"

The capital of Germany is the city of Berlin. It is the seat of the Federal President of Germany, whose official residence is Bellevue Castle. The Federal Council is the representation of the Lands of Germany and has its seat at the former Prussian House of Lords. Though most of the ministries are seated in Berlin, some of them, as well as some minor departments, are seated in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. Although Berlin is officially the capital of Germany, 8,000 out of the 18,000 total officials employed at the federal bureaucracy still work in Bonn, about 600 km (370 mi) away from Berlin.

Germany is a democratic and federal parliamentary republic, where federal legislative power is vested in the Bundestag (the parliament of Germany) and the Bundesrat (the representative body of the Länder, Germany's regional states).

The federal system has, since 1949, been dominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The judiciary of Germany is independent of the executive and the legislature, while it is common for leading members of the executive to be members of the legislature as well. The political system is laid out in the 1949 constitution, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), which remained in effect with minor amendments after German reunification in 1990.

The Public Prosecutor General at the Federal Court of Justice (German: Generalbundesanwalt or Generalbundesanwältin beim Bundesgerichtshof [GBA], lit. 'General Federal Attorney at the Federal Court of Justice') is the federal prosecutor of Germany, representing the federal government at the Bundesgerichtshof, the federal court of justice. The office of the Public Prosecutor General is located in Karlsruhe. Besides its role in appellate cases, the Public Prosecutor General has primary jurisdiction in cases of crimes against the state (in particular terrorism, espionage and treason), and offences under the Völkerstrafgesetzbuch (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes). The Public Prosecutor General also represents Germany in certain civil and administrative cases.

The Federal Minister of Justice proposes the Public Prosecutor General with the approval of the Bundesrat to the President of Germany for appointment. The Public Prosecutor General is considered a political official. He is supposed to share the criminal and security policy views and objectives of the respective acting federal government and can be recalled without outspoken reasons at any time. He is subject to the supervision of the Federal Minister of Justice.

In Germany, the president of the Bundesrat or president of the Federal Council (German: Bundesratspräsident) is the chairperson (speaker) of the Bundesrat (Federal Council). The president is elected by the Bundesrat for a term of one year (usually from November 1 to October 31 in the next year). Traditionally, the presidency of the Bundesrat rotates among the leaders of the sixteen state governments. This is however only an established practice; theoretically the Bundesrat is free to elect any member it chooses, and a president could also be re-elected (which has happened once, in 1957). As well as acting as a chairperson, the president of the Bundesrat is ex officio deputy of the federal president. The president of the German Federal Council is 4th in the German order of precedence. In addition, the main celebration of German Unity Day is traditionally held in the state that holds the presidency.

The president of the Bundesrat convenes and chairs plenary sessions of the body and is formally responsible for representing the Federal Republic in the Bundesrat. The president is aided by two vice presidents who play an advisory role and deputise in the president's absence. The three together constitute the presidium of the Bundesrat.

The Federal Ministry of Defence (German: Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsminɪsˌteːʁiʊm deːɐ̯ fɐˈtaɪdɪɡʊŋ] ; abbreviated BMVg) is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The ministry is headquartered at the Hardthöhe barracks itself located at the Hardthöhe district in Bonn and has a second office in the Bendlerblock building in Berlin, which is occasionally used as a metonym to denote the entire Ministry.

According to Article 65a of the German Constitution (Grundgesetz), the Federal Minister of Defence is Commander-in-chief of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, with around 260,953 active soldiers and civilians. Article 115b decrees that in the state of defence, declared by the Bundestag with consent of the Bundesrat, the command in chief passes to the Chancellor. The ministry currently has approximately 2,000 employees.