Deutscher Bundestag

Direct from the German Parliament: this app offers regularly updated information about the issues dealt with by the Bundestag, its Members and committees, and services available for visitors. Please note that the app is only available in German. The app launches with articles and background information about the most important debates taking place at the Bundestag. Plenary sittings and public committee meetings are broadcast live. When a plenary sitting is taking place, “Plenum/TV” takes you straight to the plenary chamber: find out what subject is currently being discussed in Parliament, who is speaking, and what topics are on the agenda for the current sitting. You can follow the debate live using the audio and video streams. Your smartphone or tablet will immediately show when the next speaker takes the floor or the debate moves on to the next item on the agenda. If a plenary sitting is not taking place, “Plenum/TV” takes you to the agendas for the next sittings, information about upcoming debates and a description of the functions and composition of the German Bundestag. Parliamentary Television also broadcasts recordings of past public committee meetings, public hearings and plenary debates. The “MdB” section introduces all the Members of the German Bundestag. You will find photos and biographical information about the parliamentarians, details of their registered outside interests – including outside employment and income – information about their membership of committees and other Bundestag bodies, and their contact details. The German Bundestag’s committees play a key part in its work. They prepare laws, examine and scrutinise the work of the government, and raise important topical issues. The “Ausschüsse” section describes the tasks of each of the 23 permanent committees and the committees of inquiry and lists the members and the chairperson of each committee. It also offers reports on the issues being discussed by the committees and their work, and recordings of public committee meetings. The German Bundestag is an open parliament, welcoming more than 4 million visitors each year. And so the Bundestag app also has a section for visitors (“Besuch”). Here you can find information about how to arrange to watch a plenary sitting from the visitors’ galleries, attend a lecture in the plenary chamber, take part in a guided tour of the building focusing on politics, history, art or architecture, visit an exhibition, or, of course, visit the dome of the Reichstag Building. And by the way – all of the services offered by the Visitors’ Service are free of charge. When you are offline, you have access to information about the Members of the Bundestag, background information about the committees, and information about visiting the Bundestag. You can also download individual articles to your phone’s memory to ensure that your favourite articles are always available, whether you are online or not. You can share information with friends using the recommend function (“Empfehlen”). The recipient will receive a text message or email containing a link to the article or video. The Menu button at the top right allows you to update the app’s data (“Daten aktualisieren”). In your settings (“Einstellungen”) you can determine how often the data is updated, and much more.