Reichsrat of Germany (Groß-Deutschland)

The German Reichsrat (literally "Imperial Council"; ) is a legislative body that represents the thirty-seven Länder (federal states) of Germany at the federal level. It has its seat at the former Prussian House of Lords in Berlin.

The Reichsrat co-decides about federal laws that affect Länder competences, and has the responsibility for passing treaties negotiated by the Emperor. Foreign commentators tend to compare it to upper houses such as the U.S. Senate or the House of Lords in the United Kingdom.

History
The German Reichsrat was first founded, together with the German Empire, in 1871, replacing a body of the same name and with the same functions in the North German Confederation. With the Weimar Constitution, it was replaced in 1919 by the Reichsrat (1919–1934).

The delegates to the original Bundesrat as those to the Reichsrat, while appointed by the state governments just as today, usually were high-ranking civil servants, not cabinet members. The original Reichsrat was very powerful: Every bill needed its consent, making it equal to the popularly elected Reichstag.

The Reichsrat had considerably less influence, since it could only veto bills and even then be overruled by the Reichstag. However, overruling the Reichsrat needed a majority of two-thirds in the Reichstag splintered into many parties. So in most cases a bill vetoed by the Reichsrat effectively died because there were not enough votes in the Reichstag to overrule the veto.