01Scheduling
Legislative scheduling
Negotiating which bills, motions and debates reach the plenary in a given sitting week, in what order and with how much speaking time — in the Council of Elders and in talks between the groups’ managers.
Parliamentary leadership · 2013–2021
The machinery of Parliament
For eight years Bärbel Bas helped run the SPD’s parliamentary group — first as one of its managers, then as one of its deputy chairs. These are the least visible jobs in the Bundestag, and among the most consequential.
§ 01 · 2013–2019
Parliamentary Executive Director
In December 2013, as the SPD entered a grand coalition with CDU/CSU under Angela Merkel, the group appointed Bas one of its Parlamentarische Geschäftsführer — Parliamentary Executive Directors, sometimes compared to “whips” in Westminster systems, though the German role is broader.1 She held the post until September 2019, spanning the 18th term and the start of the 19th.
Parliamentary Executive Directors sit at the junction of the group, its leadership, the coalition partner and the other groups. Their work is rarely reported but determines whether a coalition’s legislation reaches the floor on time and passes.
§ 02The job, explained
Six things a group manager actually does
02Coalition
Coalition coordination
Aligning the timetable of government bills with the coalition partner’s group, and resolving procedural disputes before they become political ones.
03Majorities
Securing votes
Knowing the group’s attendance and positions before votes, organising pairing arrangements and ensuring the majority is present when it counts.
04Procedure
Rules of procedure
Applying the Bundestag’s Rules of Procedure: deadlines, committee referrals, points of order, current hours and question times. Procedural expertise later proved directly relevant to presiding over the house.
05Organisation
Group management
Allocating committee seats, offices and resources among members; overseeing group staff and budget.
06Communication
Keeping members informed
Preparing group meetings and briefing members — more than 190 SPD members in the 18th term — on the week’s business.
§ 03 · 2019–2021
Deputy Parliamentary Group Leader
On 24 September 2019 the SPD group elected Bas one of its deputy chairs, with responsibility for health, education and research, and petitions.2 Where the executive director manages process, the deputy chair leads content: she chaired the group’s internal working groups in her fields, negotiated with the coalition partner’s specialists and spoke for the group in plenary debates.
The role coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Health legislation — including the successive amendments to the Infection Protection Act — passed through the Bundestag at unusual speed, and health-policy coordinators of the coalition groups were central to that process.
Education and research gave her responsibility in a field where the federal government shares competence with the Länder. Petitions connected her to the Bundestag’s most direct channel for citizens — a theme that resurfaced when she was elected President two years later.
From manager to presiding officer
The combination of procedural experience and cross-group negotiation is a common profile for candidates for the presidency, which requires a majority across party lines. When the SPD became the largest group in 2021, it nominated Bas; she was elected on 26 October 2021.
- 2009
Member
Committee on Health.
- Dec 2013
Executive Director
SPD parliamentary group.
- Sep 2019
Deputy Chair
Health, education & research, petitions.
- Oct 2021
President
German Bundestag.
Sources
- German Bundestag, biography of Bärbel Bas, 18th electoral term. bundestag.de
- “Bärbel Bas”, German Wikipedia — dates of group offices (secondary source; confirmed in outline by the BMAS CV). de.wikipedia.org
- Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, CV of the Minister. bmas.de
- Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag. bundestag.de