Landtag

A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non-federal matters. The States of Germany and Austria are governed by landtage. In addition, the legislature of the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol is known in German as a landtag. Historically, states of the German Confederation also established landtage. The Landtag of Liechtenstein is the small nation's unicameral assembly. The German word Landtag is composed of the words Land (state, country or territory) and Tag (day). The German word Tagung (meeting) is derived from the German word Tag, 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 the Imperial States' representative assemblies (Landstände), regardless of their name well described as estates 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 many nobles (knightage) and prelates, 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 as Land, the name of such estates assembly was Landtag, analogous to the Reichstag (Imperial Diet), which mainly comprised most of the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire plus Reichsgrafen, Imperial prelates and Free 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 changes et cetera. Since 1466, Prussian Landtag were held in Royal Prussia.