The Federal Republic of Germany, as a federal state, consists of sixteen partly sovereign federated states. Since the German national state was formed from an earlier collection of several states, it has a federal constitution, and the constituent states retain a measure of sovereignty.
A Landtag 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.