Division of the assembly
The Hammelsprung is a form of voting in parliament, for example, the German Bundestag.
Procedure
For the Hammelsprung in the German Bundestag MPs leave the Chamber and enter it after the opening of the count by the President again by one of three doors, "no" or " abstention " are each "Yes". For the census standing at each door, two secretary, which in passing through the door loudly count the deputies. The President announced the end of the counting. Maybe after arriving deputies are no longer counted and it will be announced the result. The process is regulated in § 51 paragraph 2 of the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag.
If the quorum is doubted, as can be verified by Hammelsprung according to § 45 paragraph 2 GOBT if there are more than half of the members in the meeting room; this is not the case, the President must cancel the session immediately. According to § 20 paragraph 5 of the Rules of the closed session due to no quorum can be repeated on the same day once, but the can be contradicted by a parliamentary group or five per cent of the members of the Bundestag.
Political significance
As a rule shall be by show of hands or by " sitting and standing " in the German Bundestag. The Hammelsprung is used, if not agree, for example, the sitting Board on the outcome of a vote, even after the crosscheck. In the German Bundestag other Auszählarten are not provided. An electronic counting methods, as for example in Russia, Italy, France or Switzerland is used, has been previously rejected after a short test phase in the German Bundestag on the grounds of manipulation.
In the first eleven days of Federal (1949-1990) there were a total of 534 sheep jumps.
In other countries
Similar procedures for determining voting results are applied in many democracies, for example, in the British House of Commons and House of Lords. The English term for this is division ( of the assembly / of the house ). It is used in rare cases in the Swiss rural municipality in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. With several thousand attendees, it can happen there, that the result is doubtful.
History
Such a voting procedure has already been applied by the Roman popular assembly, the council Plebis. These two bridges were built, were counted by the masses in the voting procedure. The in German as " Hammelsprung " designated voting procedure was introduced at the request of the Vice President of the German Reichstag, Hans Victor von Unruh on 9 April 1874 in the Rules of Procedure of the Reichstag and in November 1874 in the Rules of Procedure of the Prussian House of Representatives.
The term Hammelsprung is a neologism of parliamentary everyday language, such as voting cattle, bellwether or workhorse. A proof that the counting of sheep was so called, has not yet been found.
The architect of the Reichstag Paul Wallot took to the term " Hammelsprung " in a marquetry picture. He made 1894 one of the voting doors - the yes - door - is the Reichstag building in Berlin, as the blinded by Odysseus Cyclops Polyphemus his rams, stroking his back, because he believes, sitting on her back would Odysseus and his companions escape from captivity want. In fact, they held under the belly hanging in the coat of the ram securely. The no- door showed the Silesian fairy tales and legendary figure Rubezahl. In the Reichstag the imperial period were only two doors, one for counting the yes and one for the counting of votes against.
At the meeting on 9 April 1874, already once rejected the idea of taking an "electrical machine voting " in use. Such a device had been offered to the Reichstag by Siemens & Halske, its installation but was rejected after lengthy discussions with the note that this form of voting is incompatible with the dignity of the Reichstag.