German Election Primer

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With only one night left to sleep before German voters (about 10 million of whom are allegedly still “undecided”) will be asked to decide about the composition of the next Bundestag, and probably, though not necessarily, about the composition of their next government, Spiegel Online’s English language service kindly prepared a contextualised (links to articles they published on specific issues) primer about the bumpy road this year’s contenders had to take to get into the Chancellery. Useful – and hopefully interesting – Saturday afternoon reading for everone who doesn’t feel too comfortable yet about the intricacies of German politics.

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About Tobias Schwarz

German, turned 30, balding slowly, hopefully with grace. A carnival junkie, who, after studies in business and politics in Mannheim, Paris, and London, is currently living in his hometown of Mainz, Germany, again, working on a phd when he's not too busy writing, composing, or supporting his home side Mainz 05. Turned New Labourite during a research job at the House of Commons, but difficult to place in German party-political terms. Liberal in the true sense of the term. His political writings are mostly on A Fistful of Euros these days. His personal blog Almost A Diary was a predominantly political blog in 2002-2003 but is now usually living up to its name, even though it can also be reached through the promising URL www.ichbindeutschland.de. Other bloglike activiy includes his musicblog www.tapsmusic.de, his musician account at myspace.com (myspace.com/tobischwarz), where you can listen to some of his songs..

2 thoughts on “German Election Primer”

  2. Arguably the best site covering the German election system is http://www.wahlrecht.de (mostly in German, some parts also in English).

    Even those who consider themselves political literate might still learn some interesting details.

    Ever heard of “negative voting power” (negatives Stimmgewicht) for instance?
    No?
    In a nutshell: In the German voting system it is possible that additional votes cast for a party actually DECREASE the number of parliamentary seats the party gets. Sounds incredible – but is true nonetheless.
    In the last election for example, the SPD would have gained an addtional seat, if less people in Bremen had voted red…