History UsefulNotes / PoliticalSystemOfGermany

'''German Political Parties'''

For a more detailed look at the current parties, see Main/PoliticiansAndPartiesOfGermany.

* New Forum, Democracy Now, and Initiative for Peace and Human Rights, which fusioned to the '''Bündnis 90''' (Alliance 1990)

His only real power is to decide whether or not to dissolve the Bundestag if it cannot agree on a Chancellor after an election or after the sitting Chancellor lost a "vote of confidence". Germany's Presidents used this power in 1972, 1983 and 2005, but each time with the support of the sitting Chancellor, who wanted an early election to clarify which side had the support of the people.

''Formative Years'' (from end of WorldWarTwo to late Fifties)

''WestGermany'' (from late Fifties to mid Nineties)

''TheBerlinRepublic'' (since the mid Nineties)

Shortly after the war ended in 1945, the largest parties were founded. These were on the left the SPD (Social Democrats) and KPD (Communists) which both had existed in the WeimarRepublic, while on the right the parties were new: the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) attracted members from centrists Christians to national conservatives, while the FDP attracted members from liberal democrats to national liberals. In Bavaria, the Christian Social Union was founded, and CDU and CSU made an agreement that they wound never run against each other. Soon, in the Soviet zone the KPD and SPD were merged to the SED (Socialist Unity party), while in the West they remained separate.

The short "grand coalition" between CDU/CSU and SPD between 1966 and 1969 convinced people on both sides that their side had sold out. On the right, the far-right NPD was elected to some state parliaments, while on the left, the student movement (68ers) flared up (though not as bad as in France), but at first didn't form a party (the communist DKP had the support of the Soviets, but not of the 68ers). Then the "social-liberal" SPD-FDP coalition was formed, and the NPD fortunes waned quickly, while on the left the 68ers tried to create niches for their ideas about society.

A number of smaller parties were also founded, of special note those founded by people expelled from previously German areas that were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union (large parts of eastern Poland were also annexed by the Soviet Union, expelling Poles that partially settled in the previously German areas). In the early years of WestGermany, all parties except the KPD demanded the annexed areas back for Germany, a view that only gradually changed.

While WestGermany was formed in 1949, its party system reached a stable form about a decade later, when it just consisted of three (or four) parties in the German parliaments: the CDU/CSU as large party on the center-right, the SPD becoming almost as large on the center-left, and the somewhat smaller FDP (usually getting 5 to 10 percent) in the liberal (for those in the USA: libertarian) center with positions both pro-civil rights and pro-business. The West German states were ruled either by either SPD or CDU/CSU, in some cases with absolute majority, in others in coalition with the FDP.

Germany has five major political parties, with their own traditional colours:
* CDU/CSU (Black/Blue): actually a political grouping of two parties, known generally as "The Union", the latter is essentially a Bavarian version of the former and they do not stand against each other, but there are policy differences. The Christlich Demokratische Union (Christian Democratic Union) is a Christian Democratic Party. Not quite the same thing as a conservative party- you will get one or the other in Europe, but not both- it is a non-denominational party, which opposes Turkey entering the EU. Its leader Angela Merkel is the current Chancellor. Chancellor Number 8, she is the first female Chancellor and the first [[EastGermany "Ossie" (former East German)]] in that role. Four other chancellors also were in the CDU: Konrad Adenauer (first chancellor; "the old one", being almost 90 years old when he retired), Ludwig Erhard (the fat one with the cigar; very successful in building up the economy after the war, less successful as chancellor), Kurt Georg Kiesinger (the "silver-tongued one" who was once a member of the [[ThoseWackyNazis NSDAP]] and made a grand coalition with the SPD), Helmut Kohl (the really big one, united Germany, favorite target for jokes, parodies, caricatures, and so on- his surname means "cabbage").
* SPD (Red): Social-Democrat party. Once a real left party, they gradually scrapped the Socialist ideas (as did Labour in Britain under Tony Blair). Three chancellors were in the SPD so far: Willy Brandt (made the famous Ostverträge - treaties with the East and also commissioned the Brandt Report on the North-South divide), Helmut Schmidt, and Gerhard Schröder (cigar-smoking "Genosse der Bosse" - "comrade of the bosses"). Currently the main opposition.
* FDP- (Freie Demokratische Partei-Free Democratic Party- yellow), a liberal party (folks from the USA and Canada should read that as "libertarian") and coalition partners to the CDU/CSU. Occasionally, also to the SPD. In some lands even including the Greens.
* Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens, colour obvious)- A combination of the old West German Green Party and a collection of GDR civil rights activists, it is the most successful such party in the world. Partnered with the SPD in the Schröder era, the German involvement in the 1999 war against Yugoslavia led to some resignations from the party. The most famous Green politician is former Foreign Minister Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer, a former Marxist who was witnessed throwing a brick at a policeman during a riot when he was younger, was sworn in as the Hesse Minister of the Environment wearing sneakers (currently at a museum), and famously told the Vice-President of the ''Bundestag'', "''Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch''" ("[[SophisticatedAsHell With respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole]]"). (He remains one of the most popular and respected politicians in Germany, across party lines.) In 2011, the Greens "won" [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg_state_election,_2011 an election for the first time in traditionally-CDU Baden-Württemberg]]; although they were only the second-largest party in the ''Landtag'' after the election (up from third), they were also the only party to gain seats and will be providing the next Minister-President.
* Die Linke (The Left, Red - or pink, since red is already assigned to the SPD). The old Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ran EastGermany lost most of its old members and renamed itself to PDS. When it eventually merged with the [[StartMyOwn WASG, a small western party consisting mostly of former SPD-members]], it got more popular. They do much better in the former GDR states, although they did very well in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland_state_election,_2009 2009 state elections]] in the traditionally-CDU Saarland, becoming the third-largest party in the ''Landtag''.

These are not the sole parties, of course. Of particular note are the Neo-Nazi parties. Nazi parties (as other anti-democratic / anti-human rights parties) are prohibited by Article 21 of the Basic Law, but these groups are still around and have grown in recent years, especially in the former GDR - until a series of shady party financing incidents lead to them verging on bankruptcy and taking a nose-dive in the last few elections. The NoSwastikas law means that they instead use the flag of ImperialGermany.

The Piratenpartei (Pirate Party, orange colour) got 2% in the recent federal election and is the biggest party not in the parliament - it's not yet clear whether they'll stay around for longer. It got in the recent election of Berlin's state diet 9% which makes it the first state diet they can enter.

The 2005 election, called after Schröder arranged to deliberately lose a vote of confidence, a controversial act the German Constitutional Court looked at and accepted, resulted in neither the "Black-Yellow" (Union/FDP) or "Red-Green" (SPD/Green) having a majority. With PDS/The Left refusing to play with anyone (or the other way round), the FDP not interested in a "Traffic-Light Coalition" and the Greens not happy about a "Jamaica Coalition" (Union-FDP-Green, their colours are those of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Jamaica}} Jamaican]] flag), the only option was a Grand Coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD. Merkel became ''Bundeskanzlerin''. Schröder left the scene.

The 2009 election resulted in the CDU/CSU and FDP gaining enough seats to form a governing coalition. However both CDU and SPD suffered their worst result in a democratic election ever, while the FDP got far more votes than ever before. However internal conflicts in the government started to arise just a few weeks later, and three months after the election polls showed that support for the FDP had dropped by 75%. Since then, prospects have gotten much, much worse for the government, with the CDU/CSU's poll numbers going into steady decline, although Merkel herself remains fairly popular. If current trends hold--and there is some talk (not much, but some) of having elections well before the October 2013 deadline--the results of the Baden-Württemberg election in 2011 may well prove to be prophetic: the Greens have come within striking distance of the SPD (whose support has been hovering in the 22%-26% range since early 2011) in most recent polls. Since the Baden-Württemberg election, the Greens have, with one exception, either been statistically tied with the SPD or slightly ahead of them, indicating that Germans increasingly see them as a party of government.

Four years after WorldWarII, delegates from West German states worked out the ''Grundgesetz'' ("Basic Law") as a temporary constitution, which was quickly adopted by all West German states. After reunification, Germans liked it so much they made only minor revisions.

With the end of WorldWarII, Germany adopted the ''Grundgesetz'' ("Basic Law") as a temporary constitution and liked it so much, they kept it after reunification, making only minor revisions.

[[ThePresidentsOfGermany Germany's President]], elected via a special convention, is mostly a ceremonial figure and usually can safely be ignored. His only real power is to decide whether or not to dissolve the Bundestag if it cannot agree on a Chancellor after an election or after the sitting Chancellor lost a "vote of confidence". Germany's Presidents used this power in 1972, 1983 and 2005, but each time with the support of the sitting Chancellor, who wanted an early election.

[[ThePresidentsOfGermany Germany's President]], elected via a special convention, is pretty much a ceremonial figure and can safely be ignored.

In Bremen and Hamburg, citizen initiatives forced a change to open lists, so that now number of votes determines who on the list gets elected. More initiatives are planned in other states.

* First, the overall result is decided by PR.

* The remaining seats for a party are filled from a pre-sorted party list.

These states have their own elected parliaments, all unicameral and all called ''Landtag'' (State Diet), as well as a Minister-President, who is elected via the Landtag.

They can be compared to US states, with their own electoral politics in them- they can also act on their own internationally in some cases.

'''Electoral System'''

Germany uses Proportional Representation (PR) for its parliaments on all levels, meaning that coalitions are the rule of the day.

Most states and the federal level use a mixed-member proportional system:
* First, the overall result is decided by PR.
* Then for each party the seats are first filled with its first-past-the-post winners of single-member constituencies. This fills about half the seats.
* The remaining seats for a party are filled from a pre-sorted party list.

Germany uses Proportional Representation (PR) for its parliaments on all levels, meaning that coalitions are the rule of the day. Most states and the federal level use a mixed-member proportional system: first, the overall result is decided by PR, then for each party the seats are first filled with its first-past-the-post winners of single-member constituencies (this fills about half the seats), with the remaining seats being filled from a pre-sorted party list.

Germany's electoral system, a mixed-member proportional system (usually about half of the members are elected by first-past-the-post from single-member constituencies, while at least half are elected from party lists to ensure overall proportionality) means that coalitions are the rule of the day.

The Piratenpartei (Pirate Party) got 2% in the recent federal election and is the biggest party not in the parliament - it's not yet clear whether they'll stay around for longer. It got in the recent election of Berlin's state diet 9% which makes it the first state diet they can enter.

The Piratenpartei (Pirate Party) got 2% in the recent election and is the biggest party not in the parliament - it's not yet clear whether they'll stay around for longer.

* Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens, colour obvious)- A combination of the old West German Green Party and a collection of GDR civil rights activists, it is the most successful such party in the world. Partnered with the SPD in the Schröder era, the German involvement in the 1999 war against Yugoslavia led to some resignations from the party. The most famous Green politician is former Foreign Minister "Joschka" Fischer, a former Marxist who was witnessed throwing a brick at a policeman during a riot when he was younger, was sworn in as the Hesse Minister of the Environment wearing sneakers (currently at a museum), and famously told the Vice-President of the ''Bundestag'', "''Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch''" ("[[SophisticatedAsHell With respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole]]"). In 2011, the Greens "won" [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg_state_election,_2011 an election for the first time in traditionally-CDU Baden-Württemberg]]; although they were only the second-largest party in the ''Landtag'' after the election (up from third), they were also the only party to gain seats and will be providing the next Minister-President.

The 2009 election resulted in the CDU/CSU and FDP gaining enough seats to form a governing coalition. However both CDU and SPD suffered their worst result in a democratic election ever, while the FDP got far more votes than ever before. However internal conflicts in the government started to arise just a few weeks later, and three months after the election polls showed that support for the FDP had dropped by 75%. Since then, prospects have gotten much, much worse for the government, with the CDU/CSU's poll numbers going into steady decline, although Merkel herself remains fairly popular. If current trends hold--and there is some talk (not much, but some) of having elections well before the October 2013 deadline--the results of the Baden-Württemberg election in 2011 may well prove to be prophetic: the Greens have come within striking distance of the SPD (whose support has been hovering in the 22%-26% range since early 2011)in most recent polls, and even took the lead in one.

* CDU/CSU (Black/Blue): actually a political grouping of two parties, known generally as "The Union", the latter is essentially a Bavarian version of the former and they do not stand against each other, but there are policy differences. The Christlich Demokratische Union (Christian Democratic Union) is a Christian Democratic Party. Not quite the same thing as a conservative party- you will get one or the other in Europe, but not both- it is a non-denominational party, which opposes Turkey entering the EU. Its leader Angela Merkel is the current Chancellor. Chancellor Number 8, she is the first female Chancellor and the first [[EastGermany "Ossie" (former East German)]] in that role. Four other chancellors also were in the CDU: Konrad Adenauer (first chancellor; "the old one", being almost 90 years old when he retired), Ludwig Erhard (the fat one with the cigar; very successful in building up the economy after the war, less successful as chancellor), Kurt Georg Kiesinger (made a grand coalition with the SPD), Helmut Kohl (the really big one, united Germany, favorite target for jokes, parodies, caricatures, and so on- his surname means "cabbage").

* Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens, colour obvious)- A combination of the old West German Green Party and a collection of GDR civil rights activists, it is the most successful such party in the world. Partnered with the SPD in the Schröder era, the German involvement in the 1999 war against Yugoslavia led to some resignations from the party. The most famous Green politician is former Foreign Minister "Joschka" Fischer, a former Marxist who was witnessed throwing a brick at a policeman during a riot when he was younger, was sworn in as the Hesse Minister of the Environment wearing sneakers (currently at a museum), and famously told the Vice-President of the ''Bundestag'', "''Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch''" ("[[SophisticatedAsHell With respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole]]").
* PDS/Die Linke (The Left, Red - or pink, since red is already assigned to the SPD). The old Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ran EastGermany lost most of its old members and renamed itself to PDS. When it eventually merged with the [[StartMyOwn WASG, a small western party consisting mostly of former SPD-members]], it got more popular. They do much better in the former GDR states.

The 2005 election, called after Schröder arranged to deliberately lose a vote of confidence, a controversial act the German Constitutional Court looked at and accepted, resulted in neither the "Black-Yellow" (Union/FDP) or "Red-Green" (SPD/Green) having a majority. With PDS/The Left refusing to play with anyone (or the other way round), the FDP not interested in a "Traffic-Light Coalition" and the Greens not happy about a "Jamaica Coalition" (Union-FDP-Green, their colours are those of the Jamaica flag), the only option was a Grand Coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD. Merkel became ''Bundeskanzlerin''. Schröder left the scene.

The 2009 election resulted in the CDU/CSU and FDP gaining enough seats to form a governing coalition. However both CDU and SPD suffered their worst result in a democratic election ever, while the FDP got far more votes than ever before. However internal conflicts in the government started to arise just a few weeks later, and three months after the election polls showed that support for the FDP had dropped by 75%.

Germany is a federal parliamentary democratic republic. It has 16 states, known as ''Länder''. These are described in TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland.

<small>"The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom."</small>
--GeorgWilhelmFriedrichHegel

With the end of the war, Germany adopted the Grundgesetz ("Basic Law") as a temporary constitution and liked it so much, they kept it after reunification, making only minor revisions.

Germany is a federal parliamentary democratic republic - hence the Federal Republic of Germany.

It has 16 states, known as Länder or Bundesländer, the latter being sometimes preferred since "Land" means country in Germany. These are described in TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland.

These states have their own elected parliaments, all unicameral and all called Landtag (State Diet), as well as a Minister-President, who is elected via the Landtag.

"The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom."

Germany's President, elected via a special convention, is pretty much a ceremonial figure and can safely be ignored.

* PDS/Die Linke (The Left, Red - or pink, since red is already assigned to the SPD). The old Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ran EastGermany lost most of its old members and renamed itself to PDS. When it eventually merged with the WASG, a small western party consisting mostly of former SPD-members, it got more popular. They do much better in the former GDR states.

Germany's electoral system, a proportional Additional System (half elected via "first-past-the-post", half via national lists) means that coalitions are the order of the day.

* The Bundesrat ("Federal Council", nothing to do with RodentsOfUnusualSize or Rodents Of Normal Size), the upper chamber, appointed by the state cabinets and usually composed of senior members of the same (the theory goes that ''states'' are represented in the Bundesrat in the way that countries are represented in the UnitedNations--the same theory, as it happens, that informed the [[AmericanPoliticalSystem United States Senate]] before it started to be directly-elected in 1914). Weaker than the former, but still is required to pass at least 60% of laws.

The 2009 election resulted in the CDU/CSU and FDP gaining enough seats to form a governing coalition and the SPD suffering their worst result in a democratic election ever. Their supporters were rather unhappy about the coalition.