History UsefulNotes / PoliticalSystemOfGermany

* '''Alternative für Deutschland''' (Blue and Red): A new center-right party, founded only in 2013, as a response to the ongoing Eurocrisis. They're generally considered a Eurosceptic party, though they'll remind you that they're not [[InsistentTerminology anti-EU, just anti-Euro]]. As can be guessed, they're pretty much a single-issue party: get rid of the Euro. In the 2013 election they received 4.7% of the vote, just under the 5% threshold required to get seats. They're supporters of the right-wing organisation PEGIDA (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, "Patriotic Europeans againt the Islamification of the Western World"). During the migrant crisis in 2015 they gained much support, a survey from October 2015 shows they would enter the Bundestag with 6% of votes.

* '''NPD''' (Brown): Had been a far-right party since its formation in the 1960s as a coalition of several smaller ultraconservative and nationalist parties and was elected very rarely. Around the last decade it became worse than other such parties by its apparent alliance with violent Neo-Nazis. An attempt to declare it anticonstitutional (which would lead to the dissolution of the party and prevention of attempts to restart it with another name) in 2003 failed because the Constitutional Court did not see it proven beyond reasonable doubt that the undercover agents and informers of the police were not responsible for the violence (but the party's reaction to the trial suggested that the informers worked for the party and fooled the police rather than the other way around).

He also has the minor power to veto any law.

There are two notable exceptions to PR, the Five Percent Threshold and Overhang Seats. Both are under increased scrutiny by the Constitutional Court ('''BVG''' in German).
* '''Five Percent Threshold''': to reach full representation under PR, a party has to get 5% of the vote, or win a number of constituencies (1 on state level, 3 on federal). Otherwise they get only seats for won constituencies. The BVG basically only tolerates the 5% threshold on state and federal level, hoping it provides for stable governments, but struck it down for local and in 2011 for EU Parliament elections. If it had declared the 5% threshold void for the EP elections in 2009, small parties would have got 8 of Germany's 99 seats.
* '''Overhang Seats''': these happen in a mixed-member proportional system (see below) if a party gets more seats from constituencies than it would receive overall. This happens more often in recent years. Current law is that these constituency winners keep their seat, so their party gets stronger than under PR. In Schleswig-Holstein, this changed the winner, so the state had to change their law and call early elections. The federal election law also had to be changed, but the recently changed law still doesn't solve the problem, so the BVG may decide to rewrite the election law for the 2013 federal election (it avoided this last time, and would only make the minimal changes it regards necessary if it would rewrite).

* '''Alternativ für Deutschland''' (Blue and Red): A new center-right party, founded only in 2013, as a response to the ongoing Eurocrisis. They're generally considered a Eurosceptic party, though they'll remind you that they're not [[InsistentTerminology anti-EU, just anti-Euro]]. As can be guessed, they're pretty much a single-issue party: get rid of the Euro. In the 2013 election they received 4.7% of the vote, just under the 5% threshold required to get seats. They're supporters of the right-wing organisation PEGIDA (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, "Patriotic Europeans againt the Islamification of the Western World"). During the migrant crisis in 2015 they gained much support, a survey from October 2015 shows they would enter the Bundestag with 6% of votes.

* '''Alternativ für Deutschland''' (Blue and Red): A new center-right party, founded only in 2013, as a response to the ongoing Eurocrisis. They're generally considered a Eurosceptic party, though they'll remind you that they're not [[InsistentTerminology anti-EU, just anti-Euro]]. As can be guessed, they're pretty much a single-issue party: get rid of the Euro. In the 2013 election they received 4.7% of the vote, just under the 5% threshold required to get seats. Time will tell whether [=AfD=] can become a lasting party or if they'll fizzle out once the Eurocrisis starts to die down.

* '''Die Linke''' (Red, or Pink since the SPD already took Red): The Left Party is a recent merger of the relatively new '''WASG''' (founded by disgruntled Social Democrats) and the '''PDS''' (Party of Democratic Socialism). The PDS in turn was once the Socialist Unity Party (''Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands'', SED)[[note]]Which was itself a forced merger of the SPD and the KPD (''Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands'', the Communist Party of Germany), mandated by the Soviet occupation authorities in 1946[[/note]] that ran EastGermany, but lost most of its old members when it lost power. With the merger, former SPD chairman Lafontaine joined in, resulting in the party becoming more popular. The Left Party is strongest in the Eastern states and Lafontaine's home state of Saarland.

* '''Die Linke''' (Red, or Pink since the SPD already took Red): The Left Party is a recent merger of the relatively new '''WASG''' (founded by disgruntled Social Democrats) and the '''PDS''' (Party of Democratic Socialism). The PDS in turn was once the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ran EastGermany, but lost most of its old members when it lost power. With the merger, former SPD chairman Lafontaine joined in, resulting in the party becoming more popular. The Left Party is strongest in the Eastern states and Lafontaine's home state of Saarland.

* '''NPD''' (Brown): Had been a far-right party since its formation in the 1960s as a coalition of several smaller ultraconservative and nationalist parties and was elected very rarely. Around the last decade it became worse than other such parties by its apparent alliance with violent Neo-Nazis. An attempt to declare it anticonstitutional (which would lead to the dissolution of the party and prevention of attempts to restart it with another name) in 2003 failed because the Constitutional Court did not see it proven beyond reasonable doubt that the undercover agents used by the police were not responsible for the violence (but the party's reaction to the trial suggested that the undercover agents worked for the party and fooled the police rather than the other way around).

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

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

Most state parliaments are called ''Landtag'' (State Diet), and their government consists of ministers headed by a Minister-President. The exceptions to this rule are the three "city-states" UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}}, Bremen and {{Berlin}}. There, the government is called ''Senat'', its members ''Senatoren'', and its head ''Bürgermeister'' (Mayor) in one form or another. In Hamburg and Bremen, the parliament is called ''Bürgerschaft'' (Citizenry), while in Berlin it's called ''Abgeordnetenhaus'' (House of Representatives).

For a more detailed look at the party systems in Germany after WorldWarTwo, see UsefulNotes/GermanPoliticalPartiesAfterWorldWarII

Germany has five major political parties in the Bundestag, with their own traditional colours, and their most important politicians ([[TheChancellorsOfGermany Federal Chancellors]] and [[ThePresidentsOfGermany Federal Presidents]] are only named here):

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

[[quoteright:249:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bndnis_90_-_die_grnen_logo_svg_1011.png]]

* '''SPD''' (Red): the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Once an unambiguously centre-left party, they gradually scrapped many of the Socialist ideas. Governs several states, and is currently the small partner in the Merkel government. The SPD is the oldest party in Germany and probably the most influential. The Precursors of the SPD were the ''Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland (SDAP)'' (Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany) and the ''Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein'' (General German Worker's Union) which united in 1875 to become the ''Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland'' (SAPD) (Socialist Workers' Party of Germany). The founding fathers were August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. Under Bismarck, it was banned from 1878 to 1890 by the "Sozialistengesetz" (Socialist Act). After reunification in 1890 it took the current name ''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland'' (SPD).

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

* '''SPD''' (Red): the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Once an unambiguously centre-left party, they gradually scrapped many of the Socialist ideas. Governs several states, and is currently the small Partner in a Koalition with Merkel. The SPD is the oldest Party in Germany and probably the most influential. The Precursors of th SPD were the ''Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland (SDAP)'' (Sozialdemokratic Workers' Party of Germany) and the ''Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein'' (General German Worker's Union) witch united somewere in 1875's to become the ''Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland'' (SAPD) (Socialist workers Party of Germany). The founding fathers were August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. Under Bismark, it was banned from 1878 to 1890 by the Solzialistengesetz ''Socialist Act''. After reunification in 1890 it took the current name ''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland'' (SPD).

* '''SPD''' (Red): Social-Democrat party. Once a real left party, they gradually scrapped the Socialist ideas. Governs several states, and is currently the small Partner in a Koalition with Merkel. The SPD is the oldest Party in Germany and probably the most influential. The Precursors of th SPD were the ''Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland (SDAP)'' (Sozialdemokratic Workers' Party of Germany) and the ''Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein'' (General German Worker's Union) witch united somewere in 1875's to become the ''Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland'' (SAPD) (Socialist workers Party of Germany). The founding fathers were August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. Under Bismark, it was banned from 1878 to 1890 by the Solzialistengesetz ''Socialist Act''. After reunification in 1890 it took the current name ''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland'' (SPD).

* '''FDP''' (Yellow or Blue-Yellow): Free Democratic Party, a liberal party (for those from the USA: libertarian) with pro-civil-rights and pro-business views. Currently mostly coalition junior partners to the CDU/CSU. In the 2013 election, they didn't reach the 5-percent hurdle and is thus not in the Bundestag, marking the first time since the inception of the party where it isn't part of it.

* '''Alternativ für Deutschland''' (Blue and Red): A new party, founded only in 2013, as a response to the ongoing Eurocrisis. They're generally considered a Eurosceptic party, though they'll remind you that they're not [[InsistentTerminology anti-EU, just anti-Euro]]. As can be guessed, they're pretty much a single-issue party: get rid of the Euro. In the 2013 election they received 4.7% of the vote, just under the 5% threshold required to get seats. Time will tell whether [=AfD=] can become a lasting party or if they'll fizzle out once the Eurocrisis starts to die down.

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

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

'''Country Governments'''

All countries have their own elected unicameral parliaments, which elects the head of government, who then forms the government.

Most country parliaments are called ''Landtag'' (Country Diet), and their government consists of ministers headed by a Minister-President. The exceptions to this rule are the three "city-countries" UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}}, Bremen and {{Berlin}}. There, the government is called ''Senat'', its members ''Senatoren'', and its head ''Bürgermeister'' (Mayor) in one form or another. In Hamburg and Bremen, the parliament is called ''Bürgerschaft'' (Citizenry), while in Berlin it's called ''Abgeordnetenhaus'' (House of Representatives).

* The Bundesrat ("Federal Council", nothing to do with RodentsOfUnusualSize, Rodents Of Normal Size, or Rodents Of Any Size Whatsoever), the upper chamber, appointed by the country cabinets and usually composed of senior members of the same (the theory goes that ''countries'' are represented in the Bundesrat in the way that countries are represented in the UsefulNotes/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.

* '''Five Percent Threshold''': to reach full representation under PR, a party has to get 5% of the vote, or win a number of constituencies (1 on country level, 3 on federal). Otherwise they get only seats for won constituencies. The BVG basically only tolerates the 5% threshold on country and federal level, hoping it provides for stable governments, but struck it down for local and in 2011 for EU Parliament elections. If it had declared the 5% threshold void for the EP elections in 2009, small parties would have got 8 of Germany's 99 seats.
* '''Overhang Seats''': these happen in a mixed-member proportional system (see below) if a party gets more seats from constituencies than it would receive overall. This happens more often in recent years. Current law is that these constituency winners keep their seat, so their party gets stronger than under PR. In Schleswig-Holstein, this changed the winner, so the country had to change their law and call early elections. The federal election law also had to be changed, but the recently changed law still doesn't solve the problem, so the BVG may decide to rewrite the election law for the 2013 federal election (it avoided this last time, and would only make the minimal changes it regards necessary if it would rewrite).

Most countries and the federal level use a '''mixed-member proportional''' system:

In Bremen and Hamburg, citizen initiatives forced a change to open lists in country elections. More initiatives are planned in other countries.

* '''CDU/CSU''' (Black, CSU also Blue-White for Bavaria): actually two parties, known generally as "The Union", with the Christian Democratic Union existing in all countries except Bavaria, and the Christian Social Union only in Bavaria, Germany's second largest country. Both are big-tent center-right parties, with the CSU being more socially conservative. Especially the CDU favors more integration of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion, but is unwilling to help much without others agreeing to such integration.

* '''SPD''' (Red): Social-Democrat party. Once a real left party, they gradually scrapped the Socialist ideas. Governs several countries, and is currently the small Partner in a Koalition with Merkel. The SPD is the oldest Party in Germany and probably the most influential. The Precursors of th SPD were the ''Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland (SDAP)'' (Sozialdemokratic Workers' Party of Germany) and the ''Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein'' (General German Worker's Union) witch united somewere in 1875's to become the ''Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland'' (SAPD) (Socialist workers Party of Germany). The founding fathers were August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. Under Bismark, it was banned from 1878 to 1890 by the Solzialistengesetz ''Socialist Act''. After reunification in 1890 it took the current name ''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland'' (SPD).

** Guido Westerwelle: Leader of the party 2001-2011, Vice-Chancellor 2009-2011, and Foreign Minister 2009-present, he attempted to follow Genscher's model. It didn't really work: he was blamed for the FDP's massive losses in the 2011 country elections, and was forced to resign as Vice-Chancellor and party chief. His record as FM isn't much better, as he's been criticized by some in his own ministry for being too cautious and too inexperienced at foreign affairs. On the bright side, he's the highest-ranking openly gay man in German history.

** Joseph "Joschka" Fischer: evolved from brick-throwing Marxist in the 1960s to country environment minister in Hesse in the 1980s to foreign minister under Schröder. Famously told the Vice-President of the ''Bundestag'' in the 1980s, "''Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch''" ("[[SophisticatedAsHell With respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole]]"). Now still is one of the most popular and respected politicians, across party lines, occasionally tossed around as a possible presidential candidate.

* '''Die Linke''' (Red, or Pink since the SPD already took Red): The Left Party is a recent merger of the relatively new '''WASG''' (founded by disgruntled Social Democrats) and the '''PDS''' (Party of Democratic Socialism). The PDS in turn was once the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ran EastGermany, but lost most of its old members when it lost power. With the merger, former SPD chairman Lafontaine joined in, resulting in the party becoming more popular. The Left Party is strongest in the Eastern countries and Lafontaine's home country Saarland.

* '''Piraten''' (Orange): The Pirate Party is very young, its main demands are more personal liberties, transparency, democracy and social equality. Got 2% in federal and country elections until they reached 9% in Berlin in September 2011; now country and federal polls show them entering most parliaments if elections were held now. But it's not clear yet whether their current strength is the result of real support or just protest against the others.
* '''Freie Wähler''' (Blue, sometimes Orange): Free Voters are usually local independent centrist or center-right groups that formed to run for local elections. Country or federal organisations used to be only for coordination, but 2008 they won 10% in Bavaria's country election and also ran in the EU Parliament elections 2009 (where they would have won 2 of Germany's 99 seats if the 5%-threshold had been struck down by then).

** Three Reichskanzler (Imperial Chancellors) in Weimar: Gustav Bauer (1919-1920), Herrmann Müller (1920),Hermann Müller (1928-1930)

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

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

'''State Governments'''

All states have their own elected unicameral parliaments, which elects the head of government, who then forms the government.

Most state parliaments are called ''Landtag'' (State Diet), and their government consists of ministers headed by a Minister-President. The exceptions to this rule are the three "city-states" UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}}, Bremen and {{Berlin}}. There, the government is called ''Senat'', its members ''Senatoren'', and its head ''Bürgermeister'' (Mayor) in one form or another. In Hamburg and Bremen, the parliament is called ''Bürgerschaft'' (Citizenry), while in Berlin it's called ''Abgeordnetenhaus'' (House of Representatives).

* The Bundesrat ("Federal Council", nothing to do with RodentsOfUnusualSize, Rodents Of Normal Size, or Rodents Of Any Size Whatsoever), 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 UsefulNotes/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.

* '''Five Percent Threshold''': to reach full representation under PR, a party has to get 5% of the vote, or win a number of constituencies (1 on state level, 3 on federal). Otherwise they get only seats for won constituencies. The BVG basically only tolerates the 5% threshold on state and federal level, hoping it provides for stable governments, but struck it down for local and in 2011 for EU Parliament elections. If it had declared the 5% threshold void for the EP elections in 2009, small parties would have got 8 of Germany's 99 seats.
* '''Overhang Seats''': these happen in a mixed-member proportional system (see below) if a party gets more seats from constituencies than it would receive overall. This happens more often in recent years. Current law is that these constituency winners keep their seat, so their party gets stronger than under PR. In Schleswig-Holstein, this changed the winner, so the state had to change their law and call early elections. The federal election law also had to be changed, but the recently changed law still doesn't solve the problem, so the BVG may decide to rewrite the election law for the 2013 federal election (it avoided this last time, and would only make the minimal changes it regards necessary if it would rewrite).

Most states and the federal level use a '''mixed-member proportional''' system:

In Bremen and Hamburg, citizen initiatives forced a change to open lists in state elections. More initiatives are planned in other states.

* '''CDU/CSU''' (Black, CSU also Blue-White for Bavaria): actually two parties, known generally as "The Union", with the Christian Democratic Union existing in all states except Bavaria, and the Christian Social Union only in Bavaria, Germany's second largest state. Both are big-tent center-right parties, with the CSU being more socially conservative. Especially the CDU favors more integration of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion, but is unwilling to help much without others agreeing to such integration.

* '''SPD''' (Red): Social-Democrat party. Once a real left party, they gradually scrapped the Socialist ideas. Governs several states, and is currently the main federal opposition.
** Three Federal Chancellors: Willy Brandt 1969-74, Helmut Schmidt 1974-82 and Gerhard Schröder 1998-2005.
** Two Federal Presidents: Gustav Heinemann 1969-74 and Johannes Rau 1999-2004

** Guido Westerwelle: Leader of the party 2001-2011, Vice-Chancellor 2009-2011, and Foreign Minister 2009-present, he attempted to follow Genscher's model. It didn't really work: he was blamed for the FDP's massive losses in the 2011 state elections, and was forced to resign as Vice-Chancellor and party chief. His record as FM isn't much better, as he's been criticized by some in his own ministry for being too cautious and too inexperienced at foreign affairs. On the bright side, he's the highest-ranking openly gay man in German history.

** Joseph "Joschka" Fischer: evolved from brick-throwing Marxist in the 1960s to state environment minister in Hesse in the 1980s to foreign minister under Schröder. Famously told the Vice-President of the ''Bundestag'' in the 1980s, "''Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch''" ("[[SophisticatedAsHell With respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole]]"). Now still is one of the most popular and respected politicians, across party lines, occasionally tossed around as a possible presidential candidate.

* '''Die Linke''' (Red, or Pink since the SPD already took Red): The Left Party is a recent merger of the relatively new '''WASG''' (founded by disgruntled Social Democrats) and the '''PDS''' (Party of Democratic Socialism). The PDS in turn was once the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ran EastGermany, but lost most of its old members when it lost power. With the merger, former SPD chairman Lafontaine joined in, resulting in the party becoming more popular. The Left Party is strongest in the Eastern states and Lafontaine's home state Saarland.

* '''Piraten''' (Orange): The Pirate Party is very young, its main demands are more personal liberties, transparency, democracy and social equality. Got 2% in federal and state elections until they reached 9% in Berlin in September 2011; now state and federal polls show them entering most parliaments if elections were held now. But it's not clear yet whether their current strength is the result of real support or just protest against the others.
* '''Freie Wähler''' (Blue, sometimes Orange): Free Voters are usually local independent centrist or center-right groups that formed to run for local elections. State or federal organisations used to be only for coordination, but 2008 they won 10% in Bavaria's state election and also ran in the EU Parliament elections 2009 (where they would have won 2 of Germany's 99 seats if the 5%-threshold had been struck down by then).

* '''Alternativ für Deutschland''' (Blue and Red): A new party, founded only in 2013, as a response to the ongoing Eurocrisis. They're generally considered a Eurosceptic party, though they'll remind you that they're not [[InsistentTerminology anti-EU, just anti-Euro]]. As can be guessed, they're pretty much a single-issue party: get rid of the Euro. In the 2013 election they received 4.7% of the vote, just under the 5% threshold required to get seats. Time will tell whether AfD can become a lasting party or if they'll fizzle out once the Eurocrisis starts to die down.

* '''FDP''' (Yellow or Blue-Yellow): Free Democratic Party, a liberal party (for those from the USA: libertarian) with pro-civil-rights and pro-business views. Currently mostly coalition junior partners to the CDU/CSU.

There are two notable exceptions to PR, the Five Percent Threshold and Overhang Seats. Both are under increased scrutiny by the Constitutional Court ('''BVerfG''' in German).

There are two notable exceptions to PR, the Five Percent Threshold and Overhang Seats. Both are under increased scrutiny by the Constitutional Court ('''BVG''' in German).

* '''CDU/CSU''' (Black, CSU also Blue-White for Bavaria): actually two parties, known generally as "The Union", with the Christian Democratic Union existing in all states except Bavaria, and the Christian Social Union only in Bavaria, Germany's second largest state. Both are big-tent center-right parties, with the CSU being more socially conservative. Especially the CDU favors more integration of the EuropeanUnion, but is unwilling to help much without others agreeing to such integration.