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Germany Explained – The Election System

In this article, we'll look at the German election system, find out why everyone has two votes and explore the wonderfully German way they're translated to seats.

Words we'll learn:

Bundestag, Wahlkreis, Erststimme, Zweitstimme, Direktkandidat, Direktmandat, Überhangmandat, Ausgleichsmandat,...

By: Emanuel| 47 Comments | Updated: February 18, 2025

a flowchart of the German parliamentary election system

Hello everyone,

So seems like many of you really enjoyed the last post about the Wahl-O-Mat, and I actually really enjoyed making it, so I have decided to go “all in” and make this a little election weeks’ special series.
We’ll definitely do a part two of the Wahl-O-Mat, and I think I’ll also do a post on the main German parties.
But today, I’ll  want to talk about

The German Election System

Sounds boring, but it’s actually quite fascinating. I really mean that. Particularly Americans might be surprised as to how complex you can make this stuff. Tactical voting and all that.

So that’s what we’ll talk about today, and because we’re also here to learn German, I’ll do part of this as a “bilingual” post. So I’ll do a paragraph in German, and then give you the English translation. Originally, I also wanted to read out the German sections, but I have a cough, and my voice is all but gone, so it’ll be just text.

But yeah, you don’t only learn about the German election system, you’ll also see all the relevant vocabulary in context.

So if you’re read to jump in, then let’s do it!

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Zuerst mal der Prozess.
Wenn man in Deutschland gemeldet ist und wahlberechtig, bekommt man automatisch einen Brief. Damit und mit seinem Ausweis kann man zum Wahllokal gehen. Oder man kann Briefwahl beantragen, und kriegt seinen Wahlschein nach Hause.
Wir haben KEINE Wahl-Automaten, sondern alles ist mit Papier.

Und wir können direkt mit einer Überraschung anfangen.
Hier ist mein Stimmzettel von der aktuellen Wahl (ich habe schon gewählt):

First, about the process. 
When you are registered in Germany and you’re eligible to vote, you’ll automatically get a letter. With that and your ID you can go to a voting booth. Or you can request mail-in voting, and you’ll get your ballot sent home. 
We do NOT have voting machines, but everything is done with paper.And here, we can start with a surprise.
This is my ballot for the current election (I already voted):

 

 

Wie ihr sehen könnt, haben wir bei der Wahl zum Bundestag (das ist der Name für das Bundesparlament) ZWEI Stimmen!
Wow!! 2-für-1 Special Deal!

Die sogennante Erststimme und die sogenannte Zweitstimme.
Fangen wir mit der Erststimme an.

As you can see, in the election for the German parliament, we have TWO votes. 
Wow, 2-for-1 deal!
The so-called Erststimme (“first vote”) and the so-called Zweitstimme (“second vote”).
Let’s start with the Erststimme.

“die Erststimme” – explained

Einige von euch denken jetzt vielleicht, dass man mit der Erststimme den Kanzler oder die Kanzlerin wählt. Aber das ist nicht so. Das macht der Bundestag.

Some of you might be thinking that we’re electing the chancellor with the “first vote”. But that’s not the case. That is done by the Bundestag (parliament).

Um zu verstehen, was die Erststimme ist, müssen wir verstehen, was die sogenannten Wahlkreise sind.
Deutschland ist in 299 Wahlkreise eingeteilt. Das sind im Prinzip Regionen, die in etwa alle eine ähnliche Einwohnerzahl haben.
Diese Unterteilung hilft zum einen, die Wahl zu organisieren.
Viel wichtiger ist aber die Grundidee, dass jeder Wahlkreis, also jede “Region” Deutschlands im Bundesttag vertreten ist.
Und genau da kommt die Erststimme ins Spiel.

In order to understand what the Erststimme is, we must understand what the so-called “Wahlkreise” (election districts) are.
Germany is divided into 299 election districts. Those are basically regions that all have a similar number of inhabitants. 
On the one hand, this sectioning helps with organizing the election. 
Way more important though is the underlying idea, that every election district, so every “region” of Germany, is represented in the Bundestag. 
And that’s where the Erststimme comes into play.

In jedem Wahlkreis gibt es sogenannte Direktkandidaten. Die großen Parteien haben in jedem Wahlkreis einen Direktkandidaten, aber es gibt auch kleine Regionalparteien, die vielleicht nur in ein paar Regionen Direktkandidaten haben. Und man kann auch Direktkandidat sein, OHNE in einer Partei zu sein. Das kommt selten vor, ist aber möglich.

In every Wahlkreis, there are so-called direct candidates. The big parties have one direct candidate in every Wahlkreis, but there are also small regional parties that might just have a direct candidate in some regions. 
And you can be a direct candidate WITHOUT being in a party. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s possible.

Mit der Erststimme wählen die Leute dann die Direktkandidaten, und wer die meisten Stimmen in einem Wahlkreis hat, gewinnt, und kommt sicher ins Parlament. Oder wir sollten sagen, fast sicher.
Denn da hat sich 2023 was wichtiges geändert, aber dazu gleich mehr.

With the Erststimme, the people vote for the direct candidates, and whoever gets the most votes in a Wahlkreis wins and is guaranteed to go to parliament.
Or we should say “almost guaranteed”. 
Because something important  changed there in 2023, but more on that in a bit.

“die Zweitstimme” explained

Die Zweitstimme ist die Stimme für die Partei. Das Ergebnis sind die Prozente, die die Parteien bei der Wahl bekommen, und diese Prozente bestimmen, wie viele Sitze die Partei im Bundestag bekommt.
Welche Parteien in einem Wahlkreis auf dem Wahlzettel stehen, hängt vom Wahlkreis ab. Es gibt Regionalparteien, die nur in einem Bundesland auf dem Zettel sind. Wie zum Beispiel die CSU, die es nur in Bayern gibt, die da aber immer fast 50% kriegt.

The “second vote” is the vote for the party. The result are the percentages that the parties get in the election, and the percentages determine how many seats a party gets in the Bundestag. 
Which parties are on the Ballot in a Wahlkreis depends on the Wahlkreis. There are regional parties that are only on the ballot in one state for instance. Like the CSU for instance which only exists in Bavaria but which usually gets 50% of the vote. 

Im Prinzip gibt es in Deutschland sehr viele Parteien, aber die meisten davon haben KEINEN Sitz im Bundestag, obwohl sie mehr als 0% bekommen.
Der Grund dafür ist die sogenannt 5%-Hürde. Parteien, die weniger als 5% bekommen “sind raus”. Ansonsten wäre im Parlament zuviel Chaos. Das ist eine Lehre aus der Weimarer Republik. Je mehr Parteien es gibt, desto schwerer ist es, eine Mehrheit zu bilden.

In principle, there are many parties in Germany, but most of them have NO seat in the Bundestag, even though they get more than 0%. 
The reason for that is the so-called 5%-hurdle. Parties that get less than 5% “are out”. Otherwise, there would be too much chaos in parliament. This is a lesson from the Weimarer Republic. The more parties there are, the more difficult it is to form a majority.

Aber es gibt eine sehr wichtige Ausnahme. Wenn eine Partei 3 Direktkandidaten gewinnt, also in drei Wahlkreisen, dann KOMMT sie in den Bundestag und bekommt Sitze entsprechend ihrer Prozent (oder mindestens 3).
Das kommt tatsächlich häufig vor. Die Partei Die Linke zum Beispiel ist oft unter 5%, gewinnt aber normalerweise drei Wahlkreise (zwei davon in Berlin).
Die Idee hinter diesem System ist, dass eine Partei, die in drei Regionen so wichtig und relevant ist, dass sie das Direktmandat gewinnt, auch im Bundestag vertreten sein sollte. (crazy sentence ;)

But there is an important exception. If a party wins three direct candidates,, so in three election districts, they DO get to enter parliament and they’ll get seats proportional to their percentage (or at least 3).
This actually happens often. The party Die Linke for example is often below 5% but usually wins three districts (two of which in Berlin).
The idea behind this system is that a party that is so important and relevant in three regions that it wins the direct vote should be represented in the parliament. 
But there is one important exception. If a party wins three direct candidates, so in three districts, then it does get to enter parliament and it’ll get seats according to its percentage (or at least 3).

Der Bundestag hat theoretisch erstmal 598 Sitze. 299 für die Direktkandidaten, und 299 die von den sogenannten Listen der Parteien gefüllt werden. 
Die Liste ist eine Liste von Leuten, die die Partei ins Parlament schicken will, und sie muss VOR der Wahl fertig sein, damit man auch weiß, wer da potentiell ins Parlament kommt.
Wenn eine Partei zum Beispiel eine Liste von 200 Leuten hat, und Anspruch auf 50 Listen-Sitzen, dann kommen die ersten 50 von der Liste in den Bundestag.

The Bundestag technically starts out with 598 seats. 299 for the direct candidates and then 299 more to be filled from the sol called lists of the parties. 
The list is a list of people that the party intends to send to parliament, and it has to be done BEFORE the election, so you know who potentially gets to sit in parliament. 
If a party for example has a list of 200 people, and is entitled to 50 list-seats, denn the first 50 people from the list go to parliament. 

 

***

Cool, so now you know the basics and are ready for the complex schemes that happen to actually determine who is in the parliament.
And I’ll switch to English only for that because it’s quite complicated and I don’t feel like explaining it in two languages :)

Parliament Seat Count  – Are the Germans Crazy?

Now, this whole scheme about the lists is actually done on state level. So in each state, the party will have a list, and each state has a predetermined share of seats to fill in parliament depending on how many people live in that state.

So far so good.
Now, I just said that the number of seats in Bundestag is 598 in theory. 299 for the direct candidates and 299 for the lists.
Well… currently, it has 736 seats.
Why is that?

I’ll simplify this a bit, but in essence what happens pretty much regularly is that a party wins MORE direct candidates in a state than it is entitled to seats from that state.
Let’s say the FUN-party wins 10% of the vote in the state Bavaria, which means 10 seats in parliament (these are made up numbers of course… a fun party wouldn’t even win 1% in Bavaria).
But it wins 15 direct candidates in Bavaria. These 15 people do get to go to parliament, which means the parliament is now bigger than it should be AND the party basically ends up with 5 more seats than it actually had percentage of the vote. These 5 seats are called Überhangmandate (overhang mandate). You don’t need to remember that, but you might hear it in election talk shows.

Now, people were of course aware of this and used it extensively to do tactical voting. So you vote for the direct candidate of the FUN-party for instance in your district, knowing they’ll definitely get in, and then you give your Zweitstimme to your SECOND favorite party, to boost their percentages.  This is called Vote splitting and parties even low-key campaigned and schemed on this. Like… in a district, two “friend” parties would say “Okay, you’ll get all my first votes and I’ll get all your second votes – win win.” giving the combined block a bigger share of the seats.

This was how it was done till 2009, when the Bundesverfassungsgericht (supreme court) ruled that the percentages have to be “followed”.
So then, they introduced the so-called Ausgleichsmandate (balancing mandates).
In our case, since the FUN-Party got more seats than it should, the other parties proportionally ALSO get more seats, basically, until those 15 seats that the FUN-Party won equate 10% of the seats that they’re entitled to based on the Zweitstimme.
So the other parties get to send some extra people.
And since this is done state by state, you also have to equalize across states. Like… if the number of seats Bavaria gets was 50, but is now 55, the number of seats of the other states has to be increased as well.
It’s quite complicated math, honestly :).
And this happens so much, that the Bundestag is now  736 seats instead of 598.

This costs tax payer money and it really doesn’t add anything functionally, so the did a reform AGAIN in 2023 and limited the number of max seats to 670.
So we’ll still do this “fill her up” stuff, but at some point it just stops. And that means that not all direct candidates might end up in parliament. So maybe only 12 of the 15 direct candidates that the FUN-party won, will actually be present. And that’s decided based on which direct winner had the worst results. Those “get to stay home”.

This goes against the original idea that EVERY Wahlkreis is represented with at least one person. Some Wahlkreise might end up not being represented and I am pretty sure that, after this election, lawsuits will follow and the system might have to be changed yet again, depending on what the federal court says.

You can still vote tactically though, as you can check how the direct candidates are polling in your Wahlkreis and if there’s a tight race between one that you’re okay with and one that you REALLY hate while your favorite has zero chance, you’ll vote for the one you’re okay with, even though you’d never actually vote for that party.
This is relevant in two districts of Berlin where the direct candidates of  Die Linke and AfD are in a super tight race, so here, a couple hundred people can actually cause a solid difference in the Bundestag.

Like I said, this is the first election we’re having with this new seat cap, so no one really knows yet, how the system will end up influencing the result. There’s a consensus that it’s negative for CDU/CSU, as they usually win a LOT of direct candidates with not as much percentage to back it up, but we’ll see.

I don’t know what my opinion is on this, to be honest.
I like all the core ideas of having two votes and having all districts represented and all states balanced, but at the same time, I don’t think we need over 700 people in parliament. It’s expensive for no gain.

I’d love to hear what you think about this and if you could even follow :).
If not, don’t worry. Most Germans don’t really know in detail how this stuff works, either. It just seems so boring, but at the same time, I personally love vote splitting and tactical voting. Makes the whole thing way more interesting and a single candidate in a single district running a banger campaign can really make a difference.

Anyway, that’s it for today.
Let me know all your questions and thoughts in the comments, and also, let me know, if you have similar “complexities” in your country. Maybe it’s widespread and I’m not even aware of it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this and I’ll be back in a few days with more :)

** Vocab **

  • der Bundestag – the German paliament
  • der Wahlkreis  – the election district
  • der Direktkandidat, die Direktkandidatin – the direct candidate in a district (winner gets to go to parliament)
  • das Überhangmandat – seat beyond your percentage, that you got because you won many direct candidates
  • das Ausgleichsmandat – extra seat you get because someone else has more direct seats than they should based on percentages
  • die 5%-Hürde – the 5% hurdle

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Germany Explained – The Election System - Key Questions

If you're registered and eligible you'll get a letter telling you where to vote. Bring that letter and your ID to your polling place or request mail-in voting called 'Briefwahl' and you'll get your ballot at home. Everything is on paper, no voting machines.

The 'Erststimme' is for a direct candidate in your 'Wahlkreis' and the winner of each district gets a seat in the 'Bundestag'. The 'Zweitstimme' is the party vote and decides the overall percentage of seats each party receives.

Parties normally need at least the '5%-Hürde' to get seats from the party vote. The exception is if a party wins three direct 'Direktkandidat' seats then it enters the 'Bundestag' even if it is under five percent.

When a party wins more direct seats than its share from the party vote those extra seats are called 'Überhangmandat'. To keep things proportional other parties get extra 'Ausgleichsmandat' seats which inflates the parliament size. A 2023 reform set a cap at 670 seats so the inflation is limited and in some cases some direct winners might not get seats.

Yes people do tactical voting and vote splitting by giving their 'Erststimme' to a direct candidate they prefer and their 'Zweitstimme' to a different party. It matters in tight districts and can change which parties get more seats overall.

'Bundestag' the German parliament, 'Wahlkreis' election district, 'Erststimme' first vote for a direct candidate, 'Zweitstimme' second vote for a party, 'Direktkandidat' direct candidate, 'Überhangmandat' extra seat from winning extra direct seats, 'Ausgleichsmandat' balancing seat added to restore proportionality, '5%-Hürde' five percent threshold, 'Briefwahl' mail-in voting.