Odenwald (electoral district)

Odenwald is an electoral constituency (German: Wahlkreis) represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 186. It is located in southern Hesse, comprising the district of Odenwaldkreis and eastern parts of the districts of Darmstadt-Dieburg and Landkreis Offenbach.

186 Odenwald
Electoral district for the Bundestag
Odenwald in 2025
State	Hesse
Population	323,500 (2019)
Electorate	233,901 (2021)
Major settlements	Rodgau Rödermark Seligenstadt
Area	1,115.1 km2
Current electoral district
Created	1949
Party	SPD
Member	Jens Zimmermann
Elected	2021

Odenwald was created for the inaugural 1949 federal election. Since 2021, it has been represented by Jens Zimmermann of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Geography

Odenwald is located in southern Hesse. As of the 2021 federal election, it comprises the entirety of the Odenwaldkreis district as well as the municipalities of Babenhausen, Dieburg, Fischbachtal, Groß-Bieberau, Groß-Umstadt, Groß-Zimmern, Otzberg, Reinheim, and Schaafheim from the Darmstadt-Dieburg district and the municipalities of Hainburg, Mainhausen, Rodgau, Rödermark, and Seligenstadt from the Landkreis Offenbach district.

History

Odenwald was created in 1949, then known as Dieburg. It acquired its current name in the 1980 election. In the 1949 election, it was Hesse constituency 21 in the numbering system. From 1953 through 1976, it was number 146. From 1980 through 1998, it was number 144. In the 2002 and 2005 elections, it was number 188. In the 2009 through 2021 elections, it was number 187. From the 2025 election, it has been number 186.

Originally, the constituency comprised the districts of Dieburg and Erbach. In the 1965 through 1972 elections, it comprised the districts of Dieburg and Erbach as well as the municipalities of Dietzenbach, Dreieichenhain, Dudenhofen, Froschhausen, Götzenhain, Hainhausen, Hainstadt, Jügesheim, Klein-Auheim, Klein-Krotzenburg, Klein-Welzheim, Mainflingen, Offenthal, Rembrücken, Seligenstadt, Steinheim am Main, Weiskirchen, and Zellhausen from the Landkreis Offenbach district. In the 1976 through 1994 elections, it acquired a configuration very similar to its current borders, but including the municipalities of Dietzenbach from the Landkreis Offenbach district and Eppertshausen and Münster (Hessen) from the Darmstadt-Dieburg district. In the 1994 election, it lost the municipality of Dietzenbach. In the 2002 election, it lost the municipalities of Eppertshausen and Münster (Hessen).

Election	No.	Name	Borders
1949	21	Dieburg	Dieburg district Erbach district
1953	146
1957
1961
1965			Dieburg district Erbach district Landkreis Offenbach district (only Dietzenbach, Dreieichenhain, Dudenhofen, Froschhausen, Götzenhain, Hainhausen, Hainstadt, Jügesheim, Klein-Auheim, Klein-Krotzenburg, Klein-Welzheim, Mainflingen, Offenthal, Rembrücken, Seligenstadt, Steinheim am Main, Weiskirchen, and Zellhausen municipalities)
1969
1972
1976			Odenwaldkreis district Darmstadt-Dieburg district (only Babenhausen, Dieburg, Eppertshausen, Fischbachtal, Groß-Bieberau, Groß-Umstadt, Groß-Zimmern, Münster (Hessen), Otzberg, Reinheim, and Schaafheim municipalities) Landkreis Offenbach district (only Dietzenbach, Hainburg, Mainhausen, Rodgau, Rödermark, and Seligenstadt municipalities)
1980	144	Odenwald
1983
1987
1990
1994			Odenwaldkreis district Darmstadt-Dieburg district (only Babenhausen, Dieburg, Eppertshausen, Fischbachtal, Groß-Bieberau, Groß-Umstadt, Groß-Zimmern, Münster (Hessen), Otzberg, Reinheim, and Schaafheim municipalities) Landkreis Offenbach district (only Hainburg, Mainhausen, Rodgau, Rödermark, and Seligenstadt municipalities)
1998
2002	188		Odenwaldkreis district Darmstadt-Dieburg district (only Babenhausen, Dieburg, Fischbachtal, Groß-Bieberau, Groß-Umstadt, Groß-Zimmern, Otzberg, Reinheim, and Schaafheim municipalities) Landkreis Offenbach district (only Hainburg, Mainhausen, Rodgau, Rödermark, and Seligenstadt municipalities)
2005
2009	187
2013
2017
2021
2025	186

Members

The constituency was first represented by Heinrich Ritzel of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1949 to 1965. He was succeeded by fellow SPD member Willi Bäuerle from 1965 to 1976. Heinrich Klein of the SPD then served two terms as representative before Alexander Warrikoff of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won the constituency in 1983. He served until 1994, and was succeeded by Wolfgang Steiger for a single term. Adelheid D. Tröscher was elected for the SPD in 1998 and served until 2002, followed by fellow SPD member Erika Ober until 2005. Patricia Lips was elected in 2005, and re-elected in 2009, 2013, and 2017. Jens Zimmermann won the constituency for the SPD in 2021.

Election		Member	Party	%
	1949	Heinrich Ritzel	SPD	36.6
	1953			39.9
	1957			45.3
	1961			47.2
	1965	Willi Bäuerle	SPD	47.5
	1969			50.5
	1972			53.0
	1976	Heinrich Klein	SPD	46.9
	1980			49.3
	1983	Alexander Warrikoff	CDU	49.4
	1987			45.7
	1990			44.7
	1994	Wolfgang Steiger	CDU	45.5
	1998	Adelheid D. Tröscher	SPD	44.9
	2002	Erika Ober	SPD	45.6
	2005	Patricia Lips	CDU	42.0
	2009			40.4
	2013			46.9
	2017			36.1
	2021	Jens Zimmermann	SPD	32.3

Election results

2021 election

Federal election (2021): Odenwald
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	SPD	Jens Zimmermann		57,172	32.3	3.3	49,518	28.0	4.6
	CDU	N Patricia Lips		49,367	27.9	8.2	42,857	24.2	8.5
	Greens	Philip Krämer		21,630	12.2	4.4	24,694	13.9	5.1
	FDP	Mathias Zeuner		17,110	9.7	2.5	22,433	12.7	1.7
	AfD	Rüdiger Hashagen		14,963	8.5	3.3	15,983	9.0	3.2
	Left	Marlene Wenzl		5,991	3.4	2.7	6,333	3.6	3.8
	FW	Laura Schulz		5,003	2.8	1.4	3,322	1.9	1.0
	Human Environment Animal Protection						3,213	1.8	0.7
	dieBasis	Werner Krebs		3,699	2.1		3,171	1.8
	PARTEI						1,545	0.9	0.0
	Volt	Kim Pfaff		1,602	0.9		948	0.5
	Team Todenhöfer						846	0.5
	Pirates						727	0.4	0.0
	Gesundheitsforschung						289	0.2
	Independent	Dieter Stein		273	0.2
	ÖDP						202	0.1	0.1
	NPD						198	0.1	0.2
	Bündnis C						196	0.1
	V-Partei3						187	0.1	0.1
	Humanists						155	0.1
	DKP						131	0.1	0.0
	Bündnis 21						65	0.0
	MLPD						57	0.0	0.0
	LKR						56	0.0
Informal votes				3,020			2,704
Total valid votes				176,810			177,126
Turnout				179,830	76.9	2.0
	SPD gain from CDU		Majority	7,805	4.4

2017 election

Federal election (2017): Odenwald
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	CDU	Y Patricia Lips		65,654	36.1	10.8	59,635	32.7	8.1
	SPD	Jens Zimmermann		52,761	29.0	4.6	42,516	23.3	4.7
	AfD	Robert Rankl		21,347	11.7		22,258	12.2	6.5
	Greens	Frank Diefenbach		14,181	7.8	0.9	16,084	8.8	0.2
	FDP	Milena Scinardo		13,139	7.2	4.6	19,948	10.9	5.7
	Left	Kristin Hügelschäfer		11,138	6.1	1.1	13,433	7.4	1.9
	Human Environment Animal Protection						2,091	1.1
	PARTEI						1,587	0.9	0.4
	FW	Heinz Schumacher		2,651	1.5		1,514	0.8	0.1
	Independent	Harald Frenzel		960	0.5
	Pirates						833	0.5	1.9
	NPD						624	0.3	0.8
	DM						409	0.2
	ÖDP						379	0.2
	V-Partei³						343	0.2
	BGE						293	0.2
	DKP						135	0.1
	MLPD						117	0.1	0.0
	BüSo						30	0.0	0.0
Informal votes				3,143			2,745
Total valid votes				181,831			182,229
Turnout				184,974	78.9	3.3
	CDU hold		Majority	12,893	7.1	6.2

2013 election

Federal election (2013): Odenwald
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	CDU	Y Patricia Lips		80,323	46.9	6.5	70,211	40.9	7.9
	SPD	Jens Zimmermann		57,586	33.6	4.0	48,252	28.1	3.2
	Greens	Felix Möller		11,854	6.9	2.5	15,560	9.1	2.2
	AfD						9,864	5.7
	Left	Martin Deistler		8,621	5.0	1.7	9,459	5.5	2.3
	Pirates	Michael Breukel		5,279	3.1		4,034	2.3	0.0
	FDP	Heinrich Leonhard Kolb		4,581	2.7	8.1	8,964	5.2	12.1
	NPD	Manfred Hönig		3,006	1.8	0.5	2,035	1.2	0.1
	FW						1,307	0.8
	PARTEI						833	0.5
	REP						764	0.4	0.6
	PRO						289	0.2
	BüSo						101	0.1	0.1
	SGP						83	0.0
	MLPD						76	0.0	0.0
Informal votes				6,023			5,441
Total valid votes				171,250			171,832
Turnout				177,273	75.6	0.4
	CDU hold		Majority	22,737	13.3	2.5

2009 election

Federal election (2009): Odenwald
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	CDU	Y Patricia Lips		69,191	40.4	1.6	56,677	33.0	2.6
	SPD	Detlev Blitz		50,797	29.6	12.3	42,756	24.9	9.7
	FDP	Heinrich Leonhard Kolb		18,409	10.7	5.6	29,697	17.3	5.6
	Greens	Thomas Rehahn		16,215	9.5	4.6	19,379	11.3	1.8
	Left	Sabine Leidig		11,574	6.8	2.8	13,403	7.8	3.0
	Pirates						4,098	2.4
	NPD	Georg Hartmann		2,183	1.3	0.3	1,907	1.1	0.1
	Human Environment Animal Protection						1,765	1.0	0.1
	REP	Frederik Poetsch		1,772	1.0		1,723	1.0	0.0
	Independent	Heinz Schumacher		822	0.5
	Independent	Michael Merkel		459	0.4
	BüSo						228	0.1	0.0
	DVU						137	0.1
	MLPD						79	0.1	0.1
Informal votes				5,386			4,959
Total valid votes				171,422			171,849
Turnout				176,808	75.3	4.9
	CDU hold		Majority	18,394	10.8	10.7