The Federal Republic of Germany has a plural multi-party system. The largest by members and parliament seats are the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
Germany also has a number of other parties, in recent history most importantly the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Alliance 90/The Greens, The Left, and more recently the Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded in 2013. The federal government of Germany often consisted of a coalition of a major and a minor party, specifically CDU/CSU and FDP or SPD and FDP, and from 1998 to 2005 SPD and Greens. From 1966 to 1969, from 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2021, the federal government consisted of a coalition of the two major parties, called a grand coalition.[1]
Coalitions in the Bundestag and state legislatures are often described by party colors. Party colors are red for the Social Democratic Party, green for Alliance 90/The Greens, yellow for the Free Democratic Party, purple (officially red, which is customarily used for the SPD) for the Left, light blue for the AfD, and black and blue for the CDU and CSU respectively.[2][3]
Current parties
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- ^ A right-wing party originally starting as a centre-right alternative to the CDU/CSU, since 2015 it is considered to be part of the radical right, a subset of the far-right that does not oppose democracy.
- ^ BSW is widely considered far-left, but it was also described as left-wing or left-conservative; the latter label is because some stances of the party on cultural issues are seen as conservative.
Parties represented in the European Parliament
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Parties only represented in state parliaments
edit| Name | Abbr. | Leader(s) | Ideology | Political position | MdLs | States | EP group | EP party | Membership | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Alliance Germany Bündnis Deutschland |
BD | Steffen Große | Conservatism | Centre-right to right-wing | 10 / 87
|
Bremen | European Conservatives and Reformists | - | 1000 | |
Minor parties
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Historical parties
editDefunct parties in the Federal Republic of Germany
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Defunct parties in Allied-occupied Germany
edit| Logo | Name | Abbr. | Leader(s) | Ideology | Active | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic People's Party Demokratische Volkspartei |
DVP | Theodor Heuss | Liberalism | 1946–1948 | Merged into FDP | ||
| German Conservative Party Deutsche Konservative Partei |
DKP | Eldor Borck, Otto Schmidt-Hannover | National conservatism | 1946–1950 | Merged into DKP-DRP | ||
| German Reconstruction Party Deutsche Aufbaupartei |
DAP | Monarchism German nationalism |
1945–1946 | Merged into DKP-DRP | |||
| Lower Saxony State Party Niedersächsische Landespartei |
Regionalism Christian conservatism Establishment of Lower Saxony |
1945–1947 | Merged into DP | ||||
| National Democratic Party Nationaldemokratische Partei |
NDP | Heinrich Leuchtgens | National conservatism | 1945–1950 | Only active in Hesse, merged into DRP | ||
 |
Radical Social Freedom Party Radikal-Soziale Freiheitspartei |
RSF | Richard Batz, Peter Thielen | Freiwirtschaft Border abolition Decentralization |
1946–1950 | Succeeded by HUMANWIRTSCHAFT | |
Parties in East Germany
edit| Bloc | Logo | Name | Abbr. | Ideology | Note | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Front |  |
Socialist Unity Party of Germany Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschland |
SED | Stalinism Communism Marxism-Leninism |
"Leading Role" per 1968 Constitution, succeeded by PDS | ||
 |
Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands |
CDUD | Christian socialism Social conservatism |
Merged into the CDU | |||
 |
Liberal Democratic Party of Germany Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands |
LDPD | Liberal socialism | Merged into Association of Free Democrats (partly) | |||
 |
Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands |
DBD | Agrarianism Agrarian socialism |
Merged into CDUD | |||
 |
National Democratic Party of Germany National-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands |
NDPD | Conservatism National conservatism Socialism |
Merged into FDP | |||
During transition (1989–90)
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Parties in the Saar Protectorate
edit| Name | Abbr. | Ideology | Active | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian People's Party of Saarland Christliche Volkspartei des Saarlandes |
CVP | Christian democracy Conservatism |
1946–1959 | Later merged with the CDU | |
| Christian Social Union Christlich-Soziale Union |
CSU-S | Christian democracy Conservatism |
1955–1959 | Unofficial counterpart of the CSU | |
| Communist Party of Saarland Kommunistische Partei Saar |
KP | Communism Marxism-Leninism |
1945–1957 | Counterpart of the KPD | |
| Democratic Party of Saarland Demokratische Partei des Saarlandes |
DPS | Conservative liberalism National conservatism |
1946–1957 | Later merged into the FDP | |
| German Democratic Union Deutsche Demokratische Union |
DDU | Left-wing politics | 1955–1968 | Later merged with the DFU | |
| German Social Democratic Party Deutsche Sozialdemokratische Partei |
DSP | Social democracy | 1952–1956 | Split from the SPS, later merged with the SPD | |
| Social Democratic Party of Saarland Sozialdemokratische Partei des Saarlandes |
SPS | Social democracy Democratic Socialism |
1946–1956 | Counterpart of the SPD | |
| Supranational European People's Party Saar Übernationale Europäische Volkspartei saar |
ÜEVPS | 1955–? | |||
Parties in Weimar Republic
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Parties founded before World War I
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See also
edit- Lists of political parties; categories by country and ideology.
- History of Germany since 1945
- Liberalism in Germany
References
edit- ^ "Chronik: Bundestagswahlen von 1949 bis 2002 | Deutschland | Deutsche Welle | 02.10.2005". Archived from the original on 8 November 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2009.
- ^ "Political parties form colorful spectrum in Germany". Deutsche Welle. 18 August 2009. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
- ^ The Green party: Getting used to opposition, Deutsche Welle, 24 August 2009, retrieved 12 October 2009,
This made a so-called Jamaica coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Free Democratic Party impossible.
- ^ Janz, Carsten; Wienand, Lars (19 September 2024). "Die wahre Herkunft der Wagenknecht-Millionen". T-Online (in German).
Stanger wie Salingré gehören inzwischen zu den 900 Mitgliedern der Partei, die bei Neuaufnahmen sehr zögerlich agieren.
[Stanger and Salingré are now among the party's 900 members who are very hesitant about new admissions.] - ^ Skiadas, Christos H.; Bozeman, James R. (7 March 2019). "14: Visualizing the Political Spectrum of Germany by Contiguously Ordering the Party Policy Profiles". John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781119579533. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
- ^ Dregger, Christa (19 May 2023). "Bund für Freiheit und Humanität: Die (vielleicht) kleinste Partei Deutschlands will einen politischen Rahmen für dezentrales Handeln schaffen". Zeitpunkt.
- ^ "CDU-Konservative: Was die Werteunion ist und was sie will - ZDFheute". 13 February 2020. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
External links
edit- Political Parties (Germany) - List of German political parties since 1949
- Collection of all currently recognized political parties by the Federal Returning Office (in German)
- List of all registered political parties in the Federal Republic of Germany between 1969 and 2023 by the Federal Returning Office (in German)
- Overview of the elections since 1946 (Übersicht der Wahlen seit 1946) on the website of the Tagesschau - Election results in Germany since 1946 on state, federal and European levels (German descriptions, but graphics and data can be accessed without these).