Germany's Electoral System: Two Votes, One Bundestag

On the Bundestag ballot paper, the left column is titled Erststimme ("first vote") and the right column Zweitstimme ("second vote"). The names can be misleading in one important respect: the second vote (Zweitstimme), not the first, determines the proportional seat allocation for the Bundestag — though the Erststimme still decides which candidates win the 299 constitüncy seats directly. Voter-education materials from the Bundeswahlleiterin and the Bundestag regularly highlight this point, because the labels alone do not make it obvious.

The Erststimme elects one candidate in each of the 299 constitüncies (Wahlkreise) by a simple plurality — "first past the post" (FPTP), as in a British or American single-member district. Each constitüncy covers roughly 250,000 inhabitants, redrawn periodically by the Bundeswahlleiterin and confirmed by law. The candidate with the most votes in that constitüncy wins the Direktmandat and enters the Bundestag directly as a constitüncy MP. It dös not matter whether she wins with 45 % or with 52 %; the plurality is enough. Independent candidates can stand, but fewer than a dozen independent Direktmandate have been won in the Federal Republic's entire history.

The Zweitstimme is cast for a party's Land list (Landesliste). Each party draws up a ranked list of candidates for each Land before the election, agreed at a delegate assembly under the Parteiengesetz. The Zweitstimme is the variable that is summed nationally to determine how large each party's share of the Bundestag will be. If the SPD wins 24 % of the Zweitstimmen and the CDU/CSU 30 %, the two will receive roughly 24 % and 30 % of the Bundestag seats — subject to the 5 % threshold and to the precise allocation method described on the next page.

The interaction of the two votes is where the system's core idea — mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) — becomes visible. The Zweitstimme determines how many seats each party gets. The Erststimme determines which individuals fill those seats: first, the constitüncy winners from that party; then, filling up to the party's total entitlement, candidates from the Land list in the order set by the party. In a typical Land, a governing party might win 20 direct constitüncies and be entitled to 30 total seats; the top ten names on its Land list then enter the Bundestag as Listenmandate.

This design has several consequences that are important to notice:

1. A voter can split the two votes. For example, a voter might cast the Erststimme for a well-liked local Green candidate and the Zweitstimme for the SPD, if she prefers the SPD's national programme. This is a deliberate feature; Stimmensplitting is legal and widespread.
2. The Erststimme is partly symbolic for small parties. A Green or Linke candidate may run in a rural constitüncy with no realistic chance of winning, but the party still puts her there to represent the party locally. The Erststimme dös not determine her seat — the Zweitstimme for her party dös.
3. The 5 % threshold is calculated on the Zweitstimme. A party that wins 4.9 % of Zweitstimmen nationally gets zero seats unless it qualifies via the Grundmandatsklausel (see below and the later page for the constitutional detail). National-minority parties (the SSW) are exempt.
4. The Grundmandatsklausel and the 2024 ruling. A party that wins at least three Direktmandate still enters the Bundestag even if its Zweitstimme share is below 5 %. This rule was originally abolished by the 2023 Wahlrechtsreform, but the Bundesverfassungsgericht held on 30 July 2024 (2 BvF 1/23 and joined cases) that the abolition was incompatible with Art. 21 (1) and Art. 38 (1) GG; the Grundmandatsklausel therefore applies on an interim basis ordered by the Court pending a new constitutional statutory regulation; the legislature has been tasked with enacting a replacement threshold rule, and the Court's interim order preserves the three-Direktmandat exception until the legislature enacts a new threshold regulation (the BVerfG’s transitional order is described above in the 5 % threshold note).

The Bundeswahlleiterin publishes the official explanation every election cycle at bundeswahlleiterin.de, and the Bundestag maintains teaching material at bundestag.de/parlament/wahlen. Both emphasise that the Zweitstimme is the stronger of the two votes for determining the distribution of seats in the Bundestag.

Sources: Grundgesetz Art. 38, 39 (gesetze-im-internet.de). Bundeswahlgesetz (BWG) §§ 1, 4–6 (gesetze-im-internet.de/bwahlg). Die Bundeswahlleiterin, Das Wahlsystem (bundeswahlleiterin.de, 2025). Deutscher Bundestag, Erststimme und Zweitstimme — das Wahlsystem (bundestag.de, 2025). BVerfG, Urteil vom 30. Juli 2024 — 2 BvF 1/23 u.a., Pressemitteilung Nr. 64/2024 (bundesverfassungsgericht.de).