A new procedure has been introduced for the allocation of seats within the German Bundestag as well as for the distribution of constituencies on the Länder and for the European Election. For this purpose, the Federal Elections Act as well as the European Elections act have been amended by the latest law for amending the elections and members of parliament law of 17 March 2008 (Federal Law Gazette I, p. 394). For the forthcoming elections to the German Bundestag and to the European Parliament in 2009, the former method "Hare/Niemeyer" (largest remainder method, Hamilton method) will be replaced by the new "Sainte-Laguë/Schepers" method.
In the following PDF, you find a short overview concerning the methods according to "Sainte-Laguë/Schepers" and "Hare/Niemeyer" as well as "d'Hondt" including sample calculations. All three methods are used to date for the distribution of mandates within the German Bundestag, for the members of the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany, in the Länder parliaments as well as for the allocation of seats for the comittees and bodies of the German Bundestag. At the moment, the PDF is only available in German.
Sitzzuteilungsverfahren bei Bundestagswahl und Europawahl (PDF, 98 KB)
