Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release April 18, 2012
Constituencies and their boundaries defined for the elections to the 18th German Bundestag
WIESBADEN – On 19 April 2012, the 20th Act amending the Federal Elections Act (Federal Law Gazette I page 518) will enter into force. As reported by the Federal Returning Officer, the boundaries and descriptions of the 299 Bundestag constituencies for the elections to the 18th German Bundestag are laid down in the Annex to that Act. Compared with the former structure, the legislator has redrawn the boundaries of 32 constituencies for the 2013 Bundestag Election.
The changes are as follows:
- 21 constituencies have been adjusted on account of the population development in Länder or constituencies. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has lost one of seven constituencies, the former constituency 18 Neubrandenburg – Mecklenburg-Strelitz – Uecker-Randow. As a consequence, the legislator has redrawn the boundaries of the remaining six constituencies in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Hessen has received one more constituency in addition to the 21 constituencies it already had because of changed population figures (new constituency: 175 Main-Kinzig – Wetterau II – Schotten). Consequently, the boundaries of another four constituencies in Hessen have been redrawn.
- The boundaries of eleven constituencies were adjusted slightly to account for earlier changes of the municipal territory.
Another eleven constituencies were renamed while their boundaries remained unchanged.
The need to alter the distribution of constituencies among Länder and redraw the boundaries of individual constituencies results, among others, from the provisions of Section 3 (1), first sentence, nos. 2, 3 and 5 of the Federal Elections Act. It stipulates that the number of constituencies in the individual Länder has to correspond as far as possible to their share of the population. The population of a constituency should not deviate from the average population of all constituencies by more than 15 per cent in either direction; where the deviation is greater than 25 per cent, the boundaries have to be redrawn. The boundaries of municipalities, districts and towns not attached to a municipal district should be adhered to where possible when constituency boundaries are defined.
For detailed information on the constituencies, their boundaries and a map please refer to the website of the Federal Returning Officer at http://www.bundeswahlleiter.de/de/bundestagswahlen/BTW_BUND_13/wahlkreiseinteilung/
For further information please contact:
Brigitte Gisart,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2573,
e-mail: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de