Delimitation of constituencies for the elections to the 18th German Bundestag

The territory of the Federal Republic of Germany is subdivided into 299 constituencies. The territories of the constituencies for the elections to the 18th German Bundestag are defined in the Annex to Article 1 of the Twentieth Law amending the Federal Electoral Act (BWG) of 12 April 2012 (Federal Law Gazette I page 518) - only available in German.

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 basis of these calculations is the German population. The boundaries of municipalities, districts and towns not attached to a municipal district should be adhered to where possible when constituency boundaries are defined.

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. These are the new constituencies:

12 Schwerin – Ludwigslust-Parchim I – Nordwestmecklenburg I,
13 Ludwigslust-Parchim II – Nordwestmecklenburg II – Landkreis Rostock I
14 Rostock – Landkreis Rostock II,
15 Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I,
16 Mecklenburgische Seenplatte I – Vorpommern-Greifswald II and
17 Mecklenburgische Seenplatte II – Landkreis Rostock III.

Hessen has received one more constituency in addition to the 21 constituencies it already had. Consequently, the boundaries of another four constituencies in Hessen have been redrawn:

173 Gießen,
174 Fulda,
175 Main-Kinzig – Wetterau II – Schotten (new constituency),
177 Wetterau I and
180 Hanau.

In Hamburg three constituencies have been redrawn:

18 Hamburg-Mitte,
19 Hamburg-Altona and
20 Hamburg-Eimsbüttel.

In Nordrhein-Westfalen two constituencies have been redrawn:

115 Duisburg I and
116 Duisburg II.

In Bayern the boundaries of the following constituencies have been redrawn:

215 Freising,
216 Fürstenfeldbruck,
217 Ingolstadt,
222 München-Land and
224 Starnberg.

The boundaries of eleven constituencies (three in Sachsen-Anhalt, two in Brandenburg, two in Thüringen, two in Rheinland-Pfalz and two in Baden-Württemberg) were adjusted slightly to account for earlier changes of the municipal territory (Section 3 (1), first sentence, no. 5 of the Federal Election Act).

Another eleven constituencies were renamed while their boundaries remained unchanged.

In addition to that, many constituencies received a new number when constituency boundaries were redrawn between Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Hessen.

Accordingly, the 299 constituencies are distributed among the 16 Länder as follows (constituency numbers in brackets):

Schleswig-Holstein (constituencies 1 to 11)	11
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (constituencies 12 to 17)	6
Hamburg (constituencies 18 to 23)	6
Niedersachsen (constituencies 24 to 53)	30
Bremen (constituencies 54 and 55)	2
Brandenburg (constituencies 56 to 65)	10
Sachsen-Anhalt (constituencies 66 to 74)	9
Berlin (constituencies 75 to 86)	12
Nordrhein-Westfalen (constituencies 87 to 150)	64
Sachsen (constituencies 151 to 166)	16
Hessen (constituencies 167 to 188)	22
Thüringen (constituencies 189 to 197)	9
Rheinland-Pfalz (constituencies 198 to 212)	15
Bayern (constituencies 213 to 257)	45
Baden-Württemberg (constituencies 258 to 295)	38
Saarland (constituencies 296 to 299)	4

Map of constituencies for the elections to the 18th German Bundestag

The multi-coloured “Map of constituencies for the elections to the 18th German Bundestag“ presents the delimitation of constituencies which will be valid at the next Bundestag election. It shows the numbers and boundaries of all constituencies and their composition of administrative districts and towns not attached to an administrative district and, separately, the delimitation of constituencies of those large cities which are subdivided into several constituencies. At a price of EUR 9.80 [D] each plus forwarding costs, the map (DIN A1, article no. 1051100-13900-1) may be ordered from

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