Land lists may be submitted by parties only. The parties decide whether they will stand for election to the Bundestag in only one Land, in several Länder or in all 16 Länder. In Bundestag elections there are no federal lists, as they are called, which means that there is not one party list for all Länder.

Land lists have to be submitted to the Land returning officers in charge.

The submission of Land lists is subject to specific formal requirements. Among others, parties which have not been continuously represented in the electoral area by at least five deputies in the German Bundestag or a Land parliament on the basis of nominations made by the party itself must submit, together with their Land list, one per thousand supporting signatures of persons who were entitled to vote in the respective Land in the last election to the German Bundestag, but of no more than 2,000 persons entitled to vote.

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In European elections, Land lists are nominations of parties or other political associations which run for election in only one Land or in several Länder but not in all Länder (= federal lists or lists for all Länder). Since the European election of 2014, Land lists have to be submitted to the Federal Returning Officer.

Parties which have not been continuously represented in the electoral area by at least five deputies in the European Parliament, the German Bundestag or a Land parliament since the last election to that assembly on the basis of nominations made by the party itself, as well as other political associations, must submit, together with their lists for individual Länder, signatures of one per thousand of those entitled to vote in the last election to the European Parliament in the Land concerned, but of no more than 2,000 persons entitled to vote.

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