A Quick Guide to Germany's Political Parties

A Quick Guide to Germany's Political Parties

The Reichstag in Berlin is home to Germany's parliament. We've explained the alphabet soup that is the German political party system.

Is the CDU, SPD, FDP and CSU just alphabet soup to you? SPIEGEL ONLINE has put together a quick overview of Germany's political parties to help you navigate our coverage from Berlin.

CDU

The Christian Democratic Union, founded after World War II, is Germany's main conservative party. Five of the eight chancellors who have led the Federal Republic since 1949 have been CDU members. It has its roots in the Center Party, a Catholic political party founded in 1870, and its traditional strongholds are in southwest and western Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Protestant who grew up in communist East Germany, is not a typical CDU member. CDU Chancellors Konrad Adenauer and Ludwig Erhard presided over West Germany's post-war economic miracle by espousing the principles of the social market economy, which rejects socialism and laissez-faire economics and sees the government's role as providing the framework for fair competition, low unemployment and social welfare. The party continues to adhere to those principles, which have become the bedrock of Germany's economic system. In the current campaign it has pledged tax cuts and wants to delay the planned phasing out of some of Germany's nuclear power stations. It is also opposed to Turkey joining the EU. Its preferred coalition partner is the pro-business FDP, but it may end up sharing power with the Social Democrats again after the Sept. 27 election.

SPD

The center-left Social Democratic Party is rooted in the 19th century labor movement and is Germany's oldest political party, founded in 1875. It traditionally represents the interests of the working class. Much of its support comes from the large cities of traditionally protestant northern Germany and the former coal-mining and steel producing Ruhr region. Willy Brandt, the SPD's first chancellor, spearheaded West German reconciliation with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. The party has led governing coalitions for 20 of the 60 years of the Federal Republic and has ruled as junior partner to the conservatives in a grand coalition since 2005. It suffered a major decline in membership as a result of radical and deeply unpopular welfare cuts introduced by SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in 2003 and 2004, and it has lost its status as Germany's largest party to the CDU, which has some 530,000 members, compared with the SPD's 513,000. The SPD has also been hit by the formation of the Left Party in 2007, which has lured away many left-wing voters. In a bid to win them back, the SPD under its candidate for chancellor, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is pledging to introduce a minimum wage. It has also vowed to stick to plans to decommission all German nuclear power stations by 2020.


FDP

The Free Democratic Party is a pro-business party that promotes the free market economy and individual liberty. Its critics call it the party of the privileged few, an image the party has been trying to change in the current election campaign under its leader Guido Westerwelle. Founded in 1948, it has been "kingmaker" to both the SPD and the CDU, serving as junior partner in coalitions with them, and it has participated in the federal government for a total of 41 years, longer than any other party, most recently under Chancellor Helmut Kohl until 1998. Under Westerwelle, the party won an unexpectedly high 9.8 percent of the vote in the 2005 election. It is hoping to form a government with Merkel's conservatives after the Sept. 27 election.

Green Party

Germany's Green Party formed in the 1970s around a platform of pacifism and environmental activism. It won its first parliamentary seats in 1983 after gaining 5.6 percent of the vote in the federal election that year. The party joined the federal government for the first time in 1998 in a coalition with the Social Democrats. It abandoned its strict pacifist principles under Green Foreign Minister and Deputy Chancellor Joschka Fischer who persuaded the party to back Germany's participation in the NATO bombing of Kosovo in 1999. It also supported the US-led attack on Afghanistan in 2001. While in government with the SPD, it pushed through the nuclear power phase-out and enacted laws easing immigration and same-sex marriage. The party's main following comes from higher income households in urban areas.


Left Party

The party is the result of a merger in 2007 of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) -- the successor to the communist party that ruled East Germany -- and WASG, a group of trade unionists and disgruntled former SPD members based in western Germany. It has managed to attract left-wing voters disenchanted with the SPD after radical welfare cuts enacted by SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in 2003 and 2004. Its co-leader is Oskar Lafontaine is a former leader of the SPD. It ranks among the top three parties in eastern Germany and it has been able to expand in the west with strong showings in state elections there in the last two years, most recently on Aug. 30 when it won 21.3 percent in the small state of Saarland, becoming third-strongest party there. The SPD's leadership has ruled out forming a federal government with the Left Party after the Sept. 27 election because of its radical policies on a range of issues such as Afghanistan, where it is the only party demanding an immediate withdrawal of German troops. But the SPD is prepared to form regional governments with the Left Party. The two parties have governed the city state of Berlin together since 2001. The CDU and FDP vilify it because of its roots in communist East Germany.

CSU

The Christian Social Union (CSU) is a bit of an anomaly in the German political system in that it is the only national political party that is actually a state party. Though the CSU, which is the sister party to Angela Merkel's CDU, shares power with the chancellor's party at the national level -- indeed, it even leads two ministries in her cabinet under the so-called "Union" bloc -- it is actually a predominantly Catholic state party in Bavaria. The party was founded in 1945 and currently governs together with the Free Democrats in Bavaria. It has governed in the state every year since 1949, with the exception of 1950 to 1953. In 2002, then Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber ran as the joint CDU-CSU candidate for chancellor, but so far the party has not yet been at the helm of the Chancellery. The CSU and the CDU may be sister parties, but they do not march in lock step and are often at odds on political issues. The party also angered the CDU recently when it launched a partially successful challenge against the European Union's Lisbon Treaty at Germany's highest court.

Berlin Neighborhood Fights Invasion of the EasyJet Set

Berlin Neighborhood Fights Invasion of the EasyJet Set

Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood is famous as being a home of alternative lifestyles and immigrants. But the locals' reputation for tolerance is being put to the test by an influx of tourists. Middle-class residents are up in arms about night-time noise and rising rents.

The sun shines down brightly on the café tables and chairs spread across Spreewaldplatz square in Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood, but no one is making use of them. It's just before 11 a.m. and the German capital's hordes of tourists -- the backpackers from Spain, Italy, Norway and Sweden -- are still sleeping.

As they slumber peacefully on, they are probably unaware of the ruckus they have caused. Recently, locals in Kreuzberg have been heatedly discussing the visitors who flock to the district, which is famous for its alternative edge and multicultural vibe. The number of overnight stays there has, according to the local Green Party, almost tripled in recent years, to 2.37 million in 2009. More and more cheap hostels are springing up -- in the past five years, their number has risen from 30 to 50. Increasingly, apartments in the area are not being rented out for Berliners to live in, but as holiday flats for tourists.


The Kreuzberg residents, like those who live in other fashionable areas of Berlin such as Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain and Mitte, are plagued with a problem: Parts of these neighborhoods have become increasingly desirable in recent years, with rapid gentrification occurring as a result. And now the influx of tourists is driving rents up even higher.

Ironically, in a district where tolerance at all costs is the civic watchword, residents are now getting ready to revolt. The Green Party recently invited people in the "Wrangelkiez" area of Kreuzberg, in reality a low-income neighborhood with high unemployment and a large number of immigrants, to take part in a discussion. The title of the event: "Help, the tourists are coming!" The response was immense.

Party Animals Hitting the Bars

The party scene in the part of the Wrangelkiez near the Schlesisches Tor metro station has exploded in the last few years. In the evenings it's almost impossible to navigate along the packed streets. The "Lonely Planet" travel guide to Germany advises young travellers to "hit the bars of Kreuzberg for a night of tabloid-worthy drinking and debauchery." The area around Schlesische Strasse, with its "alternative bars" is particularly recommended.

Bülent E., who runs the 36 Rooms Hostel, talks up the unforgettable nightlife. Up to 150 travelers can be accommodated here, with a bed in a dormitory room from just €10 ($14) a night. On this particular morning, a couple of young women are hanging around on the sofas near reception, their fingers wearily working their iPhones. A nearby fridge is stocked full of beer.

Bülent E. is right in the middle of the tourism battle. "We are being attacked by the authorities," he says. There are constant reports of disturbances. The authorities are putting people's livelihoods at risk, he claims. He understands that the noise is sometimes unbearable for the residents. But that just means the rules and regulations governing hostels must be clearer. "It is chaos," he says.

In the surrounding streets, there are rows of snack shops and tapas bars, with frequent new openings. Amidst all the tourists, residents feel a little like they are in the zoo, says one blonde woman in sunglasses. But she doesn't have anything against the visitors in principle, she says.

Kreuzberg's Tolerance Could be Lost

Kreuzberg is divided. Berlin is a poor city -- lacking in industry, but full of tourists. According to Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper, more than 9 million people visited the city in 2010, spending 20.8 million nights in the German capital's hotels. A total of €9 billion in tax was deposited into the city-state's coffers as a result. It's so surprise that Harald Wolf, the economics minister in the city-state's administration, has warned against a new hostility towards tourists.

One resident of the Wrangelkiez, a social worker who has lived there for 15 years, says: "If you'll allow me to exaggerate a little: There used to be Turks here, now there are Spaniards." A mixture of people is all well and good, she says. "But the completely ordinary people and completely ordinary shops are being crowded out by the restaurants that make their living from the tourists."

Kreuzbergers are considered to be laid back, she says, explaining that residents who call the police to complain about noise are often told they should move to another part of town. That is a disturbing answer, she says, "for those of us who have lived a middle-class life here for years." She hopes that tourists will at some point realise "that people here have to go to work in the morning and therefore need to sleep."

There is also a conflict between the 20-something and the 30-something generations in the neighborhood -- between younger people who want to party all the time, and those who are older, have kids and have a greater need for peace and quiet. In the local magazine Kreuzberger Chronik, the district mayor Franz Schulz, a member of the Green Party, says that the fact families with children are once again moving into Kreuzberg is a welcome development. But the newcomers "came to our district with very different interests and goals to those who came here 30 years ago," he says, referring to the time when Kreuzberg was a center for left-wing activists and squatters. It could happen that something gets lost in the process, namely "tolerance," the politician adds.

'The Kids Cannot Sleep'

While the Wrangelkiez neighborhood wrestles with how to deal with the EasyJet set, another option for tourists has opened up in the Bergmannkiez, the neighborhood around Kreuzberg's popular Bergmannstrasse. A sign on a recently renovated buidling advertises "Traumberg" ("Dream-berg") holiday flats and guest rooms.

In the area around the Chamissoplatz square, the number of holiday apartments has risen sharply. A solution to the problem is not simple, says travel journalist Hans W. Korfmann, who publishes the Kreuzberger Chronik magazine. There is a real threat, he says, that the things Berlin -- and in particular the area around Bergmannstrasse -- stands for will be lost. "There was always a mixed bag here: Intellectuals, politicians and welfare recipients lived next to each other, and would sit together in the courtyards of the buildings."

One journalist, who lives with his family in a listed building on the neighborhood's Hagelberger Strasse, has personal experience of these developments. The apartment below him is rented out to tourists, usually groups of young people, often from France or Italy. "The noise is unbearable, especially in the summer, loud techno music until early in the morning. The kids cannot sleep," he says. And he has heard of many similar cases. A friend bought a maisonette duplex in a nearby side street, he says. When they moved in, they realised that the apartment underneath them was also being rented out to tourists.

'Limited Opportunity'

Just how difficult it is to handle the situation can be seen by a statement made last year by Franz Schulz, the district mayor, relating to the holiday apartments in Hagelberger Strasse. The local branch of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) wanted to know how the authorities defined a holiday apartment. "The use of many apartments as holiday apartments is contrary to the goal of urban revitalization of central city areas and promotes the displacement of residents," they claimed. In his response, the mayor wrote that the legal situation was complicated, because use by tourists could be regarded as a hybrid form between a hotel and an apartment, meaning there was only "a very limited opportunity" to take legal action against it.


Nonetheless, in local politics there is an ongoing fevered debate as to whether the tourist influx is compatible with the rights of local residents. A tax on every overnight stay is even being considered.

Some Kreuzbergers are remaining relaxed about the situation, however. The district may be popular at the moment, says one pensioner. "But the tourists will move on at some point and look for new places to stay."

Satire Takes to the Streets in German Carnival Parades

Satire Takes to the Streets in German Carnival Parades

Germany's notoriously riotous Carnival season culminated on Rose Monday with a parade of floats in Cologne and other Rhineland cities. The larger-than-life floats featured in the parades are colorful and often offer biting satire -- from Chancellor Merkel to fallen ex-Defense Minister Guttenberg.

Chancellor Angela Merkel made an appearance, as did Germany's disgraced former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and even Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Cities in Germany's Rhineland region, including Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz, on Monday played host to a who's who of recent headlines. Political humor is a regular feature of the annual, tradition-rich Carnival festivities in the region.

The traditional Rose Monday event is the culmination of a five-day long Carnival celebration. The biggest parade, in Cologne, drew around 1.5 million visitors and was broadcast live on local television. In nearby Düsseldorf, officials also estimated 1 million had attended the city's parades, with nearly half that number converging on Mainz.


Towering above the crowds, the floats loop around the cities, with participants throwing sweets or flowers down to enthusiastic Carnival fans. The largely Catholic tradition of Carnival -- which is a regular feature in other parts of Europe, including France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands -- celebrates the onset of spring and preparations for the Lent fasting period, with loads of food, drink and partying.

Guttenberg, the former defense minister who resigned after a plagiarism scandal, served as a recurrent political target this year. One float in the Düsseldorf parade showed zu Guttenberg crashing a plane into Merkel's Chancellory alongside the slogan "Merkel's 11th September." In Mainz, a float bearing the name "Angies Voodoo Lounge" showed the German chancellor pricking needles into voodoo dolls of her political enemies.