Berlin-Tempelhof – Schöneberg (electoral district)

Location of constituency in Berlin

Berlin Tempelhof – Schöneberg is one of the 299 single member constituencies used for the German parliament, the Bundestag. Located south of Berlin centre, it was created for the 2002 election and is currently a marginal constituency with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beating the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) by 1.3% at the previous election.

History and boundaries

The constituency, numbered constituency 82 by the German electoral authorities,[1] contains the whole of the Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. This borough, a merger of two former boroughs, was created by a 2001 administrative reform. The constituency was created for the first time for the 2002 election when the number of constituencies in Berlin was reduced from 13 to 12. The Schöneberg section had previously been in the Berlin Kreuzberg - Schöneberg constituency, while Tempelhof had had its own constituency since the 1994 election after being in the Berlin Tempelhof - South-east-Steglitz constituency for the 1990 election.

The Tempelhof constituency had been won by the CDU by over 20,000 votes (16.4%) in 1994 but had been gained by the SPD in 1998 by 400 votes (0.3%) while Kreuzberg-Schöneberg had been won by the SPD in all elections from 1990 onwards albeit with a growing vote for Alliance '90/The Greens. However the results in Schöneberg had usually been close. In 1994 the CDU led the SPD by 12 votes out of over 80,000 cast. Both parties on 33% and the Greens receiving their second highest vote share in any of the 23 Berlin boroughs, polling 24%.[2] The new Tempelhof – Schöneberg constituency was won in 2002 by the SPD by 2119 (1.1%) and in 2005 by 2338 (1.3%)[3]

The district has a foreign born population of 15% a figure above the Berlin average of 13%,[4] though in mid-2006 the district showed the second lowest increase in the number of foreigners[5]

Electoral system

Elections in Germany take place using the Additional Member System. Voters have two votes, one for a constituency MP and one for a regional list to elect representatives for the whole of Berlin city. Elections for the Tempelhof – Schöneberg constituency take place using the First past the post system.

2009 election

Confirmed candidates for 2009 are:-

Results

2005 election

Party Constituency results List results
Candidate Votes % share +/- Votes % share +/-
Social Democratic Party of Germany Mechthild Rawert 62,125 34.2 -1.5
Christian Democratic Union Peter Rzepka 59,787 32.9 -1.7
Alliance '90/The Greens Renate Künast 38,198 21.0 +1.0
The Left Party.PDS Hakki Keskin 8,538 4.7 +3.0
Free Democratic Party Hartmut Ebbing 7,396 4.1 -1.6
National Democratic Party of Germany Richard Miosga 2,202 1.2 N/A
Others 3,667 2.0 N/A

Out of a total electorate of 234,161, the total number of votes cast was 185,593 (79.3%) of which 3,680 votes were invalid.

Votes for other parties were: Feminist Party 1,327 (0.7%), LaRouche Political Action Committee(BüSo) 330 (0.2%), Party of Labour, law, welfare 995 (0.5%), Independent 1,015 (0.6%)

2002 election

Party Constituency results List results
Candidate Votes % share Votes % share
Social Democratic Party of Germany Eckhardt Barthel 67,531 35.7
Christian Democratic Union Peter Rzepka 65,412 34.6
Alliance '90/The Greens Renate Künast 37,788 20.0
Free Democratic Party Joachim Thoma 10,751 5.7
The Left Party.PDS Ingeborg Simon 3 293 1.7
Others 2,880 1.9

Out of a total electorate of 237,943 the total number of votes cast was 191,769 (80.6%) of which 2,811 where invalid.

Votes for other parties were: The Greys 2,342 (1.2%), Feminist Party 960 (0.5%), PBC 531 (0.3%), LaRouche Political Action Committee(BüSo) 330 (0.2%)

References

  1. ↑ Election results and statistics (German)
  2. ↑ Table 1.12, Berlin election results
  3. ↑ im Überblick, Berlin election results 2005
  4. ↑ Constituency data
  5. ↑ In Berlin Leben 464.000 Ausländer aus 183 staaten, bbu.de, accessed 24 September 2009