Berlin Lichtenberg (electoral district)

Location of constituency in Berlin

Berlin Lichtenberg is one of the 299 single member constituencies used for the German parliament, the Bundestag. Located in East Berlin, the constituency was created for the 2002 election and all elections to date have been won by The Left Party or their predecessors, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). Although the constituency has proved to be a safe seat for The Left, its creation proved controversial as it combined two of their best areas in Berlin into one constituency, resulting in the reduction of their number of seats from four to two and consequently costing them a further 15 national list MPs as they had failed to meet the qualifying threshold of winning three constituencies.

History and boundaries

Current MP Gesine Lötzsch

The constituency, numbered constituency 87 by the German electoral authorities,^[1] contains the whole of the Berlin borough of Lichtenberg. This borough, a merger of the former boroughs of Lichtenberg and Hohenschönhausen, was created by the 2001 administrative reform.

Historically the two boroughs had been in different constituencies. Hohenschönhausen had been associated with Pankow in constituency number 258, Berlin Pankow – Hohenschönhausen – Weissensee II, which was used for the 1990 election, and constituency 261 Berlin Hohenschönhausen – Pankow – Weissensee which was used for the 1994 and 1998 elections. Lichtenberg had been divided between the constituencies of Berlin Friedrichshain – Treptow – Lichtenberg I and Berlin Köpenick – Lichtenberg II for the 1990 election. It was then united in the Berlin Friedrichshain - Lichtenberg constituency for the 1994 and 1998 elections.

The boundary changes which took effect for the 2002 election combined the Hohenschönhausen and Lichtenberg areas while the redrawn Pankow constituency gained the western section of Prenzlauer Berg from the abolished Berlin Mitte - Prenzlauer Berg constituency. Friedrichshain was combined with Kreuzberg, part of the former West Berlin where the PDS had historically been weak. These boundary changes proved significant as the PDS had won the Pankow constituency by just 3,293 votes in 1998^[2] and out of the 23 Berlin boroughs then in existence, Hohenschönhausen had produced their fourth highest vote share, 41.4% against the SPD vote of 31.5%. In contrast, in the newly added Prenzlauer Berg section, SPD had led PDS in the Prenzlauer Berg borough as a whole by 38.2% to 34.0%^[3] Controversy arose as figures published by the head of the German Statistics office suggested that the PDS would have won two seats in Berlin in 2002 under the redrawn boundaries instead of the four that they had actually won.^[4]

All elections to date have been won by Gesine Lötzsch, the candidate of the Left Party or former PDS, with the SPD in second place.

Profile

The number of residents with German citizenship was 91.9%, a figure above the Berlin average of 86.6% and the fourth highest figure for any Berlin constituency.^[5] 31.3% of residents had qualifications which met the requirements for University entry.

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 Lichtenberg constituency take place using the First past the post system.

Results

2009 election

Party		Constituency results				List results
		Candidate	Votes	% share	+/-	Votes	% share	+/-
	The Left	Gesine Lötzsch	61,905	47.5	+4.6	53,861	41.2	5.7
	Social Democratic Party of Germany		23,992	18.4	-13.7	22,591	17.3	-17.1
	Christian Democratic Union		22,555	17.3	+3.6	21,345	16.3	+3.7
	Alliance '90/The Greens		9,627	7.4	+3.0	11,478	8.8	+2.4
	Free Democratic Party		5,044	3.9	+1.1	8,673	6.6	1.9
	National Democratic Party of Germany		4,468	3.4	+0.2	3,608	2.8	0.0
	Others		2,822	2.2	N/A

Out of a total electorate of 204,762, the total number of votes cast was 132,796 (64.9%) of which 2,383 votes were invalid.

Source:^[6]

2005 election

Party		Constituency results				List results
		Candidate	Votes	% share	+/-	Votes	% share	+/-
	The Left Party.PDS	Gesine Lötzsch	62,824	42.9	+3.2	52,217	35.5	+6.2
	Social Democratic Party of Germany	Andreas Kohler	47,112	32.1	-0.4	50,555	34.4	-4.3
	Christian Democratic Union	Roland Gewalt	20,138	13.7	-3.2	18,548	12.6	-3.5
	Alliance '90/The Greens	Claudia Hämmerling	6,373	4.3	+0.3	9,345	6.4	+1.0
	Free Democratic Party	Holger Schwabe	4,002	2.7	-1.0	6,909	4.7	+0.5
	National Democratic Party of Germany	Claus Schade	4,682	3.2	+0.6	4,042	2.8	+1.3
	Others		1,434	1.0	N/A

Out of a total electorate of 200,917, the total number of votes cast was 149,098 (74.2%) of which 2,533 votes were invalid.

First votes for other parties were: BüSo 1434 (1.0%)

2002 election

Party		Constituency results			List results
		Candidate	Votes	% share	Votes	% share
	The Left Party.PDS	Gesine Lötzsch	56,981	39.6
	Social Democratic Party of Germany	Andreas Kohler	46,780	32.5
	Christian Democratic Union	Georg Eickhoff	24,330	16.9
	Alliance '90/The Greens	Claudia Hämmerling	5,857	4.1
	Free Democratic Party	Stefan Grinding	5,388	3.7
	National Democratic Party of Germany	Albrecht Reither	3,787	2.6
	Others		686	0.5

Out of a total electorate of 199,297, the total number of votes cast was 145,915 (73.2%) of which 2,106 votes were invalid.

References

1. Election results and statistics (German)
2. 1998 Berlin election results, table 3a
3. 1998 Berlin election results, Endgültiges Ergebnis, in Grafiken, Grafik 8
4. Constituency Reform:The PDS razed strongholds, Spiegel, 16 September 2002, accessed 7 October 2009
5. Constituency data
6. 2009 results