Any adult citizen in Germany can vote, join a party, stand for election — or found their own party. No permission from the state is necessary, but founders must commit to basic democratic principles.

Foreigners can also establish a party in Germany. However, the majority of the party's executive committee and members must be German nationals. In addition, party headquarters or management must be based in Germany. If this is not the case, the group is considered a political association rather than a party and is excluded from entering candidates in elections.

The guidelines for founding a party are set out in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (Basic Law) and the German Civil Code, which defines citizens' rights and their obligations to each other.

The Political Parties Act regulates the processes within a political party and defines parties as "associations of citizens who wish to influence political decision-making on a permanent or long-term basis (...) and participate in the representation of the people in the German Bundestag or a state parliament."

Membership numbers

A party can be formed in two ways: by converting an existing association into a party, or by founding a new party. There is no required minimum number of founding members. However, the executive committee of a party must consist of at least three people.

The Political Parties Act also does not specify a minimum number of party members. However, an association must "offer a guarantee of seriousness, in terms of the size and strength of its organization, the number of its members and its public profile." A new party's name and its abbreviation must also be distinguishable from existing parties.

There are rules for the inaugural meeting of a new party, in which the party program is set out, including its goals and values and its internal organizational rules. In addition, the executive committee must be elected democratically by secret ballot.

Participating in elections

The Federal Returning Officer oversees the preparation and execution of nationwide political elections. This includes verifying that a party's founding documents comply with the Political Parties Act. Those documents must be archived in a publicly accessible collection, along with all the other existing parties' documents.

The Federal Minister of the Interior appoints the Federal Chief Electoral Officer and their deputy for an indefinite period. Generally, the President of the Federal Statistical Office is appointed Federal Returning Officer.

Recognition as a party only happens when eligibility to participate in an election is established. The Federal Electoral Committee is responsible for the Bundestag (federal parliament) and European elections. It consists of the Federal Returning Officer, eight assessors nominated by the Bundestag parties and two judges from the Federal Administrative Court.

Elections in the sixteen federal states are decided by their own electoral committees, made up of the state's returning officer and six assessors. The state returning officer is appointed by the state government or a body designated by it.

If a party fails to gain approval, the decision can be appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court. 

Interaction with voters

In addition to the legal requirements, there are also organizational requirements for party founders. Structures must be created so that the party can interact with voters.

Anyone founding a potential party should be prepared to organize its parliamentary and legislative work if it makes it into a parliament: There should be enough staff, and representatives need to have clearly defined positions of authority and expertise.

Money matters

Financing is another important aspect. Parties are funded by membership fees, donations, fees from the party's elected representatives, and income from sources like capital gains. Parties only receive state funding if they take part in an election.

State funding is allocated based on how many votes a party won in the most recent European-level, federal, and state elections. Funding distribution is also based on the total contributions of members and elected officers, as well as legally obtained donations.

Dissolving a party

If a party does not take part in an election for six years, it loses its status as a party.

A party can merge with other parties, or dissolve itself, at any time free from state interference.

But a party may not violate Article 21 of the Constitution. It states: "Parties that, through their goals or the behavior of their supporters, aim to impair or eliminate the free democratic order, or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany, are unconstitutional."

The Bundestag, the Federal Government or the Bundesrat (representation of the federal states) can ask the Federal Constitutional Court to declare that a party is unconstitutional and should be dissolved. There have been two successful party bans in the history of postwar West Germany: in 1952 against the Socialist Reich Party, a successor organization to Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), and in 1956 against the Communist Party of Germany.

Proceedings to ban the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), which had neo-Nazi tendencies, failed in 2003 because federal security service informants were active in the party's leadership. A second attempt to ban the party was rejected by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2017, due to the party's shrunken size. On January 23, 2024, the court ruled that the former NPD, which has since changed its name to Die Heimat ("Homeland"), should be stripped of state party funding for six years.

A glance at history

Currently, there are dozens of parties registered in Germany, though fewer than 20 of them are represented in any parliament. 

There have been nationwide political parties in Germany since the 19th century: the liberal German Progress Party, the Social Democratic Workers' Party — the precursor to today's Social Democrat Party SPD — and the Catholic Center Party.

In the Weimar Republic from 1919 onwards, 14 parties represented in the Reichstag were mostly unable to form a constructive parliamentary majority. This made it easier for the NSDAP  to seize power.

After World War II, the victorious allies — the US, UK, France and Russia — initially permitted four parties in their respective occupation zones: The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the liberal Free Democratic Party, the Social Democrats and the Communist Party (KPD). In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that was established in the Soviet-occupied East, the SPD and KPD merged to become the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

In the West, the environmentalist Green Party established itself in 1980. After reunification of West and East Germany in 1990 the SED eventually evolved into the Left Party. The far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) was founded in 2013 initially as a party of Euro-skeptics.

And 2024 sees the founding of two political parties: The Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht and the Werteunion.

This article was originally written in German.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.