Thousands of brand-new members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) may very well be the ones who decide on whether Germany will be governed by a grand coalition with Angela Merkel at its helm. What are they after?
Image: DW/P. Hille
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Soft light filters through the white curtains into the large room. Charlotte Jahnz blinks and peers at huge round chandeliers that hang from the ceiling, each one as big as a children's wading pool.
Other than that, the town hall in the southern Bonn district of Bad Godesberg is a typical 1950s building, straight out of an architecture book: angular, with straight lines, an abundance of concrete, and tall windows.
"The chandeliers may have been an afterthought," Jahnz says. The 29-year-old historian is a new member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the town hall she is inspecting is closely linked to that party's history. At the 1959 SPD convention there, the members agreed to revamp the socialist workers' party created almost 100 years before. The SPD became a modern left-of-center people's party, as modern as the building they chose for their convention.
The party set out to change its image at the 1959 conventionImage: AdsD der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
'Enough is enough'
Reorganization is what the SPD needs yet again, Jahnz urges.
"The SPD hasn't really stood out in the grand coalition these past years," she says, adding that the party barely differed from its senior coalition partner, the Christian Democrats (CDU). "It's time the SPD moved further to the left."
Jahnz sent out her membership application only two weeks ago. At that time, the SPD was gathered for a party convention in Bonn, where the delegates voted in favor of negotiating a new grand coalition government with Angela Merkel's conservative CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). "At that point I thought: That's it, I'm signing up" Jahnz says, adding that she had already been toying with the idea to join "if and when the SPD decided to enter into coalition talks again."
After the party congress decision, "I'd had enough," she says.
Jahnz isn't the only one by far. From the start of the year to February 6, the SPD counted a total of 24,339 new members. This takes the number of members eligible to vote in the ballot on a grand coalition to 463,723.
Only once has federal Germany been ruled by a single party with a parliamentary majority. Coalitions are, therefore, the norm. DW looks at the various governing combinations that have presided in the Bundestag.
Image: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERS
CDU-SPD (2025-?)
Yet another coalition of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the center-left Social Democrat Party (SPD) has taken office on May 6, 2025. Both the CDU and the SPD have dwindled in recent years, so there is now no talk of "grand coalition" as they embark on a mission to save Germany's economy from decline and society from further polarization.
Image: Florian Gaertner/IMAGO
SPD-Green Party-FDP (2021-2024)
From 2021 until late 2024, Germany was governed by a center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), ecologist Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), whose color is yellow. The government known as "Ampel" (traffic light) in Germany, started out as a self-declared "Fortschrittskoalition" (progress coalition) but got mired in infighting and became the least popular government ever.
Image: Michael Kappeler/dpa/picture alliance
CDU/CSU-SPD (2013-2021)
After taking more than 40% of the vote, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives probably weren't expecting to rule with the SPD. However, her old allies, the FDP failed to meet the 5% threshold to enter the Bundestag, and options were limited. Merkel called on the SPD to join her and "take on the responsibility to build a stable government." She made the same speech again four years later.
Image: Maurizio Gambarini/dpa/picture alliance
CDU/CSU-FDP (2009-2013)
The SPD, part of the outgoing coalition, picked up a disappointing 23% in the 2009 federal election. The Free Democrats, by contrast, won more than 14% of the vote. Chancellor Angela Merkel (center) and the FDP's Guido Westerwelle (left) formed a coalition with relative ease. It was, after all, Germany's 11th CDU/CSU-FDP government.
Image: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo/picture alliance
CDU/CSU-SPD (2005-2009)
"Grand coalitions" do not come easily. When the first exit polls came in, both Gerhard Schröder (left) and Angela Merkel (right) declared themselves the winner. In the end, Merkel's conservatives defeated the SPD by just 1%. Germany's two largest parties agreed to form the country's second-ever grand coalition, and Schröder left politics.
Image: Stefan Sauer/dpa/picture alliance
SPD-Green Party (1998-2005 )
In 1998, the CDU/CSU lost a general election and SPD candidate Gerhard Schröder (left) became chancellor, heading a center-left government with the Green Party. Joschka Fischer of the Greens took over the Foreign Ministry.
Image: Andreas Altwein/dpa/picture-alliance
CDU-DSU-Democratic Awakening (1990)
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany held its first free election. The Christian Democrats under Lothar de Maiziere took over 40% of the vote. They went into coalition with two small parties: German Social Union and Democratic Awakening, whose members included one Angela Merkel. In October that year, the government signed the reunification treaty with West Germany.
Image: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa/picture alliance
CDU/CSU-FDP (1982-1998)
The friendship between the SPD and FDP ended as the two parties' differing ideologies became irreconcilable in the early 1980s. The liberals again switched sides, seeking a deal with the conservatives. They formed a new CDU/CSU-FDP coalition under the leadership of Helmut Kohl (pictured), who remained chancellor for 16 years until well after German reunification.
SPD-FDP (1969-1982)
Willy Brandt (left) became Germany's first Social Democratic chancellor in the postwar period. The CDU/CSU was the strongest party, but Brandt struck a deal with the FDP to secure a narrow majority in the Bundestag. This wouldn't be the last time the FDP would be called out for a lack of loyalty. In 1974, Brandt was replaced by Helmut Schmidt (right), who went on to win two more elections.
Image: Sammy Minkoff/picture alliance
CDU/CSU - SPD (1966-1969)
The first-ever "grand coalition" was not the product of an election. Ludwig Erhard was re-elected in 1965 and continued to rule alongside the FDP who left the government in the following year over budget disputes. Erhard also resigned and Kurt Kiesinger (center) was chosen to take over. With the FDP out, he governed with the center-left Social Democrats, led by Willy Brandt.
Image: UPI/dpa/picture-alliance
CDU/CSU-FDP (1961-1966)
After four years of ruling West Germany on their own between 1957 and 1961, the conservatives lost their majority in the Bundestag and were forced to enter into coalition with the Free Democrats again. Adenauer resigned in 1963 for his part in the so-called "Spiegel" scandal. His economic affairs minister, Ludwig Erhard (left), was elected by parliament to take over.
Image: Alfred Hennig/dpa/picture-alliance
CDU/CSU-FDP-DP (1949-1961)
The first democratic government to govern West Germany since the end of World War II saw Christian Democratic Union leader Konrad Adenauer form a governing coalition with the Free Democrats and the German Party (a now-defunct national conservative party). It had a very slim majority. Small coalition partners fell by the wayside, eventually leaving the CDU/CSU to govern alone.
Image: - /dpa/picture alliance
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Like Charlotte Jahnz, most of the party's new members are probably wary of a new grand coalition, though Matthias Grossgarten, head of the SPD local chapter in the town of Niederkassel, disagrees.
"In urban areas, many people might be opposed to the grand coalition, but that is not necessarily the case in the countryside," he told DW, pointing out his town as an example, where the SPD strives to be what it claims on election campaign posters, that is "close to the people."
Grossgarten says members of more rural SPD chapters are not averse to a grand coalitionImage: privat
Pros and cons
The local party chapter, which also runs a secondhand clothing shop for charity, has 10 new members, according to Grossgarten – as many as they usually get in a year. Some of the new members called to make sure they would be allowed to vote on the federal coalition, including, the politician says, an elderly woman who was vehemently in favor of going into government with the conservative parties.
"Sure, we have opponents and supporters," Grossgarten says, adding that he is actually pleased about the impassioned discussions in meetings and WhatsApp groups because this is a pressing issue "very much on our minds."
Helping the locals: the SPD secondhand clothes storeImage: SPD Niederkassel
'The paint is peeling'
Back at the town hall in Bad Godesberg, Charlotte Jahnz has strolled around the building, looking in vain for a memorial plaque in honor of the landmark 1959 SPD party convention. Jahnz is fascinated by her new party's long history. The SPD was, after all, the only party still in a position in 1933 to vote against the "Enabling Act," a constitutional amendment that gave the Cabinet – in effect, Chancellor Adolf Hitler – the power to enact laws without involving the Reichstag, the historian muses. "The SPD has definitely earned great credit."
That's the past, but what about the future? The party top brass reached a coalition deal with Angela Merkel, but will the party members refuse to join a grand coalition, enter opposition and let the SPD collect itself – at the risk of experiencing further humiliation at the polls in a new election? Jahnz for one is still unsure whether she will vote for or against the grand coalition.
If the state of the Bad Godesberg town hall – which is to be restored in 2020 – is any indicator of the state of the party, one would have to say: plenty of history, but the paint is peeling. Perhaps new members like Charlotte Jahnz can help make sure the SPD also gets a fresh coat.
