Kassel is an electoral constituency (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

. It elects one member via

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 168. It is located in northern

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

, comprising the city of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

and surrounding parts of the

Landkreis Kassel Kassel district (German: Landkreis Kassel) is a district in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Northeim, Göttingen, Werra-Meißner, Schwalm-Eder, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Höxter. The independent city of Kassel is nearly complet ...

district. Kassel was created for the inaugural 1949 federal election. Since 2017, it has been represented by

Timon Gremmels Timon Gremmels (born January 4, 1976 in Marburg) is a German politician in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Member of the Bundestag for Kassel, in the German parliament, since 2017. Education and career After having re ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD).

Geography

Kassel is located in northern

. As of the 2021 federal election, it comprises the independent city of Kassel and the municipalities of

Ahnatal Ahnatal is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated roughly 9 km northwest of Kassel, Germany. Division of the municipality It consists of three constituent villages, Weimar, Heckershausen, and Kammerbe ...

, Espenau,

Fuldabrück Fuldabrück is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated along the Fulda river, 8 kilometers south of Kassel. The municipality of Fuldabrück consists of the former independent villages Bergshausen, Dittershaus ...

Fuldatal Fuldatal is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated along the Fulda River, 5 km northeast of Kassel. Kassel-Rothwesten Airfield Kassel-Rothwesten Airfield is a former military airfield located in Rot ...

Helsa Helsa is a municipality and village in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. The municipality is situated in the Losse valley amongst the hills of the Kaufunger Wald, approx. 15 km east of Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel un ...

Kaufungen Kaufungen is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated in the narrow valley of the river Losse, surrounded by the steep, wooded hills of the Kaufunger Wald, approx. 10 kilometres east of Kassel. Geography Div ...

Lohfelden Lohfelden is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated 6 km southeast of Kassel. It has three parts Crumbach, Ochsenhausen and the former independent Vollmarshausen. Geography Lohfelden / Vollmarshausen bor ...

, Nieste,

Niestetal Niestetal is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated on the eastern bank of the Fulda, 4 km east of Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, ...

Söhrewald Söhrewald is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 13 kilometers southeast of Kassel. The municipality was formed by the former independent municipalities Eiterhagen, Wattenbach and Wellerode in 1970. Geogra ...

, and

Vellmar Vellmar is a town in the Kassel (district), Kassel district, in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the Ahne river. History Vellmar gained city rights on August 30, 1975 to mark its 1200th anniversary, becoming, together with Baunatal, the youngest c ...

from the Landkreis Kassel district.

History

Kassel was created in 1949. In the 1949 election, it was Hesse constituency 2 in the numbering system. From 1953 through 1976, it was number 127. From 1980 through 1998, it was number 125. In the 2002 and 2005 elections, it was number 170. In the 2009 election, it was number 169. Since 2013, it has been number 168. Originally, the constituency comprised the independent city of Kassel and the Landkreis Kassel district. In the 1965 and 1969 elections, it comprised the city of Kassel and the municipalities of Frommershausen, Heckershausen, Ihringshausen, Knickhagen, Mönchehof, Niedervellmar, Obervellmar, Rothwesten, Simmershausen, Wahnhausen, Ahnatal-Weimar, and Wilhelmshausen from Landkreis Kassel. In the 1972 through 1998 elections, it comprised the city of Kassel and the municipalities of

, Espenau, Fuldatal, and Vellmar from Landkreis Kassel. It acquired its current borders in the 2002 election.

Members

The constituency has been held continuously by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since its creation. It was first represented by

Georg-August Zinn Georg August Zinn (27 May 1901 – 27 March 1976) was a German lawyer and a politician of the SPD. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1949 to 1951 representing Kassel, the 2nd Minister-President of Hesse from 1950 to 1969 and served as ...

from 1949 until his resignation in 1951 to become Minister-President of Hesse. He was succeeded by Ludwig Preller after a by-election.

Holger Börner Holger Börner (7 February 1931, in Kassel – 2 August 2006, in Kassel) was a German politician of the SPD. He was the 4th Minister President of Hesse from 1976 until 1987. In this position, he served as the 38th President of the Bundesrat ...

was elected in 1957 and served until 1976, when he resigned to become Minister-President of Hesse. Horst Peter was then representative from 1980 to 1994. Gerhard Rübenkönig was elected in 1994 and served until 2005. Former Minister-President of Hesse

Hans Eichel Hans Eichel (born 24 December 1941) is a German politician (SPD) and the co-founder of the G20, or "Group of Twenty", an international forum for the governments and central bank governors of twenty developed and developing nations to discuss po ...

then served a single term, before being succeeded by

Ulrike Gottschalck Ulrike Gottschalck (born 8 November 1955) is a German politician who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2017. Born in Sondershausen, she completed secondary school in 1970, and after training in information technology, she became an ...

in 2009. She was representative until 2017. Timon Gremmels was elected in the 2017 election and re-elected in 2021.

Election results

2021 election

2017 election

2013 election

2009 election

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kassel (electoral district) Federal electoral districts in Hesse 1949 establishments in West Germany Constituencies established in 1949 Kassel Kassel (district)