Bergstraße ('' English: Mountain Road'') is an electoral constituency (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

. It elects one member via

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 187. It is located in southern

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

, comprising the district of Bergstraße. Bergstraße was created for the inaugural 1949 federal election. Since 2005, it has been represented by

Michael Meister Michael Günther Meister (born 9 June 1961) is a German mathematician and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state Hesse since 1994. In addition to his parliamentary wo ...

of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Geography

Bergstraße is located in southern

. As of the 2021 federal election, it is coterminous with the district of Bergstraße.

History

Bergstraße was created in 1949. In the 1949 election, it was Hesse constituency 22 in the numbering system. From 1953 through 1976, it was number 147. From 1980 through 1998, it was number 145. In the 2002 and 2005 elections, it was number 189. In the 2009 through 2021 elections, it was number 188. From the 2025 election, it has been number 187. Originally, the constituency was coterminous with the district of Bergstraße. In the 1965 through 1972 elections, it also contained the municipality of

Rothenberg Rothenberg is a village and a former municipality in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany. Since January 2018, it is part of the new town Oberzent. Geography Location Rothenberg lies at elevations between 200 and 500 m in the so ...

from the Erbach district. Since the 1976 election, it has again been coterminous with the Bergstraße district.

Members

The constituency was first represented by

Heinrich von Brentano Heinrich Joseph Maximilian Johann Maria von Brentano di Tremezzo (20 June 1904 – 14 November 1964), known professionally as Heinrich von Brentano, was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as Federal Ministe ...

of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1949 to 1965, followed by Carl Otto Lenz of the CDU until 1969. Wolfgang Schwabe won it for 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 Form ...

(SPD) in 1969 and served until 1976, when former member Lenz regained it for the CDU. Klaus Kübler won it back to the SPD in 1980, but Lenz was once again elected in 1983. Fellow CDU member Franz-Hermann Kappes then served from 1987 to 1994, followed by Michael Meister until 1998. Christine Lambrecht of the SPD won the constituency in 1998 and was representative until 2005. Former member Meister was elected again in 2005, and re-elected in 2009, 2013, 2017, and 2021.

Election results

2025 election

2021 election

2017 election

2013 election

2009 election

References

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