Bergstraße (''

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Mountain Road'') 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 **Ge ...

: ''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 Common ...

. 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 thei ...

. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 188. It is located in southern

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

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

Michael Meister Michael 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. From 2018 until 2021 he also served as Parliam ...

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. Since the 2009 election, it has been number 188. 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 sou ...

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 Minister ...

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 Fo ...

(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

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)