Politics of Schleswig-Holstein

The politics of Schleswig-Holstein takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Federal Government of Germany exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of Germany including Schleswig-Holstein. The state has a multi-party system.

Politics of Schleswig-Holstein

Country	Germany
Legislative branch
Legislature	Schleswig-Holsteinischer Landtag
Speaker	Kristina Herbst, CDU
Meeting place	Kiel
Executive branch
Minister-President	Daniel Günther
1. Deputy Minister-President	Aminata Toure
Judicial branch
Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesverfassungsgericht
President	Christoph Brüning

History

From 1919 to 1928, the largest parties in Schleswig-Holstein were the Social Democratic Party, German Democratic Party, Conservative Party and German Peoples Party.^[1][2][3] From 1930 onwards, Schleswig-Holstein was a bastion of Nazi support.^[1] In the 1930 Reicshtag elections, the Nazi Party received their highest vote share in Schleswig-Holstein with 27%.^[1] In 1932, the Nazi Party won 51% of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein, the only district where Nazis received an absolute majority.^[1][4] The rural areas of Schleswig-Holstein were particularly likely to support the Nazis.^[1][2][5]

Executive Branch

Minister-Presidents since 1949

Since the creation of the Federal Republic in 1945, the state's Minister-Presidents have been:^[6]

Period	Minister-President	Party
1945–1947	Theodor Steltzer	(CDU)
1947–1949	Hermann Lüdemann	(SPD)
1949–1950	Bruno Diekmann	(SPD)
1950–1951	Walter Bartram	(CDU)
1951–1954	Friedrich-Wilhelm Lübke	(CDU)
1954–1963	Kai-Uwe von Hassel	(CDU)
1963–1971	Helmut Lemke	(CDU)
1971–1982	Gerhard Stoltenberg[7]	(CDU)
1982–1987	Uwe Barschel	(CDU)
1987–1988	Henning Schwarz	(CDU)
1988–1993	Björn Engholm	(SPD)
1993–2005	Heide Simonis	(SPD)
2005–2012	Peter Harry Carstensen	(CDU)
2012– 2016	Torsten Albig	(SPD)
2017–	Daniel Günther	(CDU)

Current Cabinet

See also: Second Günther cabinet

Portfolio	Minister		Party		Took office	Left office	State secretaries
Minister-President		Daniel Günther born (1973-07-24) 24 July 1973 (age 51)		CDU	29 June 2022	Incumbent
Deputy Minister-President		Aminata Touré born (1992-11-15) 15 November 1992 (age 32)		GRÜNE	1 August 2024	Incumbent
Minister for Social Affairs, Youth, Family, Seniors, Integration and Equality					29 June 2022	Incumbent	Johannes Albig
Deputy Minister-President Minister for Finance		Monika Heinold born (1958-12-30) 30 December 1958 (age 66)		GRÜNE	29 June 2022	1 August 2024	Silke Torp Oliver Rabe
Minister for Finance		Silke Schneider born (1967-09-02) 2 September 1967 (age 57)		GRÜNE	1 August 2024	Incumbent	Silke Torp Oliver Rabe
Minister for Justice and Health		Kerstin von der Decken born (1968-11-22) 22 November 1968 (age 56)		CDU	29 June 2022	Incumbent	Otto Carstens Oliver Grundei
Minister for Education, Training, Science, Research and Culture		Karin Prien born (1965-06-26) 26 June 1965 (age 59)		CDU	29 June 2022	Incumbent	Dorit Stenke Guido Wendt
Minister for Interior, Communities, Housing and Sport		Sabine Sütterlin-Waack born (1958-02-15) 15 February 1958 (age 67)		CDU	29 June 2022	Incumbent	Jörg Sibbel Magdalena Finke
Minister for Energy Transition, Climate Protection, Environment and Nature		Tobias Goldschmidt born (1981-09-16) 16 September 1981 (age 43)		GRÜNE	29 June 2022	Incumbent	Katja Günther Joschka Knuth
Minister for Economics, Transport, Labour, Technology and Tourism		Claus Ruhe Madsen born (1972-08-27) 27 August 1972 (age 52)		CDU(Independent until May 2023, CDU nomination)	29 June 2022	Incumbent	Tobias von der Heide Julia Carstens
Minister for Agriculture, Rural Areas, Europe and Consumer Protection		Werner Schwarz born (1960-04-10) 10 April 1960 (age 65)		CDU	29 June 2022	Incumbent	Anne Benett-Sturies
Chief of the State Chancellery		Dirk Schrödter born (1978-10-17) 17 October 1978 (age 46)		CDU	29 June 2022	Incumbent	Johannes Callsen Sandra Gerken

Legislative Branch

See also: Schleswig-Holsteinischer Landtag

The last elections were held on 8 May 2022.^[8]

See also: 2022 Schleswig-Holstein state election

Election results by percentage of Votes since 1949

Year	CDU	Green	SPD	FDP	SSW	AfD	BHE
19474	34,1	-	43,8	5,0	9,3	-
19505	19,8	-	27,5	7,1	5,5	-	23,4
19546	32,2	-	33,2	7,5	3,5	-	14,0
19587	44,4	-	35,9	5,4	2,8	-	6,9
1962	45,0	-	39,2	7,9	2,3	-	4,2
19678	46,0	-	39,4	5,9	1,9	-	-
1971	51,9	-	41,0	3,8	1,4	-	-
1975	50,4	-	40,1	7,1	1,4	-	-
1979	48,3	2,4	41,7	5,7	1,4	-	-
1983	49,0	3,6	43,7	2,2	1,3	-	-
1987	42,6	3,9	45,2	5,2	1,5	-	-
1988	33,3	2,9	54,8	4,4	1,7	-	-
19929	33,8	5,0	46,2	5,6	1,9	-	-
199610	37,2	8,1	39,8	5,7	2,5	-	-
2000	35,2	6,2	43,1	7,6	4,1	-	-
2005	40,2	6,2	38,7	6,6	3,6	-	-
2009	31,5	12,4	25,4	14,9	4,3	-	-
2012	30,8	13,2	30,4	8,2	4,6	-	-
2017[9]	32,0	12,9	27,3	11,5	3,3	5,9	-
2022[8]	43,4	18,3	16,0	6,4	5,7	4,4	-

Election results by distribution of seats since 1947

Distribution of Seats in the 20th Schleswig-Holstein Landtag

See also: Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein

Year	Total	CDU	Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen	SPD	FDP	SSW	AfD	BHE
1947	70	21	-	43		6	-
1950	69	16	-	19	8	4	-	15
1954	69	25	-	25	5	-	-	10
1958	69	33	-	26	3	2	-	5
1962	69	34	-	29	5	1	-	-
1967	73	34	-	30	4	1	-	-
1971	73	40	-	32	-	1	-	-
1975	73	37	-	30	5	1	-	-
1979	73	37	-	31	4	1	-	-
1983	74	39	-	34	-	1	-	-
1987	74	33	-	36	4	1	-	-
1988	74	27	-	46	-	1	-	-
1992	89	32	-	45	5	1	-	-
1996	75	30	6	33	4	2	-	-
2000	89	33	5	41	7	3	-	-
2005	69	30	4	29	4	2	-	-
2009	95	34	12	25	14	4	-	-
2012	69		10	22	6	3	-	-
2017[9]	73	25	10	21	9	3	5	-
2022[10]	69	34	14	12	5	4	-	-

• 
  1st Landtag, following 1947 election
• 
  2nd Landtag, following 1950 election
• 
  3rd Landtag, following 1954 election
• 
  4th Landtag, following 1958 election
• 
  5th Landtag, following 1962 election
• 
  6th Landtag, following 1967 election
• 
  7th Landtag, following 1971 election
• 
  8th Landtag, following 1975 election
• 
  9th Landtag, following 1979 election
• 
  10th Landtag, following 1983 election
• 
  11th Landtag, following 1987 election
• 
  12th Landtag, following 1988 election
• 
  13th Landtag, following 1992 election
• 
  14th Landtag, following 1996 election
• 
  15th Landtag, following 2000 election
• 
  16th Landtag, following 2005 election
• 
  17th Landtag, following 2009 election
• 
  18th Landtag, following 2013 election
• 
  19th Landtag, following 2017 election
• 
  20th Landtag, following 2022 election

Constituencies in the Landtag

• Nordfriesland-Nord (01)
• Nordfriesland-Süd (02)
• Flensburg (03)
• Flensburg-Land (04)
• Schleswig (05)
• Dithmarschen-Schleswig (06)
• Dithmarschen-Süd (07)
• Echernförde (08)
• Rendsburg-Ost (09)
• Rendsburg (10)
• Neumünster (11)
• Kiel-Nord (12)
• Kiel-West (13)
• Kiel-Ost (14)
• Plön-Nord (15)
• Plön-Ostholstein (16)
• Ostholstein-Nord (17)
• Ostholstein-Süd (18)
• Steinburg-West (19)
• Steinburg-Ost (20)
• Elmshorn (21)
• Pinneberg-Nord (22)
• Pinneberg-Elbmarschen (23)
• Pinneberg (24)
• Segeberg-West (25)
• Segeberg-Ost (26)
• Norderstedt (27)
• Stormarn-Nord (28)
• Stormarn-Mitte (29)
• Stormarn-Süd (30)
• Lübeck-Ost (31)
• Lübeck-West (32)
• Lübeck-Süd (33)
• Lauenburg-Nord (34)
• Lauenburg-Süd (35)

Judicial Branch

The Schleswig-Holstein Landesverfassungsgericht was formed in 2008.^[11] Until then, Schleswig-Holstein was the last German state without a constitutional court.^[11]