How much do you know about German politics [and history]?

[minionofmidas]

1. Name the current chancellor and his/her party. (2 points)
Angela Merkel, CDU.

2. As a federal republic, Germany comprises subdivisions called Länder. How many of them exist? Also name the largest and the smallest by population, if you can (3)
16. North Rhine Westphalia. Bremen.

3. What is the German parliament called? (1)
I am not certain it even has a name, actually. "The German parliament" would be both chambers collectively. You probably mean the Bundestag.

4. Name all eight German chancellors since 1949 and their party affiliation. (8 )
Konrad Adenauer, CDU. Ludwig Erhard, CDU. Kurt Georg Kiesinger, CDU. Herbert "Willy Brandt" Frahm, SPD. Helmut Schmidt, SPD. Helmut Kohl, CDU. Gerhard Schröder, SPD. Angela Merkel, CDU.

5. Currently, six parties hold seats in the German federal parliament. Name them. (3)
CDU, SPD, FDP, Bündnis 90/Grüne, Linkspartei, CSU.

6. Which parties have formed the German federal government from 1998-2005, which from 2005-2009, and which do since 2009? (3)
SPD/Greens, SPD/CDU/CSU, CDU/FDP/CSU.

7. Name four parties that gained more than 5% of the vote in at least two elections during the Weimar republic era. (4)
Zentrum, KPD, SPD, NSDAP, DDP, DNVP, DVP (I think). BVP perhaps as well?

8. Who were Konrad Adenauer, Rosa Luxemburg, Paul von Hindenburg and Hermann Göring? (4)
First postwar Chancellor. Polish left-wing socialist theoretician who fleetingly was very influential on the German (proto-Communist) left during the revolutionary days of 1918 and was murdered and then iconized for her troubles. A senile asshat and general, President of Germany 1925 to his death in 34. A fat buffoon and close ally of Hitler's.

9. What happened on July the 20th, 1944? (1)
Some nazis (basically) staged an unsuccessful coup against Hitler, starting with a failed assassination attempt.

10. Which party gained the most votes in all federal elections in Germany from 1919 to July 1932? (1)
SPD. Not in July 32 though, so it should be 1919 to 1930.

11. In German political discourse, parties are often connected with colors. What color/colors refer to which party/parties? (4)
Red - SPD and also Left (as in, "red-red coalition")
Green - Greens, duh
Black - CDU and CSU, formerly Zentrum
Yellow - FDP

INTERMEDIATE (33)

1. In the 2009 federal elections, two parties got more than 1%, but less than 5% of the vote. Which? (2)
Pirates and ...NPD?

2. Which German party was – except for one short interregnum of about two weeks - part of every national government between 1969 and 1998? (1)
FDP.

3. How is the German federal parliament elected? Explain the voting system, roughly. (3)
National PR with a five percent threshold. And a twist that can throw the seat distribution off in favor of the strongest party if it's not very strong. That's because parties' seats are ridistributed to state parties, and there's also single-member constituencies, and if you win more of these than you're due seats in that particular state you're allowed to keep the change.

4. Name the ten German Federal Presidents since 1949 (10)
Theodor Heuss, FDP. Heinrich Lübke, CDU. Gustav Heinemann, SPD. Walter Scheel, FDP. Karl Carstens, CDU. Richard Freiherr von Weizsäcker, CDU. Roman Herzog, CDU. Johannes Rau, SPD. Horst Köhler, CDU. Christian Wulff, CDU.

5. In the 2009 federal elections, the SPD remained the strongest party in only one state. In which one? (1)
Brandenburg

6. Which German chancellor was nicknamed Birne (Pear)? (1)
Kohl

7. Name four parties that gained more than 5% of the vote in at least two elections during the German Empire 1871-1918. (4)
It was all single member, lots of parties didn't run nearly anywhere, and party affiliations among the bourgeois parties could be somewhat fluid. But Zentrum, SPD, and probably all of Konservative, Deutsche Reichspartei (aka Freikonservative), Nationalliberale, Freisinn under whatever name it used at the time. Don't think the Volkspartei (aka Democrats) ever managed that share. They're usually lumped in with the Freisinn, which was often split into two parties, as "Liberals" or "Left Liberals" - not a period term - anyways.

8. Who were Friedrich Ebert, Gustav Stresemann, August Bebel and Kurt-Georg Kiesinger? (4)
Social Democratic politico, first President of the Weimar Republic and a traitor to his class and his people. DVP politico of the Weimar era. SPD "leader" / style icon for most of the Kaiserreich. CDU prime minister of Baden-Württemberg in the 60s and then a hapless Chancellor, leading a Grand Coalition in 1966-9.

9. What happened on August the 13th, 1961? (1)
Someone built himself a wall.

10. Since 1945, the best result a party ever gained in any state election in Germany was 64,5%. Which party won so many votes, in what state, and in what year? (3)
CSU, Bavaria, one of Goppel's elections (so 62, 66, 70 or 74). Although it's possible that this is a trick question, and the real answer is the SPD in Bremen somewhere around that time.

11.Who said “We want to dare more democracy”? (3)
Willy Brandt. Said it as if he meant it, too, but of course he didn't.

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Hard (33 points)

1. Only three times since 1949, the SPD gained more votes than the CDU/CSU in a federal election. Name the three election years. (3)
1972, 1998, 2002

2. What electoral system was used for the Reichstag elections in the German Empire 1871-1918? Who had the right to vote? (2)
Single member constituencies, runoff between the top two finishers if no one got 50%. All adult males (or was it all males over 25?) Horribly malapportioned constituencies that never got redrawn despite it being mandated by the Constitution.

3. In the federal elections of 2002, 2005 and 2009, the Greens won one out the 299 singe member constituencies. In which federal state, which constituency, and who won it? (3)
Berlin, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg-Prenzlauer Berg Ost, Hans-Christian Ströbele.

4. How is the German head of state, the Bundespräsident, elected? Explain the process, broadly. (2)
He's elected by the Bundesversammlung, which consists of all MPs and a corresponding number of people chosen proportionally be the state legislatures, and which exists for this purpose only. Up to three rounds of voting, you need a majority on the first two. Simple plurality will suffice on the third.

5. In 1990, two important German politicians were badly injured in assassination attempts, both survived though. Who were they? (2)
Wolfgang Schäuble, Oskar Lafontaine. Though I thought Oskar's injuries were fairly mild. Schäuble of course has been wheelchair bound ever since.

6. Of all German Länder, three of them carry the purely ceremonial title Freistaat (Free State). Name them. (3)
Bavaria, Saxony, Thuringia.

7. There are three recognized language minorities in Germany. Name them. (3)
Are there? I had no idea. Uh... North Frisian, Saterland Frisian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian? Take your pick at what's excluded. Or maybe they're grouped two-and-two even though each and any linguist in the world would shriek in disgust, and the third is Low German. Yeah. I think that's what I'll go by.

8. Who were Gustav Noske, Alfred Hugenberg, Gregor Strasser and Heinrich Brüning? (4)
Ebert's henchman / minister for the army who had the German Revolution extinguished with fire and sword despite being supposedly a "social democrat". A far-right publisher, influential in Hitler's rise even though he preferred the DNVP. Leader of that minority faction in the NSDAP that thought the "kinda socialist except that we hate the internationalism that is an intrinsic part of that" was supposed to have a meaning and not just sound good. Hitler had him murdered, of course. Zentrum politician and Prime Minister of 1930-2. Had no parliamentary support and governed mostly by decree, but at least he tried. Still, first step of a slippery slope that led into Hitler's dictatorship. Was in exile in America during the nazi years, IIRC.

9. Four historical events with great impact on German history took place on a November the 9th. Name them. (4)
1848, murder of Robert Blum by Austrian authorities. 1918, resignation of the emperor. 1923, Ludendorff's hilarious coup attempt that propelled Hitler to national prominence. 1989, the Politbüro decides that Ausreiseanträge will from now on be processed fast and always agreed to. Schabowski holds a press conference. Western politicans deliberately(?) misunderstand him, think the Wall is down, and publicly celebrate the fact that the Wall is down. East Berliners watch Western tv and think the Wall is down. They go see for themselves, and it is not. Not for long, though. Oh, and there was a staged pogrom in 1938 that came to be seen (with a lot of justification) as a start of the second phase of Hitler's rule, and emblematic of his hatred of Jews. So that makes five.

10. Who are the current heads of government in the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westfalia, Hamburg and Hesse? (4)
Horst Seehofer, CSU. Hannelore Kraft, SPD. Olaf Scholz, SPD. Volker Bouffier, CDU.

11. Who said “Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided - [...]- but by iron and blood"? (3)
Bismarck?



EDIT: I can't believe I didn't think of Danish. Autschn.