Most left-wing and right-wing German states

[I Stand With TRKL1917]

Does anyone here (I think there are some German posters here) know where the different German states rank on a scale from left wing to right wing? I know that Bavaria is the most right-wing, while the most left-wing would probably be Saxony-Anhalt or one of the city states, but I'm not sure where others would rank.

[palandio]

From left-wing to right-wing:

Bremen
Berlin
Hamburg



Saarland



Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Brandenburg


=== German average ===
Rhineland-Palatinate
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt (it's not 2002 anymore)

Baden-Württemberg
Thuringia



Bavaria, Saxony

Exact positions are discutible. The Eastern states are generally more idiosyncratic, but since the emergence of the AfD they have been more right-wing than before.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Bavaria is not "right-wing". Bavaria is a good Christian place which votes for good Christian candidates, unlike the degenerates in Öst Berlin. CSU is a moderate party. /s

(yes it's right-wing)

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

It should, however be mentioned that there are very left-wing bastions in Saxony and Bavaria and very, very right-wing places in Brandenburg

[palandio]

It should, however be mentioned that there are very left-wing bastions in Saxony and Bavaria and very, very right-wing places in Brandenburg

In Saxony that would be particularly parts of Leipzig (e.g. Connewitz) and to a lesser degree parts of Dresden (e.g. Neustadt) that are very left-wing.

In Bavaria the cities of Munich, Nuremberg and Fürth are to the left of the German average and e.g. Munich has had SPD mayors since WWII (except for 1980-86). Still these cities aren't more left-wing than other major German cities. And even inside these cities there are no quarters that would be as left-wing as Berlin's inner-city quarters and the quarters slightly to the west of Hamburg's center.

In Brandenburg it's particularly the Southeast that already voted more to the right than the rest of Brandenburg before the AfD surge and which since then has moved even more to the right.

[I Stand With TRKL1917]

From left-wing to right-wing:

Bremen
Berlin
Hamburg



Saarland



Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Brandenburg


=== German average ===
Rhineland-Palatinate
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt (it's not 2002 anymore)

Baden-Württemberg
Thuringia



Bavaria, Saxony

Exact positions are discutible. The Eastern states are generally more idiosyncratic, but since the emergence of the AfD they have been more right-wing than before.

Why would Brandenburg be more left-wing than other eastern states?

[Astatine]

From left-wing to right-wing:

Bremen
Berlin
Hamburg



Saarland



Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Brandenburg


=== German average ===
Rhineland-Palatinate
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt (it's not 2002 anymore)

Baden-Württemberg
Thuringia



Bavaria, Saxony

Exact positions are discutible. The Eastern states are generally more idiosyncratic, but since the emergence of the AfD they have been more right-wing than before.

No.
Saarland might have a strong Left Party and used to be a kind of stronghold for the Social Democrats, but that can simply be attributed to Oskar Lafontaine. The CDU in Saarland is the strongest state party in whole Germany (even stronger than the CSU in Bavaria) when looking at the results of the most recent state elections.

It is not technically a rural state, but rather a giant suburb with one major city (Saarbrücken). Most towns are mid-sized and used to be many smaller village municipalities that were merged in the 1970s. Even Saarbrücken is not as large is might seem (and it is really small), the inner town (excluding the outer suburbs) has a population of about 100'000, while the state as a whole is at about 1 million.

The suburban and partially rural structure combined with the Saarland citizens' general mentality due to the state's history results in a high rate of people who are engaged in the church (highest rate of church membership in whole Germany, ~63 % in Saarland vs. ~48 % in Germany), clubs (~29 % of all Germans are members of sport clubs, 38 % of all Saarländer), unions and parties. The latter benefits both CDU and SPD immensely, politicians have big networks, which is a reason why there is an overproportional number of Saarländer in high positions in federal politics (AKK, Altmeier, Maas, with some relicts from the past such as Simone Peter, Oskar Lafontaine, Reinhard Klimmt...).

So it has always been a structurally conservative state that has favored both major parties (FDP and Greens have always been historically weak besides the times when the FDP was known as pro-German DPS, AfD is not strong either). In fact, the CDU (respectively the pro-autonomy predecessor CVP) governed from 1947 until 1985, the SPD from 1985 until 1999 and ever since, CDU has been governing. Both CVP/CDU and SPD had [technical] absolute majorities in the state parliament for 25 respectively 14 years.

It is definitely to the right of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, NRW or Hesse. Overall, it is roughly divided and relatively centrist with a slight tilt to the left.

[Yeahsayyeah]

What's the measurement for left and right wingness, here?
 Saxony-Anhalt, the Land that will have the first AfD/CDU coalition
as German average?

[palandio]

I took the combined CDU/CSU/AfD/FDP and SPD/Left/Greens results at the last federal election as orientation. Not a perfect measure by far, but you have to start from somewhere.

Brandenburg has always been more sparsely populated and less industrial than e.g. Saxony, with a focus on big agriculture. So maybe socialism and its social and economic effects where perceived differently by the ordinary population there. But I think that a lot just comes down to the SPD after 1989 being successful at becoming the "natural governing party" in Brandenburg due to local and personal effects, whereas in Saxony it was the CDU (which came as a surprise to many).

Regarding the Saarland there might be a size bias effect. Both SPD and Left are much stronger than the national average in the Saarland. I know that it has tradionally been the most Catholic state in Germany and (well into the 80s) dominated by a Christian Social tradition. But remember that the Ruhr area only became an SPD stronghold in the 60s. In fact the Saar is a bit like a much less extreme small-town Ruhr, but unlike in NRW there are no other areas that would offset the general lean. The same goes for Hesse and Lower Saxony which have areas that are clearly more left-wing than the Saar, but also many areas that are clearly more right-wing. So maybe a ranking of German states should account for that size bias.

Regarding Saxony-Anhalt, I classified it as slightly right of center. As I said, the exact positions are debatable. This holds even more for Eastern Germany where it's debatable if you can measure "right-wing" on the same scale as in the West. That being said, Saxony-Anhalt was also the first state with a PDS-tolerated SPD-Greens minority government. What does that tell us? (Not a lot, I guess.) I don't think that it makes sense to completely change the ranking each time there is political turmoil about broadcasting fees or something similar. I mean, in Thuringia a guy was already elected governor with votes from the AfD until the election was reverted. Did this make Thuringia the most right-wing state in the nation? And when after that Germany's only Left governor was again elected, did that make Thuringia the most left-wing state? Should we change the ranking every day based on what political twitter considers important?