On Sunday, 14 March 2021, Germany will hold state elections in the western Länder of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. Although the states are relatively small – with roughly 7.7 million and 3.1 eligible voters, respectively – these elections mark the beginning of Germany’s Superwahljahr, which will culminate with federal elections in late September and the formation of a new government with a new Chancellor for the first time in 16 years.
Important in their own right because state governments are responsible for issues such as education policy, justice, and policing, state elections often serve as a test of the public mood toward the federal government and the political parties.
Join us on the day after the state elections for an assessment of the results and Germany’s party landscape in an election year from Politics Editor for ZEIT ONLINE Katharina Schuler and Florian Naumann of Merkur.de.
Florian Naumann is Team Leader and Editor in the Politics Department of Merkur.de – the online branch of Münchner Merkur, one of Munich’s traditional newspapers. Before joining Merkur.de in 2016, he worked as a freelance journalist for German newswires such as epd and dapd in Munich, Berlin, and Erfurt. Having studied Politics in Munich and Lund (Sweden) and finished his M.A. with a thesis on Political Theory and Philosophy, his journalistic focus is on German domestic politics including democratic practice and standards, social issues, and developments within the CDU/CSU, SPD and Greens. Besides his work in journalism, Florian Naumann engages in the promotion of culture and music as a member of the board of the non-profit association innen.aussen.raum in Munich.
Katharina Schuler is an Editor in the Politics, Economics, and Society Department for ZEIT ONLINE. An early adaptor to online news production, she has been with ZEIT ONLINE since 2005. Prior to that, she worked for a regional newspaper in Thuringia and as a freelance journalist for the Netzeitung (the first newspaper in Germany to be published only on the internet) and for other German newspapers such as Der Tagesspiegel and taz.
Ms. Schuler has focused on German domestic politics – including in-depth work on the CDU/CSU, the Greens, and the Left Party – as well as topical issues such as the refugee crisis and its consequences for German politics. Born and raised in southern Germany, she studied History, Philosophy, and Literature in Freiburg, Bielefeld, and Berlin – and later Journalism in Mainz.
