Heidelberg (electoral district)

274 Heidelberg
Electoral district for the Bundestag
Heidelberg in 2025
State	Baden-Württemberg
Population	324,700 (2019)
Electorate	218,431 (2021)
Major settlements	Heidelberg Weinheim Eppelheim
Area	305.6 km2
Current electoral district
Created	1949
Party	GRÜNE
Member	Franziska Brantner
Elected	2021

Heidelberg is an electoral constituency (German: Wahlkreis) represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 274. It is located in northwestern Baden-Württemberg, comprising the city of Heidelberg and the northern part of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district.

Heidelberg was created for the inaugural 1949 federal election. Since 2021, it has been represented by Franziska Brantner of the Alliance 90/The Greens.

Geography

Heidelberg is located in northwestern Baden-Württemberg. As of the 2021 federal election, it comprises the independent city of Heidelberg and the municipalities of Dossenheim, Edingen-Neckarhausen, Eppelheim, Heddesheim, Hemsbach, Hirschberg an der Bergstraße, Ilvesheim, Ladenburg, Laudenbach, Schriesheim, and Weinheim from the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district.

History

Heidelberg was created in 1949. In the 1965 through 1976 elections, it was named Heidelberg-Stadt. In the 1949 election, it was Württemberg-Baden Landesbezirk Baden constituency 3 in the number system. In the 1953 through 1961 elections, it was number 177. In the 1965 through 1976 elections, it was number 181. In the 1980 through 1998 elections, it was number 178. In the 2002 and 2005 elections, it was number 275. Since the 2009 election, it has been number 274.

Originally, the constituency comprised the independent city of Heidelberg and the Landkreis Heidelberg district. In the 1965 through 1972 elections, it comprised the city of Heidelberg, the Eppelheim municipality from the Landkreis Heidelberg district, and the municipalities of Altlußheim, Brühl, Hockenheim, Ketsch, Neulußheim, Oftersheim, Plankstadt, Reilingen, and Schwetzingen from the Landkreis Mannheim district. In the 1976 through 1998 elections, its borders did not change, but its area from the Landkreis Mannheim and Landkreis Heidelberg districts became part of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district. It acquired its current borders in the 2002 election.

Election	No.	Name	Borders
1949	3	Heidelberg	Heidelberg city Landkreis Heidelberg district
1953	177
1957
1961
1965	181	Heidelberg-Stadt	Heidelberg city Landkreis Heidelberg district (only Eppelheim municipality) Landkreis Mannheim district (only Altlußheim, Brühl, Hockenheim, Ketsch, Neulußheim, Oftersheim, Plankstadt, Reilingen, and Schwetzingen municipalities)
1969
1972
1976			Heidelberg city Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district (only Altlußheim, Brühl, Eppelheim, Hockenheim, Ketsch, Neulußheim, Oftersheim, Plankstadt, Reilingen, and Schwetzingen municipalities)
1980	178	Heidelberg
1983
1987
1990
1994
1998
2002	275		Heidelberg city Rhein-Neckar-Kreis district (only Dossenheim, Edingen-Neckarhausen, Eppelheim, Heddesheim, Hemsbach, Hirschberg an der Bergstraße, Ilvesheim, Ladenburg, Laudenbach, Schriesheim, and Weinheim municipalities)
2005
2009	274
2013
2017
2021
2025

Members

The constituency was first represented by Eduard Wahl of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1949 to 1969. It was won by Alex Möller of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1969, who served until 1976. Karl Weber of the CDU was elected in 1976, and served one term. Hartmut Soell regained it for the SPD in 1980. Udo Ehrbar of the CDU was representative from 1983 to 1994. Karl A. Lamers of the CDU was elected in 1994 and served one term. Lothar Binding of the SPD was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2002. Former member Lamers regained the constituency in 2005 and served as representative until 2021. Franziska Brantner won it for the Greens in 2021.

Election		Member	Party	%
	1949	Eduard Wahl	CDU	36.7
	1953			48.3
	1957			52.6
	1961			45.4
	1965			47.3
	1969	Alex Möller	SPD	45.8
	1972			49.6
	1976	Karl Weber	CDU	48.4
	1980	Hartmut Soell	SPD	44.9
	1983	Udo Ehrbar	CDU	48.9
	1987			43.9
	1990			42.8
	1994	Karl A. Lamers	CDU	43.2
	1998	Lothar Binding	SPD	44.5
	2002			42.9
	2005	Karl A. Lamers	CDU	38.7
	2009			36.1
	2013			40.9
	2017			32.7
	2021	Franziska Brantner	GRÜNE	30.2

Election results

2021 election

Federal election (2021): Heidelberg
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	Greens	Franziska Brantner		53,288	30.2	13.5	45,314	25.6	8.5
	CDU	Alexander Föhr		42,582	24.1	8.6	36,783	20.8	9.1
	SPD	Elisabeth Krämer		35,602	20.2	5.9	40,275	22.8	4.3
	FDP	Dennis Nusser		15,906	9.0	2.4	23,240	13.1	0.5
	AfD	Malte Kaufmann		10,823	6.1	2.8	10,821	6.1	3.4
	Left	Zara Kızıltaş		6,987	4.0	2.1	8,624	4.9	3.5
	dieBasis	Ulrich Becker		2,976	1.7		2,466	1.4
	FW	Daniel Brenzel		2,839	1.6	0.6	2,011	1.1	0.6
	Human Environment Animal Protection						1,761	1.0	0.3
	PARTEI	Franziskus Schmitz		2,151	1.2	0.0	1,470	0.8	0.2
	Volt	Verena Willaredt		1,680	1.0		1,256	0.7
	KlimalisteBW	Friederike Benjes		1,070	0.6
	Team Todenhöfer						624	0.4
	Pirates						486	0.3	0.1
	Humanists	Wasilios Vlachopoulos		592	0.3		379	0.2
	ÖDP						367	0.2	0.0
	Gesundheitsforschung						186	0.1
	Bündnis C						184	0.1
	DiB						161	0.1	0.1
	NPD						114	0.1	0.1
	Bürgerbewegung						97	0.1
	MLPD	Bernhard Schweigert		141	0.1	0.0	65	0.0	0.0
	Bündnis 21						44	0.0
	DKP						43	0.0	0.0
	LKR						33	0.0
Informal votes				1,231			1,064
Total valid votes				176,637			176,804
Turnout				177,868	81.4	0.8
	Greens gain from CDU		Majority	10,706	6.1

2017 election

Federal election (2017): Heidelberg
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	CDU	Y Karl A. Lamers		58,019	32.7	8.2	53,138	29.9	7.6
	SPD	Lothar Binding		46,219	26.0	4.5	32,806	18.4	4.9
	Greens	Franziska Brantner		29,664	16.7	4.4	30,491	17.1	2.4
	AfD	Malte Kaufmann		15,803	8.9	4.0	16,850	9.5	3.3
	FDP	Dennis Nusser		11,769	6.6	3.5	22,556	12.7	5.7
	Left	Sahra Mirow		10,751	6.1	1.9	14,812	8.3	2.7
	PARTEI	Björn Leuzinger		2,183	1.2	0.8	1,780	1.0
	Human Environment Animal Protection						1,151	0.6	0.1
	FW	Bernhard Barutta		1,792	1.0	0.5	990	0.6	0.1
	Pirates	Alexander Schestag		1,174	0.7	1.4	734	0.4	2.3
	Tierschutzallianz						389	0.2
	DiB						388	0.2
	ÖDP						386	0.2	0.0
	NPD						303	0.2	0.5
	BGE						297	0.2
	V-Partei³						248	0.1
	DM						199	0.1
	Menschliche Welt						167	0.1
	MLPD	Bernhard Schweigert		196	0.1		83	0.0	0.0
	DKP						40	0.0
	DIE RECHTE						24	0.0
Informal votes				1,568			1,306
Total valid votes				177,570			177,832
Turnout				179,138	82.2	4.3
	CDU hold		Majority	11,800	6.7	3.6

2013 election

Federal election (2013): Heidelberg
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	CDU	Y Karl A. Lamers		68,061	40.9	4.8	62,331	37.5	6.8
	SPD	Lothar Binding		50,850	30.6	0.9	38,915	23.4	1.4
	Greens	Franziska Brantner		20,392	12.3	3.3	24,601	14.8	2.8
	AfD	Jens Zeller		8,143	4.9		10,219	6.1
	Left	Sahra Mirow		6,892	4.1	1.5	9,413	5.7	1.7
	FDP	Dirk Niebel		5,180	3.1	8.9	11,626	7.0	10.7
	Pirates	Stevan Cirkovic		3,430	2.1		4,581	2.8	0.6
	Human Environment Animal Protection						1,187	0.7	0.1
	NPD	Jan Jaeschke		1,210	0.7	0.3	1,136	0.7	0.1
	FW	Kay-Olaf Ballerstädt		776	0.5		766	0.5
	PARTEI	Andrej Kilian		722	0.4
	ÖDP	Martin Weinmann		663	0.4		405	0.2	0.0
	RENTNER						289	0.2
	REP						268	0.2	0.3
	Volksabstimmung						188	0.1	0.0
	PBC						145	0.1	0.1
	Party of Reason						121	0.1
	BIG						85	0.1
	PRO						76	0.0
	MLPD						44	0.0	0.0
	BüSo						10	0.0	0.0
Informal votes				1,858			1,771
Total valid votes				166,319			166,406
Turnout				168,177	77.9	1.0
	CDU hold		Majority	17,211	10.3	3.9

2009 election

Federal election (2009): Heidelberg
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	CDU	Y Karl A. Lamers		57,963	36.1	2.6	49,296	30.6	2.9
	SPD	Lothar Binding		47,683	29.7	8.7	35,337	22.0	9.7
	Greens	Fritz Kuhn		24,985	15.6	4.5	28,349	17.6	2.4
	FDP	Dirk Niebel		19,314	12.0	4.7	28,419	17.7	5.1
	Left	Carsten Labudda		8,985	5.6	2.6	11,823	7.3	3.0
	Pirates						3,396	2.1
	NPD	Jan Jaeschke		1,652	1.0	0.4	1,318	0.8	0.2
	Human Environment Animal Protection						958	0.6
	REP						686	0.4	0.1
	ÖDP						364	0.2
	PBC						288	0.2	0.0
	DIE VIOLETTEN						285	0.2
	Volksabstimmung						239	0.1
	DVU						71	0.0
	BüSo						62	0.0	0.0
	MLPD						57	0.0	0.0
	ADM						40	0.0
Informal votes				2,338			1,932
Total valid votes				160,582			160,988
Turnout				162,920	76.9	4.9
	CDU hold		Majority	10,280	6.4	6.1