ABSTRACT
Television in Germany was in its infancy, when party spots appeared for the first time during the 1957 parliamentary election campaign. Political advertising was only permitted during the last weeks of the election campaign. Germany features a parliamentary system which is dominated by parties. Germany’s electoral system further adds to the influential role of the parties. It is a mixed-member proportional system giving each voter two votes. Since about the mid 1970s, German parties have focused their election campaigns on television. German media law is very fragmented, which is mostly due to the fact that the legislative jurisdiction for the media lies with the 16 federal states. Due to Germany’s electoral system, only parties and not individual candidates can get broadcast time for their electoral advertising. Each party registered for an election has the right to obtain free airtime on the public television channels. In Germany, research into party advertising took off in the early 1990s.
