Snapshots of the German Wahlkampf: political posters

I have been taking plenty of pictures of German political party posters. I have found them to be much more entertaining than those of the U.S. But then again being a different country, almost everything is pretty interesting. Anything I think that the Green Party definitely has the most interesting posters out of all the parties (with the Marxist-Leninist Partei of Deutschland a close second). Here's a few examples I have come across (with a brief translation, those who speak German feel to correct me).

Roughly translated as "Men's pay for Female work". Better udnerstood as "Equal pay for Equal work."

"Away with oil!" at the bottom means "Do with" and then the Green Party



Hello Hippie! This is the Green party candidate for the Radolfzell area, Till Seiler. This picture of the Green Party pretty much summarizes the image the party has in America. In Germany the party has been a much bigger player in electoral politics so it seems surprising to have someone like this as the candidate. But Radolfzell and the surrounding areas are pretty conservative so maybe he is "sacrificial lamb" the candidate with out a real chance of getting elected anyway. Of course in German elections you don't have to get the majority of the vote to be the single representative of a district. It is based on proportional representation. If a party gets over a certain portion of the vote, then it is entitled to a share of seats in the Bundestag. Half of the seats in the Bundestag are directly elected and the other half is decided by the share of the vote that the parties get. It also means that with election that a new number of seats are set each time.
A German voter votes twice with their secret ballot mandated by the Basic Law (part of Germany's constitution). Once for the direct candidate in the district. Germany has 299 electoral districts which means 299 members of the Bundestag are directly elected (Wahlkriese), unlike the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives which are all directly elected. the other half is selcted by a party vote, and from the percentage of the vote eacch party gets, then the party selects its representatives from a list in each Bundesland or state. Imagine if the Democrats or Republicans all their party favorites even if they did not win in their home districts. Somehow I doubt Americans would go for it. Anyway that is very quick breakdown of how it works. Check out www.germany-info.org to learn more about how all this works (which is what I did.)
Finally, this is pretty much an anti-genetically modified foods poster.