Election type

The Federal Returning Office (Die Bundeswahlleiterin), Germans abroad (Deutsche im Ausland), accessed 18 March 2025

The Federal Returning Office (Die Bundeswahlleiterin), Federal Elections Act of 1993 (last amended on 7 March 2024) (Bundeswahlgesetz (BWG) (zuletzt geändert am 7. März 2024)), accessed 18 March 2025.

Act is only available in German as of the last access date.

§ 12 Wahlrech

(2) Wahlberechtigt sind bei Vorliegen der sonstigen Voraussetzungen auch diejenigen Deutschen im Sinne des Artikels 116 Absatz 1 des Grundgesetzes, die am Wahltag außerhalb der Bundesrepublik Deutschland leben, sofern sie 

1. nach Vollendung ihres vierzehnten Lebensjahres mindestens drei Monate ununterbrochen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland eine Wohnung innegehabt oder sich sonst gewöhnlich aufgehalten haben und dieser Aufenthalt nicht länger als 25 Jahre zurück liegt oder. 

2. aus anderen Gründen persönlich und unmittelbar Vertrautheit mit den politischen Verhältnissen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland erworben haben und von ihnen betroffen sind.

See also:

The decision of the Constitutional Court annulled the provision that a German person living abroad on the election day is a voter only if he or she had a three-month long residence in Germany before leaving the country. See the decision (only in German).

For EU Parliamentary Elections see below:

European elections, Your right to vote, accessed 18 March 2025

The voting right of Germans living abroad dates back to German Reich legislation relating to public service personnel: public servants and workers in public enterprises who lived abroad were also entitled to vote provided that their place of residence was close to the frontier of the German Reich.

This provision was initially carried over into the Federal Elections Acts of 1949 and 1953 and thereafter extended, in the Federal Elections Act of 1956, by a voting right for family members living in the same household. At the same time the requirement was deleted that the place of residence be close to the frontier. 

By amendment of the Federal Elections Act in 1985, the provision was extended considerably through the introduction of the “model of combination”. On the one hand, a voting right was introduced for an unlimited period of time for all Germans living in the respective member states of the Council of Europe, provided that they had had a place of residence in the former territory of the Federal Republic after 23 May 1949 or had otherwise had their habitual abode there for an uninterrupted period of at least 3months (“Council-of-Europe solution”).

On the other hand, a voting right was established under the same condition for all Germans living in other territories outside the Federal Republic of Germany, provided that their relocation had not taken place more than 10 years earlier (“time-limit solution”). In 1998 the time limit was extended to a period of 25 years.

By amendment of Section 12 (2) of the Federal Elections Act in 2008, a uniform provision applicable to all Germans living outside the Federal Republic of Germany was created in accordance with the “Council of Europe solution”. Pursuant to that provision, which was first applied in the 2009 Bundestag Election, all Germans living outside the Federal Republic of Germany had the right to vote if they had had a place of residence in the present territory of the Federal Republic, that means either in the “old” or the “new” Lander, after 23 May 1949 or otherwise had had their habitual abode there for an uninterrupted period of at least 3 months, provided that the other conditions laid down in electoral legislation were met.

The above-mentioned time limit of 3 months did not apply to returnees.

By decision of 4 July 2012 (file references: 2 BvC1/11 and 2 BvC 2/11), the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that Section 12(2), first sentence, of the Federal Elections Act was incompatible with the principle that elections should be general, which results from Article 38 (1) of the Basic Law, and declared it invalid.