Parteispenden (Party contributions)

[Oliver]

JSIV asked me about the Party contributions in Germany in another thread:

Do you have a source that lists the donations the individual German parties receive from non-public sources (private individuals/corporations in the EU) as well as their public funding?

How is the amount of public funding they receive calculated? Is there an upper ceiling that gets lower depending on how much non-public funding they get?

I'd be grateful for any details you can give me. I'm very skeptical of your claims that they get by on "tax money" alone. They may not be standing on the corner begging for money, but surely they have their ways of raising funds. Certainly the large parties must get plenty of money from other sources?

From what I've been able to gather, the US actually has some of the most restrictive campaign financing laws in the western world, outright banning direct donations from sources like corporations, government contractors, and unions (they're particularly powerful here in Norway, and big donators).

First of all - I'm no expert since German politics bores me to death.
But yes, it's true that there are party contributions and there also
were some scandals about that in the past.

However - as far I know there aren't any fund-raiser for elections
and I'm not sure if this would even violate current law since the
Party has to pay for a party members race.

According to Wikipedia, Party contributions aren't limited. Contributions
above 10,000€ must be published within the "statement of account".

Wiki quotes that about 15% comes from contributions and that
for each Euro being contributed, an additional 0,38 Euro are subsidized
by the Government. (Maximum for subsidies is 3300 Euro)

There are also some Graphs to the biggest contributors:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parteispende

1. 2.715.400 € Verband der Bayerischen Metall- und Elektro-Industrie
2. 2.072.330 € Deutsche Bank AG
3. 1.840.780 € Daimler Chrysler AG
4. 1.478.994 € BMW AG(*
5. 1.143.500 € Altana AG(*
6. 1.095.000 € Südwestmetall
7. 1.050.015 € Allianz AG
8. 1.011.000 € Verband der Chemischen Industrie e. V.
9. 734.500 € Porsche AG
10. 600.000 € E.ON AG

Here is the official introduction to the election process in Germany:
http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/parliament/elections/index.html
http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/parliament/elections/election_mp.html

And here's more info concerning Party-Funding:
German Bundestag: Party funding
http:/ / www.bundestag.de/ htdocs_e/ documents/ party_funding_05.pdf
http:/ / www.bundestag.de/ htdocs_e/ documents/ party_funding_01.pdf
Overview - Final determination of partial public funding for the year 2000

Related laws concerning Parties:
http:/ / www.bundestag.de/ htdocs_e/ parliament/ function/ legal/ memlaw.pdf
http:/ / www.bundestag.de/ htdocs_e/ parliament/ function/ legal/ politicalparties.pdf