Study title

The Politbarometer has been conducted since 1977 on an almost monthly basis by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen on behalf of the Second German Television (ZDF). Since 1990, this database has also been available for the new German states. The survey focuses on the opinions and attitudes of the voting-age population in the Federal Republic on current political issues, parties, politicians, and voting behavior. From 1990 to 1995 and from 1999 onward, the Politbarometer surveys were conducted separately both in the newly formed eastern and in the western German states (Politbarometer East and Politbarometer West). The separate monthly surveys of a year are integrated into a cumulative data set that includes all surveys of a year and all variables of the respective year. Starting in 2003, the Politbarometer short surveys, collected with varying frequency throughout the year, are integrated into the annual cumulation.The following topics were surveyed again identically at every time of survey: most important political problems in the Federal Republic; party preference (Sunday question, rank order procedure); party inclination and party identification; behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election; sympathy scale for the parties and selected politicians; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; perceived jeopardy to personal job as well as that of close persons; union membership; religiousness; telephone in residence. The following questions were posed in at least one or more survey months: absentee ballot or voting in the polling station; certainty and time of personal voting decision; attitude to a one-party government of CDU/CSU or SPD; satisfaction with the result of the Federal Parliament election; coalition preference; attitude to a statement of willingness to form a coalition by the SPD; attitude to a red-green minority government with toleration by the PDS; preference for one-party government and party preferred for this; assessment of the chances...