Public money,
published gifts.

The rules

What parties
may take.

• €35,000Published at once

  A donation above €35,000 must be reported to the Bundestag President immediately and is published promptly with the donor's name (§ 25(3) PartG).

• €10,000Named in the annual report

  Donors giving more than €10,000 in a year are named in the party's annual statement of accounts (Rechenschaftsbericht), published as a Bundestag paper.

• €500No anonymous gifts above

  Anonymous donations over €500 and cash over €1,000 must not be accepted; foreign donations only from EU citizens and companies, with exceptions for parties of national minorities (§ 25(1)–(2) PartG).

• 0.5 %Who gets state money

  A party needs 0.5 % of list votes at the last Bundestag or European election, or 1 % in a Landtag election (§ 18(4) PartG).

• €0.45Per euro raised

  The state adds €0.45 for each euro of membership fees, office-holder contributions and individual donations up to €3,300 per person (§ 18(3) PartG).

• ≤ own incomeNever more than half

  State funding may not exceed what a party raises itself (relative cap), and all parties together may not exceed the absolute ceiling (§ 18(2), (5) PartG).