Berlin and Numbers Story

Back around thirty years in Berlin, there was a planning effort over the physical size of the Reichstag building 'group' area (where they all assemble) for the Bundestag.

X-amount of space was allocated and everyone felt 'safe' about the size of the assembly area.

At that point in time, the number figured for the assembly area was 598 individuals.  All was fine in the original first couple of years.  Then some changes were to occur, and they went to what is today 709 individuals who sit there.  For the building crew, this has meant a fair amount of planning and rebuilding of the assembly area.

There's now talk that they will get to a fair number of Bundestag members in the 2021 election, that will go above 800 (some even suggest in the 850 range).  A problem?  Just about everyone now agrees (from all parties) that this structure won't work, and that downsizing is necessary.  But the question goes to....how?

Adding to this....the salary, support structure, housing payments, etc.....all connect to this growing issue.

The odd feature to this issue is that there are only 401 counties/districts in existence in Germany today (107 of them urbanized or metropolitan cities, and the remaining 294 being mostly rural counties or non-urban locations).  You would think that one single representative from each county would be the norm, but none of the parties can agree to that logic.  Everyone wants some angle to states themselves (16 of them) to exist as a layer on top of that.

Fear of a county by county ballot measure?  With this, you'd have over-representation by ruralized areas, and less-so by urbanized areas.  The Greens would suffer greatly by this measure because most of their voting trends lead back to metropolitan areas.

So many Bundestag members, that they are getting in each other's way?  Well, no one has said this yet, but you have to wonder if 800-odd members would create a bigger problem in true representation.  There might be some who simply show up.....sip through coffee for an hour or two, and just disappear off into some local pub for the afternoon.  At some point, I expect some fake reality show to start up on German TV where four fake party guys appear at some pub every afternoon to talk over fake German politics and pretend to get serious about it, while sipping down several beers.

The odds of resolution?  Even if the courts order them to this repair, then what?  You'd have to get a majority of folks to agree to downsize by at least 10-percent as a minimum (25-percent probably would be a better goal), and it's hard to see that being accomplished.