01.06 Profile
In the Bundestag since 2002
Seven electoral terms, two routes in. Dorothee Bär entered parliament at 24 on the CSU's Bavarian list, re-entered in 2005 as a successor, and has won the Bad Kissingen constituency directly at every election since 2009. In 2025 no candidate in Germany won a higher share of first votes.
Electoral terms, from the 15th (2002) to the 21st (2025)
Source: Deutscher BundestagHer age on first election in 2002; the youngest CSU member, according to Wikipedia
Source: WikipediaDirect constituency wins in Bad Kissingen: 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2025
Source: Bundeswahlleiterin; WikipediaFirst-vote share in 2025, the highest of any candidate nationwide
Source: Deutscher Bundestag01 — The systemTwo votes, two routes into parliament
To follow Bär's career it helps to know how Germans elect the Bundestag. The system, usually described as personalised proportional representation, gives every voter two votes on one ballot paper.
The first vote (Erststimme)
The first vote goes to a candidate in one of Germany's 299 constituencies (Wahlkreise). The candidate with the most votes wins, as in a British or American constituency. A winner who takes more than half of the first votes, as Bär did in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2025, has won an outright majority of the constituency's valid votes, which in a multi-party system has become rare.
The second vote (Zweitstimme)
The second vote is cast for a party's list in the voter's state. It is the more important of the two: it decides how many seats each party receives overall. Those seats are filled first by the party's constituency winners and then by candidates from its state list, in the order the party has set. A list candidate who declines a seat, or leaves parliament, is replaced by the next person on the list, the Listennachfolger, or successor.
Why this matters for the CSU
The CSU stands only in Bavaria and has traditionally won most of the Bavarian constituencies. List seats are therefore relatively scarce for its candidates, and a good list position is valuable. In 2002, a year in which the CSU did particularly well, Bär entered through the list; in 2005 she came in as a successor; from 2009 she held the constituency herself.
The 2023 reform
For the 2025 election the Bundestag's size was fixed at 630 members and the old overhang and compensatory seats were abolished. Under the new rule of second-vote coverage, a constituency winner receives a seat only if the party's second-vote result covers it. Bär's 2025 victory was therefore won under different rules from her earlier ones; it brought her a seat in the 21st Bundestag. The Federal Constitutional Court upheld the core of the reform in 2024 while restoring the rule that a party winning at least three constituencies enters parliament even below the five per cent threshold.
02 — EntryFrom the list to the constituency
2002: elected at 24
In the federal election of 22 September 2002 Bär won a seat through the CSU's state list for Bavaria. According to Wikipedia, at 24 she was the youngest member of the CSU in the new Bundestag. She was still a student at the time and finished her degree in political science in 2005, as described on the education page.
2005: a successor seat
After the early election of September 2005 she was not initially among those elected. On 23 November 2005, according to Wikipedia, she entered the 16th Bundestag as the successor to Günther Beckstein, the Bavarian interior minister, who had been elected on the CSU list but did not take up his seat. The Bundestag's official biography records her membership as running since 2002.
Since 2009: Bad Kissingen
From the 2009 election onwards she has won the Bad Kissingen constituency in Lower Franconia directly. Until 2021 it was constituency number 248; after the redrawing of constituencies for the 2025 election it is number 247. The direct mandate made her seat independent of list placings and gave her a territorial base in Lower Franconia, the same region as her home district of Haßberge, where she chairs the CSU.
03 — Results
First-vote shares in Bad Kissingen
Her share of first votes at each election she has contested as constituency winner. The 2025 figure is the official result; earlier figures are taken from the English-language Wikipedia page on the constituency and should be read with that in mind.
| Election | Constituency no. | First-vote share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 248 | 53.7% | Wikipedia (constituency page) |
| 2013 | 248 | 57.9% | Wikipedia (constituency page) |
| 2017 | 248 | 51.1% | Wikipedia (constituency page) |
| 2021 | 248 | 39.1% | Wikipedia (constituency page) |
| 2025 | 247 | 50.5% | Bundeswahlleiterin (official) |
Analysis The pattern follows the national fortunes of the Union. Her best result came in 2013, a strong year for the CDU/CSU; her weakest in 2021, when the Union recorded its worst national result to date and went into opposition. Even then she held the seat comfortably. In 2025 her share returned to above 50 per cent.
“Erststimmenkönigin” 2025
After the federal election of 23 February 2025 the Bundestag’s website named Bär the “Erststimmenkönigin”, the “queen of first votes”: with 50.5 per cent, she had achieved the highest first-vote share of any candidate in Germany. The official constituency result is published by the Federal Returning Officer (Bundeswahlleiterin).
04 — Terms
Seven electoral terms
Each Bundestag sits for an electoral term (Wahlperiode) of normally four years. This is what Bär's mandate and main roles looked like in each. Government posts are covered in full on their own pages.
- 200215th term · 2002–2005
List member at 24
Elected through the CSU's Bavarian list while still studying political science.
- 200516th term · 2005–2009
Successor entry; foreign affairs
Entered on 23 November 2005 as successor to Günther Beckstein. According to the English Wikipedia she sat on the Foreign Affairs Committee in this term.
- 200917th term · 2009–2013
First direct mandate; family spokesperson
Won Bad Kissingen with 53.7 per cent. Spokesperson of the CDU/CSU group for family, seniors, women and youth; according to Wikipedia a member of the family committee and the Committee on Culture and Media. At the same time deputy secretary general of the CSU. See family and youth policy.
- 201318th term · 2013–2017
Best result; into government
Re-elected with 57.9 per cent. From 17 December 2013 Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. See transport and infrastructure.
- 201719th term · 2017–2021
Commissioner for Digitalisation
Re-elected with 51.1 per cent. From 14 March 2018 Minister of State to the Federal Chancellor and Federal Government Commissioner for Digitalisation, until 8 December 2021. See digitalisation.
- 202120th term · 2021–2025
Opposition and group leadership
Re-elected with 39.1 per cent. From December 2021 deputy chair of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for family and culture; substitute member of the committees on digital affairs, family, and culture and media. See parliamentary career.
- 202521st term · since 2025
Highest first-vote share; Federal Minister
Re-elected with 50.5 per cent, the best first-vote result in Germany. Federal Minister for Research, Technology and Space since 6 May 2025. See research policy.
05 — RolesWhat the parliamentary roles involve
The Bundestag does much of its detailed work in committees, each mirroring one or more federal ministries, and in the working groups of the parliamentary groups (Fraktionen). Bär's documented roles touch three different levels of that system.
Committee member
Members are assigned to committees by their parliamentary group, as full or substitute members. Committees examine bills before the plenary votes, question the government and hold hearings. Bär's committee work, as documented, ran from foreign affairs (2005–2009, according to Wikipedia) through family and culture and media (2009–2013, according to Wikipedia) to substitute seats on the digital, family, and culture and media committees in the 20th term.
Spokesperson
Within the CDU/CSU group, each policy area has a spokesperson (Sprecherin) who leads the group's working group, coordinates its line in the matching committee and speaks for it in debates. From 2009 to 2013 Bär was the group's spokesperson for family, seniors, women and youth, at a time when the Union was in government. In that role she defended the Betreuungsgeld, the childcare allowance, in the Bundestag debate of 9 November 2012.
Deputy group chair
The deputy chairs (stellvertretende Vorsitzende) of a parliamentary group sit on its executive and each oversee several policy areas and working groups. From December 2021 until 2025, with the Union in opposition, Bär was the deputy chair responsible for family and culture, which included women, youth, seniors and media. The role made her one of the group's leading voices on those subjects during the term of the Scholz government.
The parliamentary career page goes into these roles in more depth; the CSU career page shows the party offices she held alongside them.
06 — Assessment
Two decades, one seat in Lower Franconia
A list seat at 24, a successor seat at 27, and five direct wins in a row.
A directly elected member of the Bundestag represents everyone in the constituency, not only party voters. In practice that means constituency offices, local events, contacts with municipalities, businesses and associations, and a role as intermediary between the region and federal ministries. Most directly elected members also keep close ties to the party's local associations, and Bär's position as CSU county chair in Haßberge and county councillor since 2008 is one example of how that link works.
Her mandate has also survived every change of role. She sat in the Bundestag as a backbencher and committee member, as a group spokesperson, as a junior minister, as Minister of State in the Chancellery, as deputy group chair in opposition and now as a Federal Minister. German ministers normally keep their parliamentary seats, and Bär has done so throughout.
Analysis The results table suggests a secure but not unconditional base. Her share moved with the Union's national performance, falling below 40 per cent in 2021 before recovering to the best result in the country in 2025. That 2025 figure, in an election held under new rules and at a time of high fragmentation of the party system, is the strongest documented measure of her local standing. It says less about how voters judge her work in federal office, for which separate evidence is needed; the achievements and criticism pages assess that record.