Gifhorn – Peine

Gifhorn – Peine is an electoral constituency (German: Wahlkreis) represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 45. It is located in eastern Lower Saxony, comprising the Peine district and most of the Gifhorn district.

45 Gifhorn – Peine
Electoral district for the Bundestag
Gifhorn – Peine in 2025
State	Lower Saxony
Population	284,800 (2019)
Electorate	219,966 (2021)
Major settlements	Peine Gifhorn
Area	1,819.6 km2
Current electoral district
Created	1949
Party	SPD
Member	Hubertus Heil
Elected	1998, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021

Gifhorn – Peine was created for the inaugural 1949 federal election. Since 1998, it has been represented by Hubertus Heil of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Geography

Gifhorn – Peine is located in eastern Lower Saxony. As of the 2021 federal election, it comprises the district of Peine and the district of Gifhorn with the exception of the Samtgemeinden of Boldecker Land and Brome, as well as the Giebel area.

History

Gifhorn – Peine was created in 1949, then known as Peine – Gifhorn. In the 1965 through 1976 elections, it was named Gifhorn. It acquired its current name in the 1980 election. In the inaugural Bundestag election, it was Lower Saxony constituency 32 in the numbering system. From 1953 through 1961, it was number 54. From 1965 through 1998, it was number 40. In the 2002 and 2005 elections, it was number 45. In the 2009 election, it was number 46. Since the 2013 election, it has been number 45.

Originally, the constituency comprised the Peine district, the independent city of Wolfsburg, and the municipalities of Gifhorn and Meine and the Samtgemeinden of Isenbüttel and Meinersen from the Gifhorn district. From the 1965 through 1972 elections, it comprised the districts of Gifhorn and Peine and the municipality of Uetze from the district of Burgdorf. In the 1976 election, Uetze became part of the district of Landkreis Hannover, though the borders of Gifhorn constituency did not change. In the 1980 through 1998 elections, the constituency comprised the entirety of the Gifhorn and Peine districts. It acquired its current borders in the 2002 election.

Election	No.	Name	Borders
1949	32	Peine – Gifhorn	Peine district Wolfsburg city Gifhorn district (only the Gifhorn and Meine municipalities and the Isenbüttel and Meinersen Samtgemeinden)
1953	54
1957
1961
1965	40	Gifhorn	Gifhorn district Peine district Burgdorf district (only Uetze municipality)
1969
1972
1976			Gifhorn district Peine district Landkreis Hannover district (only Uetze municipality)
1980		Gifhorn – Peine	Gifhorn district Peine district
1983
1987
1990
1994
1998
2002	45		Peine district Gifhorn district (excluding Boldecker Land and Brome Samtgemeinden and the Giebel area)
2005
2009	46
2013	45
2017
2021
2025

Members

The constituency was first held by Joachim Schöne of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who served from 1949 to 1957. Arthur Enk of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won in 1957 and served a single term. Uwe-Jens Nissen of the SPD won the constituency in 1961, but Enk returned in 1965. In 1969, Philipp von Bismarck replaced Enk as CDU candidate and won. Hermann Barche of the SPD was elected in 1972, but served only a single term before von Bismarck returned as representative in 1976. In 1980, the SPD regained the constituency again, this time with candidate Adolf Stockleben. In 1983, Engelbert Nelle of the CDU won, and served until 1998. In 1998, Hubertus Heil of the SPD was elected representative. He was re-elected in 2002, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, and 2021.

Election		Member	Party	%
	1949	Joachim Schöne	SPD	34.3
	1953			30.0
	1957	Arthur Enk	CDU	38.1
	1961	Uwe-Jens Nissen	SPD	43.0
	1965	Arthur Enk	CDU	48.1
	1969	Philipp von Bismarck	CDU	48.6
	1972	Hermann Barche	SPD	50.4
	1976	Philipp von Bismarck	CDU	48.3
	1980	Adolf Stockleben	SPD	48.7
	1983	Engelbert Nelle	CDU	50.7
	1987			45.8
	1990			48.3
	1994			45.7
	1998	Hubertus Heil	SPD	53.4
	2002			54.2
	2005			51.1
	2009			40.5
	2013			43.3
	2017			37.8
	2021			43.7

Election results

2021 election

Federal election (2021): Gifhorn – Peine
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	SPD	Y Hubertus Heil		72,113	43.7	5.9	58,846	35.7	5.6
	CDU	Ingrid Pahlmann		40,279	24.4	11.6	37,839	23.0	10.8
	Greens	Henrik Werner		15,762	9.6	4.0	21,960	13.3	6.1
	AfD	Stefan Marzischewski-Drewes		15,346	9.3	0.6	16,048	9.7	1.2
	FDP	Thomas Schellhorn		10,738	6.5	1.7	16,238	9.9	1.5
	Left	Andreas Mantzke		3,619	2.2	3.1	4,147	2.5	3.6
	Tierschutzpartei	Marika Orend		2,820	1.7		2,256	1.4	0.4
	FW	Wolfgang Gemba		2,084	1.3		1,627	1.0	0.6
	dieBasis	Marita Draheim		2,016	1.2		1,942	1.2
	PARTEI						1,429	0.9	0.0
	Pirates						642	0.4	0.0
	Team Todenhöfer						582	0.4
	Volt						415	0.3
	ÖDP						184	0.1	0.0
	NPD						174	0.1	0.2
	Humanists						133	0.1
	du.						121	0.1
	V-Partei3						113	0.1	0.1
	Independent	Ute Vibeke Neumann		103	0.1
	LKR	Nadine Schladebeck		120	0.1		74	0.0
	DKP						32	0.0	0.0
	MLPD						28	0.0	0.0
	Independent	Angela Kunick		24	0.0
Informal votes				1,568			1,762
Total valid votes				165,024			164,830
Turnout				166,592	75.7	1.5
	SPD hold		Majority	31,834	19.3	17.6

2017 election

Federal election (2017): Gifhorn – Peine
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	SPD	Y Hubertus Heil		63,294	37.8	5.4	50,445	30.1	6.0
	CDU	Ingrid Pahlmann		60,345	36.1	6.0	56,567	33.8	6.4
	AfD	Rupert Ostrowski		16,501	9.9		18,289	10.9	7.3
	Greens	Stefanie Maria Weigand		9,342	5.6	0.8	12,094	7.2	0.2
	Left	Klaus Brinkmann		8,827	5.3	1.0	10,166	6.3	1.3
	FDP	Holger Flöge		8,062	4.8	3.4	14,004	8.4	4.8
	Tierschutzpartei						1,591	0.9	0.2
	PARTEI						1,454	0.9
	Bündnis C	Klaus-Dieter Schlottmann		725	0.4
	Pirates						663	0.4	1.4
	FW						581	0.3	0.1
	NPD						463	0.3	0.7
	DM						367	0.2
	V-Partei³						259	0.2
	MLPD	Peter Volker Kunick		277	0.2		97	0.1	0.0
	BGE						208	0.1
	DiB						185	0.1
	ÖDP						123	0.1
	DKP						17	0.0
Informal votes				1,488			1,288
Total valid votes				167,373			167,573
Turnout				168,861	77.3	2.7
	SPD hold		Majority	2,949	1.7	0.6

2013 election

Federal election (2013): Gifhorn – Peine
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	SPD	Y Hubertus Heil		69,259	43.2	2.8	57,875	36.1	3.2
	CDU	Ingrid Pahlmann		67,368	42.1	5.1	64,451	40.2	6.8
	Greens	Monika Berkhan		7,666	4.8	1.2	11,855	7.4	1.5
	Left	Jürgen Eggers		6,810	4.3	3.1	7,575	4.7	3.6
	AfD						5,786	3.6
	Pirates	Matthias Stoll		3,063	1.9		2,833	1.8	0.3
	FDP	Ernst Schreiber		2,266	1.4	4.9	5,648	3.5	7.7
	NPD	David Grahn		1,937	1.2	0.1	1,524	0.9	0.2
	Tierschutzpartei						1,242	0.8	0.0
	FW	Mathias Djelassi		934	0.6		671	0.4
	PBC	Klaus-Dieter Schlottmann		850	0.5	0.0	616	0.4
	PRO						212	0.1
	REP						134	0.1
	MLPD						46	0.0	0.0
Informal votes				1,788			1,473
Total valid votes				160,153			160,468
Turnout				161,941	74.5	0.3
	SPD hold		Majority	1,891	1.1	2.4

2009 election

Federal election (2009): Gifhorn – Peine
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	SPD	Y Hubertus Heil		64,365	40.5	10.6	52,292	32.8	13.5
	CDU	Ewa Klamt		58,827	37.0	0.2	53,085	33.3	1.0
	Left	Jürgen Eggers		11,663	7.3	3.9	13,314	8.4	4.2
	FDP	Holger Flöge		10,073	6.3	3.2	17,875	11.2	3.1
	Greens	Rolf Bräuer		9,476	6.0	2.7	14,217	8.9	2.8
	Pirates						3,359	2.1
	NPD	Uwe Kallweit		2,029	1.3	0.0	1,882	1.2	0.1
	RRP	Detlef Haar		1,346	0.8		1,497	0.9
	Tierschutzpartei						1,297	0.8	0.2
	PBC	Klaus-Dieter Schlottmann		838	0.5	0.1
	Independent	Ute Vibeke Neumann		388	0.2
	ÖDP						181	0.1
	DVU						155	0.1
	MLPD						41	0.0	0.0
Informal votes				2,012			1,822
Total valid votes				159,005			159,195
Turnout				161,017	74.2	6.6
	SPD hold		Majority	5,538	3.5	10.8