Steinmühle is participating in the “Junior Election for the 2017 Federal Election”

As part of a nationwide project to promote political education, more than 3,300 schools simulated the federal election under the name “www.juniorwahl.de.” Of the nearly 800,000 second votes cast, 27% went to the CDU, 19.3% to the SPD, 17.9% to the Greens, 8.8% to the FDP, 7.5% to The Left, and 6% to the AfD. The remaining 13.7% were distributed among other parties. Steinmühle was also among the participants in this junior election.

According to project leaders Erno Menzel, Anja Zelle, and Eva Stelz, as well as the supervising 12th-grade advanced course in Politics and Economics, the Junior Election serves as a way to practice democratic processes. Just like in a real election, the students anonymously mark their preferred parties on a “ballot” and drop the folded sheet into a designated ballot box.

Steinmühle held its election on September 22, the project day for the school’s fall festival. All students from the participating grades who were present that day exercised their right to vote—293 students in total. Voter turnout was 100%.

The students responded very positively to the project and hope there will be more junior elections. The project is organized by Kumulus e.V., a nonprofit, nonpartisan association. The election results are available on the association’s website.