The Pirate Party Berlin () is the state chapter of the

Pirate Party Germany The Pirate Party Germany (), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the information society; it is part of the i ...

in the

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and was the first chapter of the Pirates to enter a ''

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

'' (state parliament), getting elected to the

Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin The of Berlin (House of Representatives) () is the state parliament ('' Landtag'') of Berlin, Germany according to the city-state's constitution. In 1993, the parliament moved from Rathaus Schöneberg to its present house on Niederkirchnerst ...

in 2011. The party divides itself into so-called ''Crews'' (self-organizing units) at the local level. Work groups on specific themes are called ''Squads''. Since 2010, the national association has used the software

LiquidFeedback LiquidFeedback is free software for political opinion formation and decision making. The software incorporates insights from social choice theory in order to aggregate opinions more effectively. Description LiquidFeedback helps groups (such as ...

for intra-party decision-making.

History

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2009 German federal election The 2009 German federal election was held in Germany on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the 17th Bundestag. The Christian Democratic Union (Germany), Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Uni ...

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2011 Berlin state election The 2011 Berlin state election was held on 18 September 2011 to elect the members of the 17th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. The incumbent government consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Left lost its majority. The SPD lost five ...

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2013 German federal election The 2013 German federal election was held on 22 September to elect the members of the 18th Bundestag of Germany. At stake were all 598 seats to the Bundestag, plus 33 overhang seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democratic Union of German ...

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The state chapter was founded 30 December 2006. During the 2009 federal election, the Berlin Pirate Party received 3.4 percent of the votes, which was their best showing at the national level. During the

, the party entered a state parliament for the first time when they received 8.9 percent of the votes for the state parliament of Berlin. Lead candidate of the party list, Andreas Baum, was thus given a seat. List of Chairpersons: * 2007–2008: Andreas Janson * 2008–2011: Andreas Baum * 2011–2012: Gerhard Anger * 2012: Hartmut Semken * 2012: Christiane Schinkel * 2012–2014: Gerhard Anger * 2014: Christopher Lauer * November 2014 – September 2016:

Bruno Kramm Bruno Kramm (born 13 October 1967, in Munich) is a German musician, known for programming (music), programming, playing synthesizers and keyboards, co-fronting and performing backup vocals for the electro-industrial duo Das Ich, alongside Stefan ...

* September 2016 – present: Simon Kowalewski

Political positions

One of the main concerns of the Pirate Party at the country level is transparency in politics and public administration. The Berlin Pirate Party pioneered

livestreaming Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non- liv ...

party meetings on the internet and making the records available for download. As per its 2011 election programme, the Berlin Pirate Party advocates the promotion of alternative residential projects and cultural institutions as well as the preservation of open spaces in inner-city areas. It also opposes the so-called "Berlin Line" low-tolerance anti-

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

policy. The party is also in favor of a ticket-less

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

system in Berlin. The successful "

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on Disclosing Partial Privatizations of the Berlin Waterworks" (''Volksentscheid über die Offenlegung der Teilprivatisierungsverträge bei den Berliner Wasserbetrieben'') was supported by the Berlin Pirates. For Berlin schools, the party also supports ethical education on

drug A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via insufflation (medicine), inhalation, drug i ...

use ("Drug Maturity" model). The party also wants to remove the minimum voting age clause for Berlin state parliament elections. In addition, three chapters of their party's basic program are devoted to

animal welfare Animal welfare is the quality of life and overall well-being of animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures ...

Representatives in the state parliament

In the state parliament of Berlin (''Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin''), all 15 Pirate Party candidates (14 men and 1 woman) were elected directly through their mandate. Of the parties in the state parliament, the Pirates have the lowest percentage of female representatives, with only 6.6 percent. Because of double candidacies, three seats in the Borough Assembly (''BVV'') in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg could not be filled. Because of this, the pirates could not take city council posts for which they were eligible. (*) During 2014-2015, Baum, Delius, Herberg, Höfinghoff, Lauer, Mayer und Weiß laid down their party membership, but continued to work with the remaining PPB parliamentary group.

Representatives in Borough Assemblies

The Pirate Party is represented in all 12 borough assemblies in Berlin. In five assemblies, the pirates cannot fully occupy their allocated seats because they received more seats than they had candidates. The following table shows the number of seats per district and, in parentheses, the number of vacant seats:

Collapse of Vote Berlin State Elections 2016

The Berlin state election on September witnessed the collapse of support for the Pirate party in their previous stronghold of Berlin. Their previous vote of 8.9% achieved in 2011 fell to 1.7% and the Pirate party lost all representation in the Berlin State assembly. The poor result was compounded by the murder suicide of former Pirate party assembly member Gerwald Claus-Brunner who wheeled the body of a young man whom he had murdered through the streets of Berlin in a handcart.

References

External links

Website of the Pirate Party Berlin

Website of the Pirate Party Berlin parliamentary group
{{Pirate Party Pirate Party Germany

Liberal parties in Germany