Berlin Election 2026: 250,000 Posters Are Up

There was a mad scramble over the weekend for the best poles, with some parties risking fines to put posters up early.

Monday, August 3, 2026

Photos: HEIST

The race for the best poles across town is on. Political parties were officially allowed to begin hanging campaign posters promoting their candidates and platforms on Sunday at noon, formally kicking off Berlin's state election race. By Monday morning, tens of thousands of posters could be spotted across the city — but that's likely because some parties snuck out illegally early.

Across Berlin, teams of volunteers could be seen lugging wagons and ladders around town hanging party signs. On Sunday HEIST spotted Die Linke was spotted in Alexanderplatz; the SPD wagon was seen on Museum Island, near the embassies; someone hung an "unf*ck Berlin" sign on behalf of Volt on the street next to the Holocaust Memorial. Together, the five parties currently represented in the state parliament — Die Linke, the Greens, the AfD, the CDU, and the SPD — plus the FDP and BSW will plaster Berlin with roughly a quarter of a million campaign posters, according to Tagesspiegel.

There had been a cross-party agreement to not start before 8 p.m. on Saturday evening. But even that was ultimately ignored by most parties.

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