DIE ZEIT: Research on calls to order in the German Bundestag using Open Parliament TV

DIE ZEIT has published an extensive article about calls to order in the German Bundestag, combining data analysis with video examples. For their research, the authors used Open Parliament TV among other sources and cite the platform as a source in the article.

Under the title “O r d n u n g s r u f ! Warum es immer mehr werden” (Call to order! Why there are more and more), Dana Hajek, Mia Janzen, Nina Monecke, Lennard Simmons and Julius Tröger trace how the culture of debate in the Bundestag has changed across legislative periods. Based on collected data, the article shows that the number of calls to order has risen sharply since the AfD entered the Bundestag in 2017: from just two calls to order in the legislative period before 2017 to 47 (2017–2021) and 135 (2021–2025).

The authors document numerous specific incidents using video recordings – from a member’s very first speech that immediately ended with a call to order, to sign-holding protests in the plenary chamber, to historic moments such as Joschka Fischer’s famous outburst in 1983. The article also places the current trend in historical context: the first legislative period (1949–1953) still holds the record with 156 calls to order. In response to the recent trend, the federal government is planning to increase fines for violations to up to 4,000 euros for repeat offenders.

We are very pleased that Open Parliament TV is being used as a research tool for data journalism, helping to make parliamentary proceedings transparent and accessible.

Read the article on zeit.de (subscription required)