GLES German Longitudinal Election Study, 2009-2021

Over three subsequent periods of funding, the GLES (http://www.gles.eu) is to examine the German federal elections 2009, 2013, and 2017 and therefore will be able to track the German electoral process over an extended period of time and at an unprecedented level of detail. The principal investigators of the study are Hans Rattinger (University of Mannheim), Sigrid Roßteutscher (University of Frankfurt), Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck (University of Mannheim) and Bernhard Weßels (Social Science Research Center Berlin). Evelyn Bytzek (University of Frankfurt) serves as the project manager, and several research assistants at each of the involved institutions are responsible for carrying out the study at the operational level. As there is no academic field organization in Germany (except for smaller CATI studios at some universities), most of the fieldwork is assigned to private institutes.

Funded by the German National Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), the proposed project comprises a major long-term effort in social science data collection in Germany. In its basic approach, scope and ambition it is inspired by the best programs of national election studies of the world, such as the American National Election Study (ANES), the British Election Study (BES), or the National Annenberg Election Study (NAES). It will produce a wealth of data that will be shared with the entire community of electoral researchers in Germany and other countries as well as all other interested social scientists.