Osterwald: results of the 2026 local elections and the 2025 federal election
In the local elections on 13 September 2026, Gerd Koel became the largest group on the council of Osterwald with 14.8%.
In the federal election on 23 February 2025, CDU led in Osterwald with 55.3% of the second votes, SPD took 19.9%.
- Population
- 1,141 · 34 per km²
- Turnout
- 80.2% · Grafschaft Bentheim (Wkr. 031) 84.7% · Germany 82.5%
- Voters
- 666 of 830 eligible voters
- Stands out against Lower Saxony
- CDU +27.2 · AfD −8.2 · Grüne −7.4
- First votes: leading
- CDU candidate
- Constituency
- 31 Mittelems
Postal votes were counted at collective-municipality level; polling-station votes only shown here.
2026 local elections in Osterwald
On 13 September 2026, Lower Saxony elected its councils, district councils, mayors and district administrators. Below, the preliminary result for Osterwald, as of 25.09.2026 14:29. All districts and municipalities: Lower Saxony local elections 2026.
- Largest group: municipal council
- Gerd Koel 14.8%
- Samtgemeinde council
- CDU 47.6% in the Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus
- District council, votes from the Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus
- CDU 44.2%
- Turnout
- 78.2% · district council election 63.4%
- Gerd Koel14.8%
- Gerwin van der Kamp12.0%
- Iris Schothorst10.6%
- Volker Boll10.0%
- Thorsten Kamphuis8.7%
- Horst Büter8.5%
- Gerhard Scholten8.0%
- Bernd Plescher6.6%
- Hermine Veldmann6.1%
- Ulrich Bölt5.3%
- Andre Schoo3.3%
- Andre Koers-Klokkers2.6%
- Jürgen Walkotte2.5%
- Marcel Mokry1.0%
Turnout 78.2% · 928 eligible voters · 11 seats · Official final result · 2 of 2 results
Source: Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus, Local elections 2026, official results presentation (votemanager) (file), final result, retrieved 31 Oct 2026, official work, § 5 UrhG. Electoral authority status: 25.09.2026 14:29. Electoral authority's result portal: https://votemanager.kdo.de/20260913/034565402/praesentation/ Compiled by wahlergebnisse.io.
Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus
The municipality belongs to the joint municipality (Samtgemeinde) Neuenhaus, whose council and mayor were also elected.
Samtgemeinde council: 32 seats
Turnout 63.1% · 11,830 eligible voters · 32 seats · Official final result · 20 of 20 results
Samtgemeinde mayor election
- Kramer, Einzelbewerber70.8%
- Müller, SPD29.2%
Turnout 63.2% · 11,831 eligible voters · Official final result · 20 of 20 results
Source: Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus, Local elections 2026, official results presentation (votemanager) (file), final result, retrieved 31 Oct 2026, official work, § 5 UrhG. Electoral authority status: 25.09.2026 14:33. Compiled by wahlergebnisse.io.
District council and district administrator: the votes from the Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus
How voters in the Samtgemeinde voted in the district election. The overall result for Grafschaft Bentheim is on the district page.
District council election
Turnout 63.4% · 11,853 eligible voters · 20 of 20 results
District administrator election
Run-off on 27 September 2026.
- Schmidt, Einzelwahlvorschlag37.3%
- Terhorst, CDU31.6%
- Pünt-Kohoff, SPD31.1%
Turnout 63.2% · 11,853 eligible voters · 20 of 20 results
Second votes in Osterwald
Shares in percent of valid second votes, deviation from the state result in points. Others: all parties not listed individually.
Where do these figures come from?
Official results of the 2025 federal election from the Federal Returning Officer's polling-district statistics, aggregated to the municipality. Postal votes counted by a joint administration are shown on that administration's page.
What does the comparison show?
The lighter bar is the state result of the same election, so you can see where the area differs from its state. Differences are in percentage points.
| Party | Votes | Share | District | Lower Saxony | Germany |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | 367 | 55.3% | 35.5% | 28.1% (+27.2) | 22.6% (+32.7) |
| SPD | 132 | 19.9% | 24.4% | 23.0% (-3.1) | 16.4% (+3.5) |
| AfD | 64 | 9.6% | 14.4% | 17.8% (-8.2) | 20.8% (-11.2) |
| Grüne | 27 | 4.1% | 8.8% | 11.5% (-7.4) | 11.6% (-7.5) |
| Linke | 23 | 3.5% | 6.5% | 8.1% (-4.6) | 8.8% (-5.3) |
| FDP | 20 | 3.0% | 4.6% | 4.1% (-1.1) | 4.3% (-1.3) |
| Freie Wähler | 10 | 1.5% | 0.6% | 0.8% (+0.7) | – |
| BSW | 9 | 1.4% | 3.2% | 3.8% (-2.4) | 5.0% (-3.6) |
| Volt | 5 | 0.8% | 0.3% | 0.6% (+0.2) | – |
| Others | 7 | 1.1% | 1.7% | 2.2% (-1.1) | 10.6% (-9.5) |
Source: Federal Returning Officer, 2025 federal election, results by polling district (file), final result, retrieved 7 Sep 2026, Data licence Germany, attribution 2.0. Municipal results are the sum of a municipality's polling districts including the postal-vote districts assigned to it. State and federal results: Federal Returning Officer, kerg2.csv, official final result. Compiled by wahlergebnisse.io.
Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus: overall result including postal votes
Postal votes in Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus are counted jointly for all 5 member municipalities and cannot officially be attributed to Osterwald. The figures above therefore show polling-station votes in Osterwald only. Below is the overall result of the association: polling-station votes of all members plus 1,515 postal voters, which is 17.1% of all votes.
- Turnout in the association
- 85.2%
- Voters
- 8,845 of 10,378 eligible voters
- Postal vote share
- 17.1% · 1,515
- Member municipalities
- 5
| Party | Polling station Osterwald | Postal vote, association | Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | 367 (55.3%) | 533 (35.3%) | 3,147 | 35.7% |
| SPD | 132 (19.9%) | 378 (25.0%) | 2,116 | 24.0% |
| AfD | 64 (9.6%) | 160 (10.6%) | 1,305 | 14.8% |
| Grüne | 27 (4.1%) | 183 (12.1%) | 793 | 9.0% |
| Linke | 23 (3.5%) | 98 (6.5%) | 570 | 6.5% |
| FDP | 20 (3.0%) | 68 (4.5%) | 335 | 3.8% |
| BSW | 9 (1.4%) | 43 (2.8%) | 290 | 3.3% |
| Freie Wähler | 10 (1.5%) | 14 (0.9%) | 74 | 0.8% |
| Others | 7 (1.1%) | 23 (1.5%) | 149 | 1.7% |
Member municipalities (polling-station votes only)
Source: Federal Returning Officer, polling-district statistics; association total is our own calculation from polling-station and postal-vote districts.
2024 European election in Osterwald
In the European election on 9 June 2024, CDU came first in Osterwald with 57.6% of the vote; in Lower Saxony CDU got 31.4%. The bars show the European election shares, the small figures the gap to the 2025 federal election in the same area.
In the 2024 European election, CDU was the strongest party in Osterwald with 57.6%, +2.3 points compared with the 2025 federal election. Turnout was 68.2% (2025 federal election: 80.2%).
Why do the European and federal elections differ?
The European election has no electoral threshold, so small parties such as Volt, Die PARTEI or the animal-welfare party win more votes. Turnout is much lower, and the political mood shifted between June 2024 and February 2025. The single European-election vote is compared with the second vote of the federal election in the same area; parties that count as Others in 2025 get no difference.
Where do these figures come from?
Official final result of the 2024 European election from the Federal Returning Officer's polling-district statistics, aggregated to the municipality. Postal votes counted by a joint administration are not included here.
| Party | Votes 2024 | European election 2024 | Federal election 2025 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | 341 | 57.6% | 55.3% | +2.3 |
| SPD | 82 | 13.9% | 19.9% | -6.0 |
| AfD | 35 | 5.9% | 9.6% | -3.7 |
| Freie Wähler | 32 | 5.4% | 1.5% | +3.9 |
| Grüne | 29 | 4.9% | 4.1% | +0.8 |
| FDP | 21 | 3.5% | 3.0% | +0.5 |
| BSW | 13 | 2.2% | 1.4% | +0.8 |
| Volt | 7 | 1.2% | 0.8% | +0.4 |
| Die PARTEI | 5 | 0.8% | – | – |
| Linke | 3 | 0.5% | 3.5% | -3.0 |
| Others | 24 | 4.1% | – | – |
Die PARTEI: counted as Others in the 2025 federal election, so no difference is shown.
Source: Federal Returning Officer, 2024 European election, results by polling district (file), final result, retrieved 28 Sep 2026, Data licence Germany, attribution 2.0. Municipal results are the sum of a municipality's polling districts including assigned postal-vote districts; Hamburg's boroughs are derived from the polling-district number. Postal votes were counted at collective-municipality level; polling-station votes only shown here. Comparison values: second votes of the 2025 federal election in the same area. Compiled by wahlergebnisse.io.
Osterwald in figures
Key facts about the place from official statistics and Wikidata, so the election result can be put in context. The figures describe, they do not explain.
- Population
- 1,141 (as of 2025-12-31)
- Area
- 33.4 km²
- Population density
- 34 inhabitants per km²
- Settlement type
- thinly populated (rural)
- Under 19
- 24.0%
- 67 and older
- 17.1%
- Foreign nationals (2022 census)
- 7.5%
- Employees subject to social insurance (place of work)
- 767 (as of 2025-06-30)
- Commuter balance
- +332 (more in-commuters than out-commuters)
- Postcode
- 49828
- Elevation
- 19 m
- Wikipedia
- Osterwald (Wikipedia)
Osterwald has 1,141 inhabitants and is thinly populated (rural).
Where do the profile figures come from?
Population, area and coordinates from the Federal Statistical Office's municipality register, employees, sectors and unemployment from the Federal Employment Agency, age structure from the 2022 census, coat of arms, website and companies from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. All sources are openly licensed and linked below the list.
Does the profile explain the election result?
No. It describes the place so readers can put figures in context. Whether sector, age or density relate to voting can only be tested across many places, not from a single result.
Sources: Wikidata (CC0 1.0) · Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis), Gemeindeverzeichnis GV-ISys (Datenlizenz Deutschland – Namensnennung – Version 2.0) · Statistik der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (© Statistik der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Nutzung mit Quellenangabe) · Zensus 2022, Statistische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder, Regionaltabelle Demografie (Datenlizenz Deutschland – Namensnennung – Version 2.0)
Osterwald: location in the Grafschaft Bentheim district
All municipalities of the district, coloured by the strongest party of the second votes. Osterwald highlighted, the other members of Samtgemeinde Neuenhaus shown half-transparent. Tap to open a neighbouring municipality.
Osterwald: if the election were held today
The current national polling average (as of 7 Nov 2026) applied to the municipality's 2025 second-vote result. A rough estimate without local factors.
CDU would remain the strongest party with 45.8% (2025: 55.3%).
Method: proportional swing of the national polling average, see constituency nowcast.