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Gregor Gysi and Gesine Lötzsch during the election campaign in Berlin
Photo:
Timo Lehmann / DER SPIEGEL
In the early evening, a piece of GDR history rode up to Gregor Gysi and Gesine Lötzsch.
It is shortly after 7 p.m. on a Saturday in September, and the sunset bathes the Karlshorst trotting track deep in the east of Berlin in golden light.
The left district associations Treptow-Köpenick and Lichtenberg have invited to the end of the election campaign.
Gojko Mitić trots up on a horse, holds out his arm in greeting.
He was called Winnetou of the East because he played the Indian chief in the DEFA westerns.
Now, now 81 years old, he has come to support the election campaign.
And the left can really use that right now.
Now it's about getting the left really strong, says Gysi.
"So that we can really hit the wall in the Bundestag."
Will it work as the left-wing veteran would like?
One can at least have doubts about that at the moment.
The polls put the left a few days before the election at six percent, which is significantly less than the 9.2 percent four years ago.
Worse still: the five percent hurdle is dangerously close.
In view of this danger, the Berlin constituencies with the numbers 84, 85 and 86 could play a decisive role in this federal election.
It is about Gysi, who competes in Treptow-Köpenick, the former left-wing chairwoman Lötzsch in Lichtenberg and Bundestag Vice-President Petra Pau and her constituency of Marzahn-Hellersdorf.
Gysi, Lötzsch and Pau are something like life insurance for the left.
The background to this is the basic mandate clause in the federal election law.
This means that a party can also move into parliament proportionately of its second vote result if it lands below five percent - if it wins at least three direct mandates.
That means: If the disaster occurs for the left and the party drops even further on election day, for example to 4.9 percent, then despite the five percent threshold, it could be represented with seats in parliament corresponding to this 4.9 percent if it covers the three constituencies wins in east Berlin.
It wouldn't be the first time the party has benefited from the clause.
In 1994, at that time still as PDS, it won 4.4 percent, but also four direct seats in Berlin, and was therefore able to move into the Bundestag with 30 members.
Not only in Berlin, but elsewhere too, left-wing candidates are expecting opportunities this time.
For example, parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is hoping for his constituency, as is Katja Kipping in Saxony and Susanne Hennig-Wellsow in Thuringia.
The left can feel safest with Gysi, Lötzsch and Pau. Nowhere are the conditions for the party better than on their capital city terrain: urban milieu, but also many people in precarious life situations - and above all many older East Germans. The perfect mixture for a strong following on the left.
However, surprises cannot be ruled out here either. Gysi, for example, has competition with a celebrity factor this time, and the former speed skater and Olympic champion Claudia Pechstein competes for the CDU in his constituency. The CDU politician Mario Czaja starts the race in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Czaja is Germany's greatest left-wing believer in Christian democracy. He even advertises his good relationships with Gysi in video clips - and hopes to chase the left voters away. The east of Berlin is not a sure-fire success for the three left-wing applicants either, even if forecasts for the constituencies currently see them ahead.
Petra Pau is sitting in her office in the Jakob-Kaiser-Haus, with a direct view of the Bundestag. "Have a look over it," she says, pointing out the window at the Reichstag building, just a few meters away, where Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble also has his office. "Because Schäuble's office is there and not here, the employees have a higher pension entitlement," says Pau.
What she means: The Reichstag building is in the area of former West Berlin, her own parliamentary office in the east. If Schäuble were also based in the Jakob-Kaiser-Haus, the employees would have to work longer for the same pension just because the office was 50 meters further on the former GDR's floor. 31 years after reunification, it was not possible to equalize pensions. This is one of the decisive reasons, says Pau, why, in her opinion, the left is elected - including her in the constituency.
Pau has always won the Marzahn-Hellersdorf constituency, which is characterized by prefabricated buildings, directly since 2002. Back then, in 2002, the PDS had stayed below five percent. Gysi had temporarily withdrawn from politics because of the bonus miles affair, Pau and Lötzsch got their direct mandates - and ultimately sat alone in parliament. The third constituency for the basic mandate clause was missing.
As a result, the SPD and the Greens again achieved a majority and were able to continue to govern - for Pau's party it was a traumatic experience.
While Red-Green pushed through Agenda 2010, there was no left opposition in parliament.
The return in 2005 with the Anti-Hartz IV election campaign, in which Oskar Lafontaine joined and Gysi was there again, was all the more brilliant.
The re-entry of the left prevented the continuation of red-green - and thus helped Angela Merkel to become chancellor.
Söder as an election worker for the left?
Many have come and gone since then, Gysi, Lötzsch and Pau are still there.
In this election, too, the outcome of the election could have a decisive impact on what the next government looks like.
If the party should fail to make the leap into parliament, other options are mathematically more likely, such as red-green, Jamaica or black-green.
If the left remains in the Bundestag and there is arithmetically enough for a red-green-red government, it should find itself at the negotiating table for government soundings for the first time in a few weeks.
Back to the Karlshorst trotting track. Gojko Mitić is already gone, the sun has set. Gregor Gysi is down at the racetrack, backstage. Is he actually being asked in the constituency whether the left should form a government with the SPD and the Greens in the event of a majority? "Amazingly, hardly," says Gysi. He pauses for a moment. "Well, actually, I can't even imagine that we'll be part of the government." Then he lifts his forefinger and seems surprised at himself. "On the other hand, it is no longer ruled out either." Of course, he was in favor of his party co-governing.
Gysi doesn't think the left could end up below five percent.
The Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, the former leader of the left-wing parliamentary group is certain, ensured that his party would become more interesting again with his constant talk about the danger on the left.
"That brings a lot of people." When he gave a speech at the Stachus in Munich, there were lots of young people, says Gysi.
That drove Söder there.
Thanks to the CSU, he is convinced that the basic mandate clause will not be needed at all.
Of course, he still wants to win his constituency directly.
While Gysi is talking in a rage about the conservative warnings against the Left Party and the red-green-red government option, he is suddenly announced on stage by Lötzsch.
"It's my turn?" Asks Gysi.
The 73-year-old then quickly walks onto the stage and speaks for a good half an hour without a manuscript.
About the injustices of reunification, the failed foreign policy of the federal government, the abolition of Hartz IV and why the Fridays for Future movement is absolutely right.
In Treptow-Köpenick he got a lot of applause that evening.
