Fifty-Eight Calls to Order

The president of the Bundestag can call a member to order by name for a breach of the order or the dignity of the house. A personal insult is the classic case. Herbert Wehner, the long-time leader of the SPD group, holds the record. He received 58 calls to order in almost 34 years in parliament. He once called the CDU member Jürgen Todenhöfer Hodentöter, a crude pun on the name. In the 2021–2025 term, the Bundestag issued more than 100 calls to order. By mid-September 2025, six months into its term, the new Bundestag had issued 13, and 12 of them went to members of the AfD.

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