Legal expertise is useful for legislation.

After all, the more than a hundred lawyers who will populate the Bundestag in the future can claim that, even if they haven't rolled over any files for seven years.

A representative of the Green Party quipped on Tuesday in the hallways of the Reichstag.

But lawyers have always been well represented in parliament, including in the new Bundestag, which celebrated its constituent session - despite the reform of the electoral law - with a record number of 735 members.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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Even the most inexperienced observer would probably think of some well-known representatives right away: Above all, SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki, Renate Künast from the Greens or CDU member Friedrich Merz, to name just a few licensed lawyers.

This dominance in terms of effect and number repeatedly gives rise to criticism.

If this constitutional body were to represent the people not only in the diversity of their political attitudes but also in their specific career choices, the Federal Bar Association would have more than 11 million lawyers under its wing and the German courts would probably have a lot to do.

Entrepreneurship dwindling in the Union

A law firm, it seems, can be left unattended for the duration of a legislative period more easily than a medium-sized company.

Company directors and farmers alike take their seats in the blue chairs under the Reichstag dome less and less.

In any case, the Foundation for Family Entrepreneurs has determined the number of 51 entrepreneurs who take time for politics for this electoral term.

At least 76 of them were represented in the old Bundestag, out of a total of 709 members.

Most of them are with the FDP this time, closely followed by the AfD.

The Union, on the other hand, had to complain about a downright dwindling number of entrepreneurs: instead of 30 as in the previous legislative period, it only sends 10 of them to parliamentary work.

The Family Business Foundation naturally sees the dwindling commitment of entrepreneurs with concern, as it considers the mutual understanding of business and politics to be essential for the social market economy. On the other hand, educators, theologians or scientists, who are only represented by a handful of people in the plenary, are likely to be even more concerned. Not to mention artists who do not even appear in the statistics, at least if you do not include children's book authors in this category and thus inevitably ignore the Greens boss Robert Habeck.

This also reveals how unrepresentative the representatives are with regard to the level of education.

Without a university degree, hardly anyone makes it to the Bundestag, more than 88 percent of MPs are academics.

However, the new Bundestag is also much more female than the old one, the proportion of women has risen by 4 percentage points to 35 percent.