At least three Jews will be re-elected to the next West German Bundestag, it was predicted here today. All of them are Social Democratic members. The parliamentary elections will take place September 6.
Of the 484 West German deputies, half will be chosen by majority vote in individual constituencies and half will be elected on statewide party tickets with the aid of proportional representation. Jakob Altmaier, 64, and Peter Blachstein, 42, will both contest the same “safe” Social Democratic constituencies which sent them to Parliament in 1949, the former in Hanau, near Frankfurt, the latter in the Hamburg district.
Berlin delegates to the Bundestag, whose votes are not counted there because of four-power arrangements with regard to the separate status of the city, are picked by a different procedure. It is fairly certain that Jeannette Wolff, 65, will again be prominent among those representing Berlin in Bonn.
It does not appear that any of the other parties will run candidates who are avowed Jews, but a number of nominees of all parties are known or believed to be of Jewish or part-Jewish extraction. The Christian-Democratic Union has picked Professor Franz Boehm, head of the German delegation to the reparations negotiations with Israel in The Hague and proven friend of the Jews, to contest a Frankfurt constituency.
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