in Germany, unlike the Danish party in Schleswig-Holstein, the SSW, or the Sorbs in Saxony. Distribution of seats At first, the number of successful independent direct candidates and the successful direct candidates whose party did not make it into the German Bundestag is taken from the total number of 598 mandates. In the parliamentary election of 2002, both direct candidates were members of the PDS party. Only in the parliamentary election of 1949 were there successful independent direct candidates. The remaining proportional mandates (596 seats in the election of 2002 and all of the 598 seats in 2005) are distributed among the parties which have obtained at least five per cent, or three direct mandates according to the results of all second votes, in the Sainte-Laguë/Schepers procedure (before the federal election in 2009 it was the Hare-Niemeyer procedure). Afterwards, the obtained proportional mandates of each party are distributed among the candidates’ lists of the Bundesländer, according to the number of their second votes in the respective Bundesländer, by following the same procedure. The outcome of this procedure shows how many proportional mandates each party has gained in each Bundesland. The candidates who have achieved a seat in the Bundestag can then be identified. At first, the victorious direct candidates of a party obtain their mandates in a Bundesland. Within the Bundesländer, in which the number of achieved direct mandates of one party is smaller than the number of achieved proportional mandates, the difference is settled by list mandates i.e. candidates of the Bundesländer list in order of appearance, whereas candidates who have already gained a direct mandate in their district (not matter which Bundesland) are simply left out. If a party in a Bundesland receives more direct mandates than proportional mandates, all the successful candidates in constituencies gain additional seats in the Bundestag. These seats are called excess mandates. Consequently, the Bundestag becomes larger by the number of additionally gained seats. Starting with the 2013 election, other parties receive leveling seats. In recent years, the number of excess mandates was 13 in 1998, 5 in 2002, 16 in 2005, 24 in 2009 and 33 in 2013. In 2017, after the formula was adjusted somewhat, there were 111 overhang and levelling excess mandates. In theory, there is no limit to the possible number of excess mandates; this is because ×one or more parties could win constituency seats while having arbitrarily few