Hate to Say It But . . .

The map here of Germany's election looks pretty much:

traditionally Evangelical (=Protestant) districts go Social Democrat
traditionally Catholic areas go Christian Democrat

Since the Social Democrats won in part by exploiting anti-Americanism, are on the wrong side of life and family issues, and are appear to be simply in denial about Germany's economic problem, that's kind of embarrassing (at least to this very pro-life, more or less pro-market Lutheran in America).

The correlation with traditional religious affiliation appears to be considerably better than that with unemployment fears, a map of which Medienkritik David Kaspar provides.

The only big exceptions are West Pomerania which voted for the homeland girl and Lutheran pastor's daughter, Angie Merkel, Saxony (home of the Reformation--that's better!), and Schleswig-Holstein. Also traditionally Lutheran Wuerttemberg followed the rest of the rural south and voted Christian Democrat.

This points up another thing, how accidents (more or less) of geography make a big difference in how we perceive countries. Without East Germany, the Christian Democrats would have just won their second term. Had Quebec voted for secession, Canada would be hardly less conservative than a United States that lost the South (see here). And without the Celtic fringe, or even with an honest weighing of English votes to match those of the Scotch and Welsh, Tony Blair would now be writing his memoirs as ex-Prime Minister (see here; and I can't help advertising this awesome bit of psephological cartography).