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Given that US-style televised debates were held for the third time in a row in a German federal election campaign, it seems fair to say that they have become an institutionalised feature of German campaigns. Although a number of studies have analysed (single) German debates, comparative work covering the full set of debates is still lacking. The aim of this paper is to reveal patterns and trends in a) debate exposure, b) the evaluation of the candidates' debate performances and c) debate effects. To this purpose, a pooled data set for the 2002, 2005 and 2009 debates is analysed. Consistent evidence is found that cognitive as well as partisan mobilisation increases the probability of watching debates. Concerning the impact of debates, it is found that debate exposure has a mobilising effect – especially among those less interested in politics. In addition, we find a considerable impact of debates on party choice – with the effects reflecting patterns of ‘reinforcement’ as well as ‘conversion’. The greatest debate effects can be observed for independent voters. Given these results, televised debates are not only an institutionalised feature of German campaigns, but also a powerful and hence possibly decisive one.
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