High turnoutÂ
The turnout of 82.5 percent was significantly higher than the 76.4 percent in 2021, and the highest since 1987, before Germany's reunification. Of the 299 constituencies, abstention never went above 27 percent.
Broad breakthrough of far right
The anti-immigration AfD, which received endorsements from senior figures in US President Donald Trump's administration, won 20.8 percent of the vote - double its score in the last 2021 election.
Across Germany, the AfD secured about 10.3 million votes, some 5.5 million more than in 2021.
Its biggest increases came from voters who did not vote in 2021, according to an analysis by the Infratest dimap polling institute for the public broadcaster ARD.
The AfD made progress in all 299 constituencies, and came first in 49, compared to 17 in 2021.
Its score further increased (36.2 percent) in the regions of former East Germany, where it notched its 25 best advances, notably in Borde (Saxony-Anhalt), with nearly 20 percentage points more than in 2021.
In some districts in the East, the AfD score reached up to 46 percent.
But the AfD also made progress in Western regions, advancing by 10 percentage points, to 18 percent.
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The far-right party narrowly won the most votes in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia (West), a stronghold of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) since 1949.
SPD historic losses
The SPD, whose outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz apologised for the party's "bitter defeat", lost ground in all constituencies.
With 16.4 percent of the vote compared to 25.7 percent in 2021, Germany's oldest party recorded its worst score since World War II.
In total it shed 3.8 million votes with an half of those losses (some 1.8 million) shifting to the CDU, according to Infratest dimap. Thus, it lost the constituency of Wolfsburg (Lower Saxony), location of Volkswagen's headquarters.
Eleven SPD strongholds where it had come first in every federal election for two decades went to the conservatives.
In total, 32 constituencies also switched from the SPD to AfD.
READ ALSO: Social Democrats turn to supporting government role
Conservative win with mixed results
Although the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian ally the CSU topped the ballot with around 28.6 percent, the two parties only historically performed worse in 2021.
The alliance nevertheless came out top in 217 constituencies - more than twice the number in 2021.
It also overtook the SPD in nearly two-thirds of the constituencies where the Social Democrats had led in 2021.
Together, the CDU and CSU attracted 1.8 million SPD voters, in addition to 1.4 million from the FDP liberals and 900,000 people who did not vote in 2021.
But the two parties lost one million votes to the far right.
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By Yann SCHREIBER
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