It's less than three weeks until the 22 September election and the whole country is plastered with the various parties' campaign posters. Perhaps it's because the median age of voters is 45 that many young people don't feel they are being spoken to at all. Most don't really feel involved and, if they are at all interested, have grown pretty cynical about German politics.
That's because none of the main parties really speak to them - unless it's to patronise them with what are considered "youth issues". But then a lot of German voters, young and old, feel that the political message they are being sold is particularly empty this time around. The consensus is that Merkel will remain in office and not much will change.
And to many people it feels like Merkel's party has agreed with the other main parties to keep the meatiest controversies such as the civil war in Syria and the European debt crisis off the agenda - at least until the election is over. All this has created a fair amount of apathy and the assumption, not just among young voters, that politics is not something to get involved in.
Last weekend's long-awaited TV duel between the chancellor and her social democratic counterpart, Peer Steinbrück, was no exception - the candidates barely touched upon those key issues. And yet the country was interested. You would have been forgiven for thinking the debate, shown on all four main TV channels at prime time on Sunday night, was some kind of blockbuster hit. Even Germany's favourite crime series Tatort had to be dropped off the schedule in favour of the standoff.
As a younger voter and a student of political science I felt obliged to watch the debate although I didn't expect it to have a big influence on who would get my vote - I certainly didn't think the candidates would have anything spectacular to say. Judging by Facebook, a lot of my student friends were watching the live broadcast too, but then I guess I'm living in a bubble of politically engaged twentysomethings, the kind who often discuss politics on social media.One or two of the parties have wised up and tried to reach out to the lost youth using Facebook and Twitter, but often they will end up preaching to the converted. Most people I know who follow a candidate or party are actually already a member of it or an affiliated youth organisation. So I really doubt that parties reach many new voters on social media channels.
A handful of politicians do use Twitter - and not just from the Pirate party, who have a major online presence. Even the German environment minister, Peter Altmeier, has a reputation as an avid and approachable tweeter. There are a couple of others from the Greens and the SPD with a large following, but often it's because they are engaged in internet policy and not because they are consciously reaching out to young people.
As the main parties struggle to speak to young people, they often end up turning to satire for their politics fix. In my experience politics is something many young people don't see themselves as being involved with. At least not yet. But who doesn't like a good laugh and if you happen to learn something, then why not?
Now and again, this youth-orientated satire succeeds in really showing up how badly the main parties misjudge young people. In one show broadcast online called Young and Naive, for instance, the journalist Tilo Jung interviewed Steinbrück as if he didn't have a clue about any policies.
So with many young people feeling left out in the cold by the parties who see them as apathetic and ill-informed, it can often be up to the media to take a tongue-in-cheek look at politics and politicians, reaching out to young voters where the parties themselves are having trouble. In that way nobody's left behind, not unless you want to be.