<p>Against the backdrop of the general underrepresentation of East Germans in top positions, and their considerably lower satisfaction with the functioning of democracy, this article analyzes the extent to which political parties contribute to this phenomenon. Although the underrepresentation has become a subject of public debate, it has so far received little attention in the field of political science. To stimulate research, factors that may be theoretically relevant to the explanation of the (under)representation of social groups are outlined. Using new data, we demonstrate that firstly, the proportion of members of East German regional party associations in the parties’ federal executive committees is usually higher than the proportion of East Germans in the total population and the proportion of members of the East German regional associations in the party as a whole. However, secondly, the proportion of native East Germans is lower. Focusing on aspects of party organization, we highlight party-specific details of descriptive representation that should be considered in the design of future studies, offering a preliminary explanation for the findings.</p>