At some point - long before the AfD existed - the major political parties in Germany lost their voters. However, the shrinkage of the CDU/CSU and SPD was largely self-inflicted. The reasons are analyzed by forsa chief Prof. Manfred Güllner in his new book "The Forgotten Voter." He reports on how voters and non-voters have perceived and evaluated political actors since the beginning of the second attempt to establish democracy in Germany, and how their wishes, hopes, fears, and expectations have been ignored by the party strategists of both the Union and the SPD for decades. German politics, as well as the media, increasingly focused on fringe issues and marginalized groups. The concerns and needs of the vast majority, often invoked but increasingly neglected middle of society, received little attention.