As an important result of mass immigration, Germany, as most other modern states, is strongly characterized by its ethnic diversity. At the same time, ethnic minorities are still strongly under-represented in terms of numbers in the German Bundestag. This article aims to contribute to new insights into one often cited but still only poorly researched topic: the impact of candidate selection methods on the parliamentary representation of ethnic minorities. The operationalization of the selection methods is done by drawing on the parties’ statutes as well as the parties’ minutes of the nomination meetings. Our results show, first, a strong homogeneity in the way the five German parties select their candidates. This is mainly because the candidate selection process in Germany is rather strongly regulated by law. However, we can additionally identify inter- (between, on the one hand, the two major German parties and, on the other hand, the three smaller parties) as well as intra-party (between the different German Länder) differences. As regards the selection of ethnic minority candidates, party ideology seems to play an important role because ethnic minority candidates are mainly nominated by left-wing parties. However, beyond the impact of party ideology, we can also show that, within the group of left-wing parties, more open candidate selection methods seem to be more favourable to ethnic minority candidates than more exclusive selection methods.