 In the first post unification election, which took place in December 1990, Schwanitz's name was on the SPD list for the Saxony electoral district and to the Bundestag.He enjoyed electoral success in the Bundestag elections in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2005 and 2009, but did not contest a seat in 2013.In the 2005 election he attracted nationwide criticism with an election poster showing the coffins of US soldiers, inside a cargo plane, being returned from the Iraq War.