It's been years since Germany experienced an election outcome this spectacular. Together, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, (CSU) garnered the most votes it has seen in 19 years, nearly achieving an absolute majority in the federal parliament, the Bundestag.

Meanwhile, the center-left Social Democrats suffered their second worst result in history, the Greens stumbled badly and the business-friendly Free Democrats fell out of parliament for the first time ever.

The euroskeptic Alternative for Germany party came just shy of the five-percent mark needed to enter. And the Left Party, in part comprised of remnants of East Germany's SED Communist Party, is now the third-strongest power in parliament close to two and a half decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

So what happens now? Merkel will have to sort through this political tangle to create a coalition government. It certainly won't be easy.

The following graphic breaks down the CDU's success, district by district: