Olaf Scholz, the chancellor candidate for the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in Germany's Sunday general election, hailed a "great success" for his party after projections showed his party overtaking the conservatives.

"It's going to be a long election night, that's for sure," Scholz said. "But this is certain: many citizens have put their crosses next to the SPD because they want there to be a change in government and also because they want the next chancellor to be called Olaf Scholz."

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The CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet said his party could not be satisfied with the results of the election  but that he would do everything possible to build a conservative-led government.

"We cannot be satisfied with the results of the election," Laschet told his supporters after first projected results put his conservative bloc a whisker behind the Social Democrats. Subsequent projections showed the gap widening.

"We will do everything possible to build a conservative-led government because Germans now need a future coalition that modernises our country," he said. "It will probably be the first time that we will have a government with three partners." 

Annalena Baerbock, the Greens candidate for Chancellor, blamed her own errors for the party falling short of what they'd hoped for earlier in the year.

"We wanted more. We didn't manage that, partly because of mistakes at the start of the campaign - mistakes I made," she said.

Leaders of Alternative for Germany (AfD) put on a brave face after projected election results showed support for the far-right party dropping and said they rejoiced in seeing Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives slump to their worst-ever result.

The mood was subdued at a restaurant in Berlin where party leaders and a few dozen members had gathered after the party failed to improve on the 12.6 percent it secured four years ago, settling instead around 10 or 11 percent.

"Should this result stand this would mean that Merkel has ruined my former party," said AfD honorary leader Alexander Gauland, who was a member of the outgoing chancellor's Christian Democrats (CDU) before joining the far-right party.

"Despite our relatively weaker result we have accomplished our mission: Merkel is out," added Gauland, drawing applause.