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{{Infobox Election
{{Infobox election
| election_name = German federal election, 1949
| election_name = Election for the 1st German Federal Diet<ref name='btw1949'/>
| country = Germany
| country = Germany
| flag_year =
| type = parliamentary
| ongoing = no
| flag_image =
| type = parliamentary
| vote_type = Popular <!-- default -->
| ongoing = no
| party_colour =
| party_name =
| previous_election = German election and referendum, 1938
| previous_election = German election and referendum, 1938
| previous_year = 1938
| previous_year = 1938
| previous_mps =
| next_election = West German federal election, 1953
| election_date = {{Start date|1949|08|14}}<ref name='btw1949'> {{cite web | url = http://www.bundeswahlleiter.de/de/bundestagswahlen/fruehere_bundestagswahlen/btw1949.html | title = Wahl zum 1. Deutschen Bundestag am 14. August 1949 | accessdate = 2012-05-05 | publisher = [[Bundeswahlleiter]] | language = German}}</ref>
| next_year = 1953
| elected_mps =
| seats_for_election = All 402 seats in the [[Bundestag]] <br> 202 were needed for a majority
| next_election = West German federal election, 1953
| election_date = {{Start date|df=yes|1949|8|14}}
| next_year = 1953

<!-- CDU/CSU -->
| next_mps =
| seats_for_election= All 410 seats in the [[Bundestag]]
| image1 = [[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F078072-0004, Konrad Adenauer.jpg|120px]]
| majority_seats = 206
| leader1 = [[Konrad Adenauer]]
| opinion_polls =
| party1 = CDU/CSU
| turnout = 78.5%
| leader_since1 = 1946 ([[Allied-occupied Germany|British Zone]])
<!-- CDU/CSU -->
| last_election1 =
| image1 = [[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F078072-0004, Konrad Adenauer.jpg|150x150px]]
| seats1 = 139 (208 with FDP and DP)
| seat_change1 =
| colour1 =
| leader1 = [[Konrad Adenauer]]
| popular_vote1 = 7,359,084 (11,128,938)
| party1 = CDU/CSU
| percentage1 = 31.0% (46.9%)
| swing1 =
| alliance1 =
| leader_since1 =

<!-- SPD -->
| leaders_seat1 =
| last_election1 =
| image2 = [[File:K.Schumacher.jpg|120px]]
| seats_before1 =
| leader2 = [[Kurt Schumacher]]
| seats_needed1 =
| party2 = Social Democratic Party of Germany
| seats1 = 141
| leader_since2 = 1946
| seats_after1 =
| last_election2 =
| seat_change1 =
| seats2 = 131
| popular_vote1 = 7,359,084
| seat_change2 =
| percentage1 = 31.0%
| popular_vote2 = 6,934,975
| swing1 =
| percentage2 = 29.2%
<!-- SPD -->
| swing2 =
| image2 = [[File:K.Schumacher.jpg|150x150px]]
| colour2 =
| leader2 = [[Kurt Schumacher]]
| party2 = Social Democratic Party of Germany
| alliance2 =
| leader_since2 =
| leaders_seat2 =
| last_election2 =
| seats_before2 =
| seats_needed2 =
| seats2 = 136
| seats_after2 =
| seat_change2 =
| popular_vote2 = 6,934,975
| percentage2 = 29.2%
| swing2 =
<!-- FDP -->
| image3 =
| colour3 =
| leader3 = <!-- legislative or parliamentary only-->
| party3 = Free Democratic Party (Germany)
| alliance3 =
| leader_since3 =
| leaders_seat3 =
| last_election3 =
| seats_before3 =
| seats_needed3 =
| seats3 = 53
| seats_after3 =
| seat_change3 =
| popular_vote3 = 2,829,920
| percentage3 = 11.9%
| swing3 =
<!-- KPD -->
| image4 =
| colour4 =
| leader4 = <!-- legislative or parliamentary only-->
| party4 = Communist Party of Germany
| alliance4 =
| leader_since4 =
| leaders_seat4 =
| last_election4 =
| seats_before4 =
| seats_needed4 =
| seats4 = 15
| seats_after4 =
| seat_change4 =
| popular_vote4 = 1,361,706
| percentage4 = 5.7%
| swing4 =
<!-- BP -->
| image5 =
| colour5 =
| leader5 = <!-- legislative or parliamentary only-->
| party5 = Bavaria Party
| alliance5 =
| leader_since5 =
| leaders_seat5 =
| last_election5 =
| seats_before5 =
| seats_needed5 =
| seats5 = 17
| seats_after5 =
| seat_change5 =
| popular_vote5 = 986,478
| percentage5 = 4.2%
| swing5 =
<!-- DP -->
| image6 =
| colour6 =
| leader6 = <!-- legislative or parliamentary only-->
| party6 = German Party (1947)
| alliance6 =
| leader_since6 =
| leaders_seat6 =
| last_election6 =
| seats_before6 =
| seats_needed6 =
| seats6 = 17
| seats_after6 =
| seat_change6 =
| popular_vote6 = 939,934
| percentage6 = 4.0%
| swing6 =
<!-- Zentrum -->
| image7 =
| colour7 =
| leader7 = <!-- legislative or parliamentary only-->
| party7 = Centre Party (Germany)
| alliance7 =
| leader_since7 =
| leaders_seat7 =
| last_election7 =
| seats_before7 =
| seats_needed7 =
| seats7 = 10
| seats_after7 =
| seat_change7 =
| popular_vote7 = 727,505
| percentage7 = 3.1%
| swing7 =
<!-- map -->
| map_image =
| map_size =
| map_alt =
| map =
| map_caption =
<!-- bottom -->
| title = [[Chancellor of Germany (Federal Republic)|Chancellor]]
| title = [[Chancellor of Germany (Federal Republic)|Chancellor]]
| posttitle = Resulting Chancellor
| before_election = [[Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk]]<br>(Leading Minister until 23 May 1945)
| before_election = [[Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk]]<br>(Leading Minister until 23 May 1945)
| before_party =
| before_party =
| after_election = [[Konrad Adenauer]]
| after_election = [[Konrad Adenauer]]
| after_party = Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
| after_party = CDU/CSU
}}
}}


Revision as of 08:53, 5 May 2012

Election for the 1st German Federal Diet[1]
← 1938 August 14, 1949 (1949-08-14)[1] 1953 →
All 410 seats in the Bundestag
206 seats needed for a majority
Turnout78.5%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Konrad Adenauer Kurt Schumacher
Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP
Seats won 141 136 53
Popular vote 7,359,084 6,934,975 2,829,920
Percentage 31.0% 29.2% 11.9%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Party KPD BP DP
Seats won 15 17 17
Popular vote 1,361,706 986,478 939,934
Percentage 5.7% 4.2% 4.0%
  Seventh party
 
Party Centre
Seats won 10
Popular vote 727,505
Percentage 3.1%
Chancellor before election

Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
(Leading Minister until 23 May 1945)

 Resulting Chancellor

Konrad Adenauer
CDU/CSU

Federal elections were held in West Germany on 14 August 1949,[2] with a further eight seats elected in West Berlin between 1949 and January 1952 and another nineteen between February 1952 and 1953.[3] They were the first nationwide elections since 1938 and the first after the division of the country.

Issues and Campaign

After World War II, the German Instrument of Surrender and the country's division into four Allied occupation zones, the elections were held in the Federal Republic of Germany, established under occupation statute in the three Western zones with the proclamation of its Basic Law by the Parlamentarischer Rat assembly of the West German states on 23 May 1949. Most West German parties at the time of the 1949 Bundestag election were committed to democracy, but they disagreed on what kind of democracy West Germany should become.

CDU election poster

The Christian Democratic (CDU) leader, 73-year-old Konrad Adenauer, former mayor of Cologne and party chairman in the British Zone since March 1946, believed in moderate, non-denominational and humanist Christian democracy (see, for example, Dennis L. Bark and David R. Gress, A History of West Germany, volume 1: 1945-1963: From Shadow to Substance, London, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1989; Erling Bjöl, Grimberg's History of the Nations, volume 23: The Rich West, "The Giant Dwarf: West Germany," Helsinki: WSOY, 1985), social market economy and integration with the West. In 1948 he had become president of the Parlamentarischer Rat, an office that added to his popularity as protagonist of a "state-to-be".

The Social Democratic (SPD) leader, Kurt Schumacher, wanted a united, democratic and socialist Germany. Schumacher had heavily agitated against the 1946 merger of the SPD and the Communist Party (KPD) in the Soviet occupation zone and had turned the party's course away from the working class advocacy group of the Weimar Republic towards a left-wing big tent party with distinct patriotic features. He constantly accused Adenauer of betraying national interests (see, for example, Bjöl, Grimberg's History of the Nations), culminating in his heckle at the Bundestag session of 25 September 1949: "The Chancellor of the Allies!".

Results

In the end and to the great disappointment of the Social Democrats, the CDU/CSU outnumbered them by 31.0 to 29.2% of the votes cast. Enough participating West Germans favoured Adenauer's and his coalition partners' - the liberal Free Democrats' (FDP) and the German Party's (DP) - policies and promises over Schumacher's and the other left-wingers' policies to give the centre-right parties a slight majority of deputies.

To enter the Bundestag, a party had to surmount a threshold of 5% at least in one of the states or to win at least one electoral district; ten parties succeeded. A number of non-voting members (2 CDU, 5 SPD, 1 FDP) indirectly elected by the West Berlin legislature (Stadtverordnetenversammlung) are not included in the totals below. The French Saar Protectorate did not participate in this election.

Party Votes % Seats
West Germany West Berlin Total
Social Democratic Party 6,934,975 29.2 131 14 145
Christian Democratic Union 5,978,636 25.2 115 7 122
Free Democratic Party 2,829,920 11.9 52 6 58
Christian Social Union 1,380,448 5.8 24 0 24
Communist Party 1,361,706 5.7 15 0 15
Bavaria Party 986,478 4.2 17 0 17
German Party 939,934 4.0 17 0 17
Centre Party 727,505 3.1 10 0 10
Economic Reconstruction League 681,888 2.9 12 0 12
German Conservative Party-Deutsche Rechtspartei 429,031 1.8 5 0 5
Radical Socialist Freedom Party 216,749 0.9 0 0 0
South Schleswig Voter Federation 75,388 0.3 1 0 1
European People's Movement of Germany 26,162 0.1 0 0 0
Rheinish-Westfalian People's Party 21,931 0.1 0 0 0
Independents 1,141,647 4.8 3 0 3
Invalid/blank votes 763,216 – – – –
Total 24,495,614 100 402 27 429
Registered voters/turnout 31,207,620 78.5 – – –
Source: Federal Returning Officer, Nohlen & Stöver

Post-election

Schumacher had explicitly refused a grand coalition and led his party into opposition, where it would remain until 1966, assuming the chair of the SPD parliamentary group as minority leader. On 12 September 1949, he lost the German presidential election, defeated by FDP chairman Theodor Heuss in the second ballot. Schumacher died on 20 August 1952 of the long-term consequences of his concentration camp imprisonment during the Nazi years.

Adenauer had favoured the formation of a smaller centre-right coalition from the beginning. Nominated by the CDU/CSU faction, he was elected the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on 15 September 1949 by an absolute majority of 202 of 402 votes. Adenauer had ensured that the votes of the predominantly Social Democrat West Berlin deputies did not count and later stated that he "naturally" had voted for himself. On 20 September he formed the Cabinet Adenauer I of CDU/CSU, FDP, and DP ministers. Chosen as an interim Chancellor, he held the office until 1963, being re-elected three times.

Further reading

  • Kirchheimer, Otto (1950). "The Composition of the German Bundestag, 1950". Western Political Quarterly. 3 (4): 590–601. doi:10.2307/442516.

References

  1. ^ a b "Wahl zum 1. Deutschen Bundestag am 14. August 1949" (in German). Bundeswahlleiter. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
  2. ^ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p762 ISBN 9783832956097
  3. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p793
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