1990 German federal election
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All 662 seats in the Bundestag 332 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 60,436,560  33.3% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 46,995,915 (77.8%)[1] 6.5% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The left side shows constituency winners of the election by their party colours. The right side shows Party list winners of the election for the additional members by their party colours. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Federal elections were held in Germany on 2 December 1990 to elect the members of the 12th Bundestag. This was the first all-German election since the Nazi show election in April 1938, the first multi-party all-German election since that of March 1933, which was held after the Nazi seizure of power and was subject to widespread suppression, and the first free and fair all-German election since November 1932. The result was a comprehensive victory for the governing coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union and the Free Democratic Party, which was reelected to a third term.
Issues and campaign
This was the first election conducted after German reunification which took place on 3 October. Almost 150 seats had been added to represent the newly re-established eastern states of Germany without reducing the number of Western members. The euphoria following the reunification gave the ruling CDU/CSU–FDP coalition a dramatic advantage in both Western and Eastern Germany throughout the campaign.
This was the one and only election for which the 5% threshold was not applied nationwide, but separately for the former East Germany (including East Berlin) and former West Germany (including West Berlin). As a result, while the Western The Greens failed to gain representation, an ideologically similar party from the East, Alliance 90, did. They merged to form Alliance 90/The Greens in 1993.
Results
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| Politics of Germany |
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All change figures are relative to the pre-existing West German Bundestag.
Template:German federal election, 1990
| 319 | 79 | 239 | 17 | 8 |
| CDU/CSU | FDP | SPD | PDS |
Results by state
| State | Union | SPD | FDP | Grüne | PDS | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| style="background:Template:CDU/CSU/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Social Democratic Party of Germany/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Free Democratic Party (Germany)/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:Alliance 90/The Greens/meta/color;"| | style="background:Template:The Left (Germany)/meta/color;"| | ||
 Baden-Württemberg
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46.5 | 29.1 | 12.3 | 5.7 | 0.3 | 6.1 |
 Bavaria
|
51.9 | 26.7 | 8.7 | 4.6 | 0.2 | 7.9 |
 Berlin
|
39.4 | 30.6 | 9.1 | 7.2[c] | 9.7 | 4.0 |
 Brandenburg
|
36.3 | 32.9 | 9.7 | 6.6 | 11.0 | 3.5 |
 Bremen
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30.9 | 42.5 | 12.8 | 8.3 | 1.1 | 4.4 |
 Hamburg
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36.6 | 41.0 | 12.0 | 5.8 | 1.1 | 3.5 |
 Hesse
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41.3 | 38.0 | 10.9 | 5.6 | 0.4 | 3.8 |
 Lower Saxony
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44.3 | 38.4 | 10.3 | 4.5 | 0.3 | 2.2 |
 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
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41.2 | 26.5 | 9.1 | 5.9 | 14.2 | 3.1 |
 North Rhine-Westphalia
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40.5 | 41.1 | 11.0 | 4.3 | 0.3 | 2.8 |
 Rhineland-Palatinate
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45.6 | 36.1 | 10.4 | 4.0 | 0.2 | 3.7 |
 Saarland
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38.1 | 51.2 | 6.0 | 2.3 | 0.2 | 2.2 |
 Saxony
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49.5 | 18.2 | 12.4 | 5.9 | 9.0 | 5.0 |
 Saxony-Anhalt
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38.6 | 24.7 | 19.7 | 5.3 | 9.4 | 2.3 |
 Schleswig-Holstein
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43.5 | 38.5 | 11.4 | 4.0 | 0.3 | 2.3 |
 Thuringia
|
45.2 | 21.9 | 14.6 | 6.1 | 8.3 | 3.9 |
| Old states (West) | 44.3 | 35.7 | 10.6 | 4.8 | 0.3 | 4.3 |
| New states (East) | 41.8 | 24.3 | 12.9 | 6.2 | 11.1 | 3.7 |
Post-election
The governing CDU/CSU-FDP coalition was returned to office with a landslide majority, and Helmut Kohl remained chancellor. The CDU did exceptionally well in the former East Germany, which had been the heartland of the SPD before the Nazi era.
Notes
- ^ Schröder was endorsed as the SPD's Chancellor candidate on 20 March 1990, but was not party leader.
- ^ Lafontaine was elected in Saarbrücken, but did not accept his mandate after the election.
- ^ 3.9% West German Green Party, 3.3% East German Green Party/Alliance 90.
References
- ^ "Voter turnout by election year". Website of the Federal Returning Officer's Office. The Federal Returning Officer. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
Sources
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