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1957 West German federal election

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by HangingCurve (talk | contribs) at 23:28, 19 February 2016 (fair enough, then--should still be noted in lede that CDU/CSU won an outright majority). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Election for the 3rd German Federal Diet[1]
← 1953 15 September 1957 (1957-09-15)[1] 1961 →
All 519 seats in the Bundestag
260 seats needed for a majority
Turnout87.8% (voting eligible)[2]
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Konrad Adenauer Erich Ollenhauer Reinhold Maier
Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP
Seats before 249 162 53
Seats won 277 181 43
Seat change Increase28 Increase19 Decrease10
Popular vote 15,008,399 9,495,571 2,307,135
Percentage 50.2% 31.8% 7.7%
Swing Increase5.0% Increase3.0% Decrease1.9%
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Party DP GB/BHE
Seats before 15 27
Seats won 17 0
Seat change Increase2 Decrease27
Popular vote 1,007,282 1,374,066
Percentage 3.4% 4.6%
Swing Increase0.1% Decrease1.3%
Election results (party list) by state: the lighter blue denotes states where CDU had the plurality of votes; darker blue denotes states where CDU/CSU had the absolute majority of the votes; and pink denotes states where the SPD had the plurality of votes
Chancellor before election

Konrad Adenauer
CDU/CSU

Elected Chancellor

Konrad Adenauer
CDU/CSU

Seat results – SPD in red, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black, others (moderate right) in gray
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Federal elections were held in West Germany on 15 September 1957. The Christian Democratic Union and its longtime ally, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, won a sweeping victory, taking 277 seats in the Bundestag to win the first--and to date, only--absolute majority for a single German parliamentary group in a free election.

Issues and Campaign

Federal Chancellor Adenauer had some solid advantages over his Social Democratic opponent, Erich Ollenhauer: West Germany had become fully sovereign in 1955, it had joined the European Economic Community in March 1957, its economy grew steadily with a very low unemployment, and most West Germans felt clearly more prosperous and more secure than in 1949 or 1953. Although the West German economic growth was more directly enhanced by the social market economy policies of Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard, most non-socialistically inclined West German voters gave Adenauer the credit for it.[3][4]

Results

Template:German federal election, 1957

↓
277 181 43 17
CDU/CSU SPD FDP DP
Popular Vote
CDU/CSU
 
 50.19%
SPD
 
 31.75%
FDP
 
 7.71%
GB/BHE
 
 4.59%
DP
 
 3.37%
Other
 
 2.38%
Bundestag seats
CDU/CSU
 
 54.33%
SPD
 
 34.00%
FDP
 
 8.25%
DP
 
 3.42%

Aftermath

Konrad Adenauer led the CDU-CSU coalition to a landslide victory. The CDU-CSU won an outright majority—to date, the only time a German party has been elected to a majority government in a free election (the CDU and CSU sit as a single bloc in the Bundestag).

References

  1. ^ a b "Wahl zum 3. Deutschen Bundestag am 15. September 1957" (in German). Bundeswahlleiter. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  2. ^ "Voter turnout by election year". Website of the Federal Returning Officer's Office. The Federal Returning Officer. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  3. ^ Erling Bjöl, Grimberg's History of the Nations, volume 23: The Rich West, "A Giant Dwarf: West Germany," Helsinki: WSOY, 1985
  4. ^ 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
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