1961 West German federal election

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Election for the 4th German Federal Diet[1]
← 1957 17 September 1961 (1961-09-17)[1] 1965 →
All 521 seats in the Bundestag
261 seats needed for a majority
Turnout87.7% (voting eligible)[2]
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Konrad Adenauer Willy Brandt Erich Mende
Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP
Seats before 277 181 44
Seats won 251 203 67
Seat change Decrease26 Increase22 Increase23
Popular vote 14,298,372 11,427,355 4,028,766
Percentage 45.4% 36.2% 12.8%
Swing Decrease4.8% Increase4.4% Increase5.1%
Party list election results by state: the lighter blue denotes states where CDU had the plurality of votes; darker blue denotes states where 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

Election posters
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Federal elections were held in West Germany on 17 September 1961. CDU/CSU remained the largest faction, while the Social Democratic Party narrowly became the largest individual party in the Bundestag, winning 203 of the 521 seats.

Campaign

For the first time, the SPD announced a "chancellor-candidate", who was not chairman of the party: Willy Brandt, the Governing Mayor of West Berlin. After the building of the Berlin Wall, he gained more and more sympathy, while chancellor Konrad Adenauer was criticised for not showing enough support for the people of West Berlin. Adenauer had to save the absolute majority of CDU and CSU, but, considering his age and his long term as chancellor, there were big doubts if he should lead the country in a fourth term.

Results

Template:German federal election, 1961

↓
251 67 203
CDU/CSU FDP SPD
Popular Vote
CDU/CSU
 
 45.32%
SPD
 
 36.22%
FDP
 
 12.77%
GDP
 
 2.76%
DFU
 
 1.93%
Other
 
 1.00%
Bundestag seats
CDU/CSU
 
 48.50%
SPD
 
 38.08%
FDP
 
 13.43%
  • Seat results—SPD in red, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black, others (moderate right) in gray
    Seat results—SPD in red, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black, others (moderate right) in gray

Aftermath

The absolute majority was lost by the conservative union due to the gains of the liberal FDP under Erich Mende.

Konrad Adenauer remained Chancellor, building a coalition between the CDU/CSU-FDP. In 1962 he had to announce a fifth cabinet: The FDP had temporarily left the coalition after the secretary of defense, Franz Josef Strauß (CSU), had ordered the arrest of five journalists for publishing a memo detailing alleged weaknesses in the German armed forces (known as the Spiegel scandal). In 1963 Adenauer finally resigned; Ludwig Erhard took over his position as head of the coalition and government.

Further reading

  • Barnes, Samuel H.; Grace, Frank; Pollock, James K.; Sperlich, Peter W. (1962). "The German Party System and the 1961 Federal Election". American Political Science Review. 56 (4): 899–914. doi:10.2307/1952792.

References

  1. ^ a b "Wahl zum 4. Deutschen Bundestag am 17. September 1961" (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.

External links

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