1957 West German federal election

1957 West German federal election

← 1953 15 September 1957 (1957-09-15) 1961 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 497 seats in the Bundestag[a] 249 seats needed for a majority
Registered	35,400,923 6.9%
Turnout	31,072,894 (87.8%) 1.8pp
First party Second party   Candidate Konrad Adenauer Erich Ollenhauer Party CDU/CSU SPD Last election 45.2%, 243 seats 28.8%, 151 seats Seats won 270[b] 169[c] Seat change 27 18 Popular vote 15,008,399 9,495,571 Percentage 50.2% 31.8% Swing 5.0pp 3.0pp   Third party Fourth party   DP Candidate Reinhold Maier Heinrich Hellwege Party FDP DP Last election 9.5%, 48 seats 3.3%, 15 seats Seats won 41[d] 17 Seat change 7 2 Popular vote 2,307,135 1,007,282 Percentage 7.7% 3.4% Swing 1.8pp 0.1pp
Results by constituency for the first votes. Grey denotes seats won by the CDU/CSU; red denotes seats won by the SPD; light blue denotes seats won by the German Party; yellow denotes the seat won by the FDP.
Government before election Second Adenauer cabinet CDU/CSU–FDP–DP Government after election Third Adenauer cabinet CDU/CSU–DP

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Federal elections were held in West Germany on 15 September 1957 to elect the members of the third Bundestag. The Christian Democratic Union and its longtime ally, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, won a sweeping victory, taking 270 seats in the Bundestag to win the first – and to date, only – absolute majority for a single German parliamentary group in a free election.

This was the first West German federal election to take place in the Saarland, which – as Saar protectorate – had been a separate entity under French control between 1946 and 1956.

Campaign[]

Federal Chancellor Adenauer had some solid advantages over his Social Democratic opponent, Erich Ollenhauer; West Germany had become fully sovereign in 1955 and had joined the European Economic Community in March 1957. Its economy was growing steadily with very low unemployment, and most West Germans felt 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, many West German voters gave Adenauer the credit for it.^[1][2]

Results[]

The All-German Bloc lost all of their seats, but the ideologically similar German Party maintained theirs. The 1957 election was the last time that a right-wing populist party would return members to the Bundestag until Alternative for Germany's entrance in 2017.

Party		Constituency			Party list			Total seatsa	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	11,975,400	39.7	147	11,875,339	39.7	68	215	+24
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	9,651,669	32.0	46	9,495,571	31.8	123	169	+18
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	3,186,150	10.6	47	3,133,060	10.5	8	55	+3
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	2,276,234	7.5	1	2,307,135	7.7	40	41	−7
	All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (GB/BHE)	1,324,636	4.4	0	1,374,066	4.6	0	0	−27
	German Party (DP)	1,062,293	3.5	6	1,007,282	3.4	11	17	+2
	Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP)	290,622	1.0	0	308,564	1.0	0	0	0
	Federalist Union (FU)	295,533	1.0	0	254,322	0.9	0	0	New
	Alliance of Germans (BdD)	37,329	0.1	0	58,725	0.2	0	0	New
	German Middle Class (Mittelstand)	3,024	0.0	0	36,592	0.1	0	0	New
	South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW)	33,463	0.1	0	32,262	0.1	0	0	0
	German Community (DG)	16,410	0.1	0	17,490	0.1	0	0	New
	Patriotic Union (VU)	2,250	0.0	0	5,020	0.0	0	0	0
	Party of the Good Germans (PdgD)	356	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
	Independents and voter groups	845	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
Valid votes		30,156,214	97.0	–	29,905,428	96.2	–	–	–
Invalid/blank votes		916,680	3.0	–	1,167,466	3.8	–	–	–
Total votes		31,072,894	100.0	247	31,072,894	100.0	250	497	+10
Registered voters/turnout		35,400,923	87.8	–	35,400,923	87.8	–	–	–
Source: Bundeswahlleiter

^a – excludes the non-voting delegates for West Berlin (12 SPD, 7 CDU, 3 FDP, 1 FVP).

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).

Notes[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1957 Germany Bundestagswahl.

References[]