1928 German federal election

Federal elections were held in Germany on 20 May 1928.[1] The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) remained the largest party in the Reichstag after winning 153 of the 491 seats.[2] Voter turnout was 75.6%.[3]

1928 German federal election

20 May 1928 (1928-05-20)
All 491 seats in the Reichstag 246 seats needed for a majority
Registered	41,224,678 5.7%
Turnout	31,165,789 (75.6%) 3.2 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Hermann Müller Otto Wels Arthur Crispien Kuno von Westarp Wilhelm Marx Party SPD DNVP Centre Leader since 1919 1924 1922 Last election 131 seats 103 seats 69 seats Seats won 153 73 61 Seat change 22 30 8 Popular vote 9,152,979 4,381,563 3,712,152 Percentage 29.8% 14.2% 12.1% Swing 3.8% 6.3% 1.5%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ernst Thälmann Philipp Dengel Gustav Stresemann Erich Koch-Weser Party KPD DVP DDP Leader since October 1925 1919 1924 Last election 45 seats 51 seats 32 seats Seats won 54 45 25 Seat change 9 6 7 Popular vote 3,264,793 2,679,703 1,479,374 Percentage 10.6% 8.7% 4.8% Swing 1.6% 1.4% 1.5%
Constituencies coloured according to the party that received the largest share of the vote.
Chancellor before election Wilhelm Marx Centre Resulting Chancellor Hermann Müller SPD

The only two parties to gain significantly were the SPD, which received almost a third of the vote, and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which completed a thorough victory of the left wing. However, the SPD still failed to win a clear majority, resulting in another coalition government, led by Hermann Müller.[4] Following his appointment as Chancellor, Müller, who had previously held the post for four months in 1920, created a grand coalition of members of the SPD, the German Democratic Party, the Centre Party and the German People's Party. However, the coalition was plagued by internal divisions right from the beginning, with each party more concerned with their own interests than the interests of the government. As a result, Müller asked German President Paul von Hindenburg for emergency powers, but when Hindenburg refused, he resigned, marking the end of the "last genuinely democratic government of the Weimar Republic" on 27 March 1930.[5]

The recently reformed Nazi Party contested the elections after the ban on the party had been lifted in 1925. However, the party received less than 3% of the vote and won only 12 seats in the Reichstag. Adolf Hitler, who had been incarcerated in Landsberg prison for his involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch until Christmas 1924,[6] had concentrated on re-establishing himself as the leader of the Nazi Party after his release rather than on his party's electability.