1957 West German federal election

Federal elections were held in West Germany on 15 September 1957 to elect the third Bundestag. 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.

1957 West German federal election
15 September 1957 (1957-09-15)[1]
All 519 seats in the Bundestag
260 seats needed for a majority
Registered35,400,923 6.9%
Turnout31,072,894 (87.8%)[2]
1.8%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Konrad Adenauer Erich Ollenhauer Reinhold Maier
Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP
Leader since 21 October 1950 27 September 1952 24 January 1957
Leader's seat Bonn Stadt Hannover-Süd Baden-Württemberg
Last election 249 seats, 45.2% 162 seats, 28.8% 53 seats, 9.5%
Seats won 277 181 43
Seat change 28 19 10
Popular vote 15,008,399 9,495,571 2,307,135
Percentage 50.2% 31.8% 7.7%
Swing 5.0% 3.0% 1.8%
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Heinrich Hellwege Friedrich von Kessel
Party DP GB/BHE
Leader since 23 May 1946 October 1955
Leader's seat Did not run
Last election 15 seats, 3.3% 27 seats, 5.9%
Seats won 17 0
Seat change 2 27
Popular vote 1,007,282 1,374,066
Percentage 3.4% 4.6%
Swing 0.1% 1.3%
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.
Chancellor before election

Konrad Adenauer
CDU/CSU

 Elected Chancellor

Konrad Adenauer
CDU/CSU

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.[3][4]

Results

The All-German Bloc lost all of their seats, but the ideologically-similar German Party maintained theirs. It was the last time in the 20th century that a party to the right of the CDU/CSU Union gained seats in the Bundestag.

 Summary of the 15 September 1957 German Bundestag election results
Parties Constituency Party list Total seats
Votes % +/− Seats +/− Votes % +/− Seats +/− Seats† +/− %
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 11,975,400 39.7 +4.9 147 +17 11,875,339 39.7 +3.3 68 +7 222 +25 42.8
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 9,651,669 32.0 +2.5 46 +1 9,495,571 31.8 +3.0 123 +17 181 +19 34.9
Christian Social Union (CSU) 3,186,150 10.6 +1.7 47 +5 3,133,060 10.5 +1.7 8 −2 55 +3 10.6
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 2,276,234 7.5 −3.3 1 −13 2,307,135 7.7 −1.8 40 +6 44 −9 8.5
All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (GB/BHE) 1,324,636 4.4 −1.5 0 ±0 1,374,066 4.6 −1.3 0 −27 0 −27 0
German Party (DP) 1,062,293 3.5 −0.4 6 −4 1,007,282 3.4 +0.1 11 +6 17 +2 3.3
German Reich Party (DRP) 290,622 1.0 +0.3 0 ±0 308,564 1.0 −0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Federalist Union (FU) 295,533 1.0 +1.0 0 ±0 254,322 0.9 +0.9 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Alliance of Germans (BdD) 37,329 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 58,725 0.2 +0.2 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
South Schleswig Voter Federation (SSW) 33,463 0.1 −0.1 0 ±0 32,262 0.1 −0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
German Community (DG) 16,410 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 17,490 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
German Middle Class (Mittelstand) 3,024 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 36,592 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Patriotic Union (VU) 2,250 0.0 ±0.0 0 ±0 5,020 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Party of the Good Germans (PdgD) 356 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 – – – – – 0 ±0 0
Electoral groups and independents 845 0.0 −0.1 0 ±0 – – – – – 0 ±0 0
Invalid/blank votes 916,680 — — — — 1,167,466 — — — — — — —
Total 31,072,894 100 ±0.0 247 +5 31,072,894 100 ±0.0 250 +5 519 +10 ±0
Registered voters/turnout 35,400,923 87.8 — — — 35,400,923 87.8 — — — — — —
Source: Federal Returning Officer
^† — includes the non-voting delegates for West Berlin (12 SPD, 7 CDU, 3 FDP).
↓
277 17 181 43
CDU/CSU DP SPD FDP
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
 
 53.37%
SPD
 
 34.87%
FDP
 
 8.48%
DP
 
 3.28%

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. "Wahl zum 3. Deutschen Bundestag am 15. September 1957" (in German). Bundeswahlleiter. Archived from the original on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  2. "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.
  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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