1958 Bavarian state election

While the CSU was still suffering from the major upset of the 1950 state elections, they found themselves recouping their losses in 1954, gaining back 19 seats out of the total 40 lost in 1950, while the SPD struggled to keep upwards momentum. This opened a door to another grand coalition which had been done twice now, or a possible alliance with the declining right-wing parties. However, the SPD pulled a major coup after the election results came in. Under the SPD Landtag chairman Waldemar von Knoeringen, negotiations were brokered with the BP, GB/BHE, and FDP for a Viererkoalition(coalition of four) against the CSU. These were approved and SPD politician Wilhelm Hoegner became Minister-President for a second time, with BP co-founder Joseph Baumgartner as his deputy. This caused internal strife within the CSU, which led to the resignation of Hans Ehard as party chair in January 1955, but he remained in his position as President of Landtag.[2]

In 1951, businessman Karl Freisehner had approached the government about casino operating concessions in his name. While this was rejected, several Landtag members had received a bribe of 50,000 marks in order to vote yes. With enough pressure, the Bavarian government did give the licences in April 1955. Soon afterwards, the CSU had launched a parliamentary investigation into the opening of the casinos. One of the recipients of the 50,000 mark check was a CSU deputy, Franz Michel, who came forwards to his other party members. Later on he'd claim he burned the check. The crusade against the bribery was now led by Friedrich Zimmermann, who reportedly had incriminating evidence on Joseph Baumgartner. In 1957, Baumgartner and Minister of the Interior August Geislhöringer (also a member of the BP) resigned in face of these allegations.[3]

The Viererkoalition officially collapsed on 8 October 1957 due to a combination of the Casino Affair and the CDU/CSU victory in the 1957 federal election. The right-wing parties abandoned the SPD in reaction to the election, and Hoegner submitted his resignation on 9 October 1957. CSU politician Hanns Seidel was chosen as Minister-President, and formed a coalition with the FDP and GB/BHE, which would last through the 1958 state elections.[2]