1983 West German federal election

The SPD/FDP coalition under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was returned to power in the 1980 West German federal election. The coalition parties grew more and more apart over economic policies. Schmidt asked for and won a motion of no confidence on 5 February 1982. The FDP cabinet ministers resigned on 17 September 1982 and the SPD formed a minority government. On 1 October, Schmidt and the SPD government were dismissed from office by a constructive vote of no confidence by the votes of the CDU/CSU Union parties and a majority of the FDP deputies in the Bundestag. The Leader of the Christian Democratic Union and Leader of the CDU/CSU Group in the Bundestag Helmut Kohl succeeded Schmidt. The new coalition had a majority in the Bundestag but early elections were arranged to legitimize it. Kohl did this by deliberately losing a vote of no confidence on 17 December 1982. Federal President Karl Carstens then dissolved the Bundestag and held new elections. The Federal Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of the dissolution.

The FDP was split by its change of coalition partners. The party leadership under Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Otto Graf Lambsdorff drove the new policy, but they were rejected by a minority under Gerhart Baum, Günter Verheugen and Ingrid Matthäus-Maier. The FDP was defeated in the 1982 Hessian state election on 26 September 1982, losing half its voters by gaining only 3.1 percent of the vote and failing to enter the state parliament thanks to an SPD campaign against the FDP's "betrayal in Bonn". The FDP was defeated again and lost all of its seats in the 1982 Bavarian state election on 10 October 1982.

Helmut Schmidt renounced his chancellor candidacy and was replaced by former Federal Minister of Justice Hans-Jochen Vogel. The SPD encountered difficulties because of the emergence of the Greens. A major issue in this election was the armament question after the NATO Double-Track Decision.

 Summary of the 6 March 1983 West German Bundestag election results

Parties		Constituency					Party list					Total seats
		Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Seatsa	+/−	%
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	15,686,033	40.4	−4.1	68	−59	14,865,807	38.2	−4.7	125	+34	202	−26	38.9
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)c	15,943,460	41.0	+5.4	136	+55	14,857,680	38.1	+3.9	55	−38	202	+17	38.9
	Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU)c	4,318,800	11.1	+0.7	44	+4	4,140,865	10.6	+0.3	9	−3	53	+1	10.2
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	1,087,918	2.8	−4.4	0	±0	2,706,942	6.9	−3.7	34	−19	35	-19	6.7
	The Greensb	1,609,855	4.1	+3.1	0	±0	2,167,431	5.6	+4.1	27	+27	28	+28	5.4
	National Democratic Party (NPD)	57,112	0.1	+0.1	0	±0	91,095	0.2	±0	0	±0	0	±0	0
	German Communist Party (DKP)	96,143	0.2	−0.1	0	±0	64,986	0.2	±0	0	±0	0	±0	0
	European Workers' Party (EAP)	7,491	0.0	±0	0	±0	14,966	0.0	±0	0	±0	0	±0	0
	Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)	3,341	0.0	+0.0	0	±0	11,028	0.0	+0.0	0	±0	0	±0	0
	Christian Bavarian People's Party (CBV)	2,068	0.0	+0.0	0	±0	10,994	0.0	±0	0	±0	0	±0	0
	Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists (KPD/ML)	–	–	–	–	–	3,431	0.0	+0.0	0	±0	0	±0	0
	Independent Social Democrats (USD)	450	0.0	+0.0	0	±0	3,333	0.0	+0.0	0	±0	0	±0	0
	League of West German Communists (BWK)	686	0.0	+0.0	0	±0	2,129	0.0	+0.0	0	±0	0	±0	0
	Electoral groups and independents	31,996	0.1	+0.1	0	±0	–	–	–	–	–	0	±0	0
Valid votes		38,845,353	98.9	—	—	—	38,940,687	99.1	—	—	—	—	—	—
Invalid/blank votes		434,176	1.1	—	—	—	338,841	0.9	—	—	—	—	—	—
Totals		39,279,529	100	±0.0	248	±0	39,279,529	100	±0.0	250	+1	520	+1	±0
Registered voters/turnout		44,088,935	89.1	—	—	—	44,088,935	89.1	—	—	—	—	—	—
Source: Federal Returning Officer

^a — includes the non-voting delegates for West Berlin (11 CDU, 9 SPD, 1 FDP, 1 AL).

^b — known as Alternative Liste für Demokratie und Umweltschutz (AL) in West Berlin.

^c — The Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria call themselves sister parties. They do not compete against each other in the same geographical regions and they form one group within the Bundestag.

Seat results – SPD in red, Greens in green, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

The coalition between the CDU/CSU and the FDP returned to government, gaining 55.7% of the vote and 55.8% of the seats, with Helmut Kohl as Chancellor. This was the first election in which the Greens secured representation in the Bundestag, and the first which saw a fourth (fifth) party in the parliament since 1960.

• The Federal Returning Officer
• Psephos