1990 German federal election

Federal elections were held in Germany on 2 December 1990 to elect the members of the 12th Bundestag. This was the first all-German election since the Nazi show election in April 1938, the first multi-party all-German election since that of March 1933, which was held after the Nazi seizure of power and was subject to widespread suppression, and the first free and fair all-German election since November 1932. The result was a comprehensive victory for the governing coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union and the Free Democratic Party, which was reelected to a third term.

1990 German federal election
2 December 1990 (1990-12-02)
All 662 seats in the Bundestag
332 seats needed for a majority
Registered60,436,560 33.3%
Turnout46,995,915 (77.8%)[1]
6.5%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Helmut Kohl Oskar Lafontaine Otto Graf Lambsdorff
Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP
Leader since 12 June 1973 20 March 1990[lower-alpha 1] 9 October 1988
Leader's seat Ludwigshafen Saarbrücken[lower-alpha 2] North Rhine-Westphalia
Last election 234 seats, 44.2% 193 seats, 37.0% 48 seats, 9.1%
Seats before 305 226 57
Seats won 319 239 79
Seat change 14 13 22
Popular vote 20,358,096 15,545,366 5,123,233
Percentage 43.8% 33.5% 11.0%
Swing 0.4% 3.5% 1.9%
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Petra Kelly Gregor Gysi
Party Green PDS
Leader since 18 December 1989
Leader's seat Bavaria (not elected) Berlin-Hellersdorf – Marzahn
Last election 44 seats, 8.3% Did not exist
Seats before 48 24
Seats won 8 17
Seat change 40 7
Popular vote 2,347,407 1,129,578
Percentage 5.0% 2.4%
Swing 3.3% New party
The left side shows constituency winners of the election by their party colours. The right side shows Party list winners of the election for the additional members by their party colours.
Chancellor before election

Helmut Kohl
CDU/CSU

 Elected Chancellor

Helmut Kohl
CDU/CSU

Issues and campaign

This was the first election conducted after German reunification which took place on 3 October. Almost 150 seats had been added to represent the newly re-established eastern states of Germany without reducing the number of Western members. The euphoria following the reunification gave the ruling CDU/CSU–FDP coalition a dramatic advantage in both Western and Eastern Germany throughout the campaign.

This was the one and only election for which the 5% threshold was not applied nationwide, but separately for the former East Germany (including East Berlin) and former West Germany (including West Berlin). As a result, while the Western The Greens failed to gain representation, an ideologically similar party from the East, Alliance 90, did. They merged to form Alliance 90/The Greens in 1993.

Results
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All change figures are relative to the pre-existing West German Bundestag.

 Summary of the 2 December 1990 German Bundestag election results
Parties Constituency Party list Total seats
Votes % +/− Seats +/− Votes % +/− Seats +/− Seats +/− %
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 17,707,574 38.3 +0.8 192 +68 17,055,116 36.7 +2.3 76 +26 268 +83 40.5
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 16,279,980 35.2 −4.0 91 +12 15,545,366 33.5 −3.5 148 +41 239 +46 36.1
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 3,595,135 7.8 +3.1 1 +1 5,123,233 11.0 +1.9 78 +32 79 +31 11.9
Christian Social Union (CSU) 3,423,904 7.4 −2.8 43 −2 3,302,980 7.1 −2.7 8 +4 51 +2 7.7
Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) 1,049,245 2.3 +2.3 1 +1 1,129,578 2.4 +2.4 16 +16 17 +17 2.6
Alliance 90/Green Citizens' Movements (B90/Gr.) (East) 552,027 1.2 +1.2 0 ±0 559,207 1.2 +1.2 8 +8 8 +8 1.2
The Greens (West) 2,037,885 4.4 −2.6 0 ±0 1,788,200 3.8 −4.5 0 −42 0 −44 0
The Republicans (REP) 767,652 1.7 +1.7 0 ±0 987,269 2.1 +2.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
The Grays – Gray Panthers (GRAUE) 218,412 0.5 +0.5 0 ±0 385,910 0.8 +0.8 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP) 243,469 0.5 +0.4 0 ±0 205,206 0.4 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
National Democratic Party (NPD) 190,105 0.4 −0.1 0 ±0 145,776 0.3 −0.3 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
German Social Union (DSU) 131,747 0.3 +0.3 0 ±0 89,008 0.2 +0.2 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Christian League (Liga) 8,667 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 39,640 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Christian Centre (CM) 9,824 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 36,466 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Bavaria Party (BP) 10,836 0.0 ±0 0 ±0 31,315 0.1 ±0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
The Women (FRAUEN) 1,433 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 12,077 0.0 −0.2 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Patriots for Germany (Patrioten) 746 0.0 −0.1 0 ±0 4,687 0.0 −0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Eco-Union (ÖKO-UNION) 1,106 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 4,661 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Union of Working Groups for Employee Politics and Democracy (VAA) 704 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 4,530 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) – – – – – 1,630 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Spartacist Workers' Party of Germany (SpAD) 124 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 1,610 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Federation of German Democrats (DDD) 474 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 1,009 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Federation of Socialist Workers (BSA) 214 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 826 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Responsible Citizens 72 0.0 ±0 0 ±0 492 0.0 −0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
European Federalist Party (EFP) 266 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 – – – – – 0 ±0 0
Electoral groups and independents 43,324 0.1 −0.6 0 ±0 – – – – – 0 ±0 0
Invalid/blank votes 720,990 — — — — 540,143 — — — — — — —
Totals 46,995,915 100 ±0.0 328 +80 46,995,915 100 ±0.0 334 +85 662 +143 ±0
Registered voters/turnout 60,436,560 77.8 — — — 60,436,560 77.8 — — — — — —
Source: Federal Returning Officer
↓
319 79 239 17 8
CDU/CSU FDP SPD PDS
Popular Vote
CDU/CSU
 
 43.82%
SPD
 
 33.46%
FDP
 
 11.03%
B'90/GRÜNE
 
 5.05%
PDS
 
 2.43%
REP
 
 2.13%
Other
 
 2.08%
Bundestag seats
CDU/CSU
 
 48.19%
SPD
 
 36.10%
FDP
 
 11.93%
PDS
 
 2.57%
B'90/GRÜNE
 
 1.21%

Results by state
State Union SPD FDP Grüne PDS Others
 Baden-Württemberg 46.5 29.1 12.3 5.7 0.3 6.1
 Bavaria 51.9 26.7 8.7 4.6 0.2 7.9
 Berlin 39.4 30.6 9.1 7.2[lower-alpha 3] 9.7 4.0
 Brandenburg 36.3 32.9 9.7 6.6 11.0 3.5
 Bremen 30.9 42.5 12.8 8.3 1.1 4.4
 Hamburg 36.6 41.0 12.0 5.8 1.1 3.5
 Hesse 41.3 38.0 10.9 5.6 0.4 3.8
 Lower Saxony 44.3 38.4 10.3 4.5 0.3 2.2
 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 41.2 26.5 9.1 5.9 14.2 3.1
 North Rhine-Westphalia 40.5 41.1 11.0 4.3 0.3 2.8
 Rhineland-Palatinate 45.6 36.1 10.4 4.0 0.2 3.7
 Saarland 38.1 51.2 6.0 2.3 0.2 2.2
 Saxony 49.5 18.2 12.4 5.9 9.0 5.0
 Saxony-Anhalt 38.6 24.7 19.7 5.3 9.4 2.3
 Schleswig-Holstein 43.5 38.5 11.4 4.0 0.3 2.3
 Thuringia 45.2 21.9 14.6 6.1 8.3 3.9
Old states (West) 44.3 35.7 10.6 4.8 0.3 4.3
New states (East) 41.8 24.3 12.9 6.2 11.1 3.7

Post-election

The governing CDU/CSU-FDP coalition was returned to office with a landslide majority, and Helmut Kohl remained chancellor. The CDU did exceptionally well in the former East Germany, which had been the heartland of the SPD before the Nazi era.

Winners by Single-member constituency – SPD in red, PDS in purple, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black
Seat results – SPD in red, combined Greens in green, PDS in purple, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

Notes
  1. Schröder was endorsed as the SPD's Chancellor candidate on 20 March 1990, but was not party leader.
  2. Lafontaine was elected in Saarbrücken, but did not accept his mandate after the election.
  3. 3.9% West German Green Party, 3.3% East German Green Party/Alliance 90.

References
  1. "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.

Sources
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