1969 West German federal election
|
|
|
|
Registered
| 38,677,235
0.4%
|
---|
Turnout
| 33,523,064 (86.7%)
0.1
pp
|
---|
|
![Results of the 1969 West German federal election](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Bundestagswahl_1969_-_Ergebnisse_Wahlkreise.png/333px-Bundestagswahl_1969_-_Ergebnisse_Wahlkreise.png) Results by constituency.
Gray
denotes seats won by the
CDU/CSU
, and
red
denotes those won by the
SPD
.
|
|
Federal elections
were held in
West Germany
on 28 September 1969 to elect the members of the 6th
Bundestag
. The
CDU/CSU
remained the largest faction and the
Social Democratic Party
remained the largest single party in the
Bundestag
, winning 237 of the 518 seats. After the election, the SPD formed a coalition with the
Free Democratic Party
and SPD leader Willy Brandt became Chancellor.
The federal election resulted in the election of the first ever
SPD
Chancellor in
West Germany
Willy Brandt
.
Campaign
[
edit
]
Upon the resignation of Chancellor
Ludwig Erhard
on 1 December 1966, a
grand coalition
of
Christian Democrats
and
Social Democrats
had governed
West Germany
under Federal Chancellor
Kurt Georg Kiesinger
(CDU) with SPD chairman
Willy Brandt
as vice-chancellor and foreign minister.
Economics Minister
Karl Schiller
(SPD) had proposed revaluing (increasing the external value of) the
Deutsche Mark
, West Germany's currency, to reduce the country's inflation rate and the rate of growth of the country's businesses' income. He also wanted to reduce West Germany's economic dependence on the exports. However, his counterpart Finance Minister
Franz-Josef Strauss
(
CSU
) rejected the Deutsche Mark's revaluation, because his strong constituents, the
Bavarian
farmers, also opposed it. After all, the
European Economic Community
's foodstuffs prices were paid in
US dollars
, and the Deutsche Mark's revaluation would have made them less favourable for the West German farmers (i.e. more expensive for other Western Europeans to buy).
The coalition effectively ended already before the regular 1969 Bundestag elections, because of this revaluation conflict. In addition, enough West German voters were at last willing to give the Social Democratic leader, Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, a chance to govern West Germany. Brandt, who ran for the third time after
1961
and
1965
, had shown sympathy towards those groups, like left-wing intellectuals and activists of the
German student movement
, who had felt ignored by the Christian Democrat-led coalition governments. In addition, his clear intellect, remarkable self-control and honest manner appealed to ordinary West Germans.
[1]
[2]
[3]
Results
[
edit
]
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Bundestag_1969.svg/360px-Bundestag_1969.svg.png) |
---|
Party
| Party-list
| Constituency
| Seats
|
---|
Votes
| %
| Seats
| Votes
| %
| Seats
| Elected
| West Berlin
| Total
| +/?
|
---|
| Social Democratic Party
| 14,065,716
| 42.67
| 97
| 14,402,374
| 44.03
| 127
| 224
| 13
| 237
| +20
|
| Christian Democratic Union
| 12,079,535
| 36.64
| 106
| 12,137,148
| 37.10
| 87
| 193
| 8
| 201
| ?1
|
| Christian Social Union
| 3,115,652
| 9.45
| 15
| 3,094,176
| 9.46
| 34
| 49
| 0
| 49
| 0
|
| Free Democratic Party
| 1,903,422
| 5.77
| 30
| 1,554,651
| 4.75
| 0
| 30
| 1
| 31
| ?19
|
| National Democratic Party
| 1,422,010
| 4.31
| 0
| 1,189,375
| 3.64
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|
| Campaign for Democratic Progress
| 197,331
| 0.60
| 0
| 209,180
| 0.64
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| New
|
| Bavaria Party
| 49,694
| 0.15
| 0
| 54,940
| 0.17
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| New
|
| European Federalist Party
| 49,650
| 0.15
| 0
| 20,927
| 0.06
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|
| All-German Party
| 45,401
| 0.14
| 0
| | 0
| 0
| 0
| New
|
| Free Social Union
| 16,371
| 0.05
| 0
| 10,192
| 0.03
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|
| Centre Party
| 15,933
| 0.05
| 0
| | 0
| 0
| 0
| New
|
| Independent Workers' Party
| 5,309
| 0.02
| 0
| 1,531
| 0.00
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|
| German People's Party
| | 461
| 0.00
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| New
|
| Independents
and voter groups
| | 38,561
| 0.12
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|
Total
| 32,966,024
| 100.00
| 248
| 32,713,516
| 100.00
| 248
| 496
| 22
| 518
| 0
|
|
Valid votes
| 32,966,024
| 98.34
| | 32,713,516
| 97.59
| | |
---|
Invalid/blank votes
| 557,040
| 1.66
| | 809,548
| 2.41
| | |
---|
Total votes
| 33,523,064
| 100.00
| | 33,523,064
| 100.00
| | |
---|
Registered voters/turnout
| 38,677,235
| 86.67
| | 38,677,235
| 86.67
| | |
---|
Source:
Bundeswahlleiter
|
Results by state
[
edit
]
Constituency seats
[
edit
]
List seats
[
edit
]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
Brandt speaks to the press on election night, 28 September
Willy Brandt, against the will of several party fellows like
Herbert Wehner
or
Helmut Schmidt
, chose to leave the grand coalition with the CDU/CSU, forming a
social-liberal coalition
with the
Free Democratic Party
(FDP) instead. On 21 October 1969 he was elected
Chancellor of Germany
, the first SPD chancellor in the postwar period, after the last Social Democrat holding this position had been
Hermann Muller
from 1928 to 1930. FDP chairman
Walter Scheel
succeeded Brandt as vice-chancellor and foreign minister. Brandt's government proceeded with the revaluation Schiller had proposed, raising the value of the mark by 9.3% in late October.
[4]
Disappointed Kiesinger bitterly complained about the faithless liberals. Though he had again achieved the
plurality
of votes for the CDU, he had to lead his party into opposition. He was succeeded as chairman by
Rainer Barzel
in 1971.
However the
Cabinet Brandt I
could only rely on an
absolute majority
(
Kanzlermehrheit
) of twelve votes in the Bundestag. Several party switches in protest against Brandt's
Ostpolitik
of FDP and SPD members resulted in the
snap election
of
1972
.
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Bjol, Erling
(1984).
Grimberg's History of the Nations, volume 22: From Peace to the Cold War
. Helsinki: WSOY. p. 491.
- ^
Bjol, Erling
.
Grimberg's History of the Nations, volume 23: The Rich West
. pp. 345?347.
- ^
Bark, Dennis L.
;
Gress, David R.
(1989).
A History of West Germany, volume 2: Democracy and Its Discontents, 1963?1988
. London, UK: Basil Blackwell.
- ^
Brenner, Robert (2006).
The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005
. Verso. p. 126.
ISBN
9781859847305
.