1966 Hessian state election

The 1966 Hessian state election was held on 6 November 1966 to elect the 6th Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a majority of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and All-German Party (GDP) led by Minister-President Georg-August Zinn.

1966 Hessian state election
6 November 1966
All 96 seats in the Landtag of Hesse
49 seats needed for a majority
Turnout2,868,446 (81.0% Increase 3.2pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Georg-August Zinn.jpg
KAS-Dregger, Alfred-Bild-5037-1.jpg
FDP
Candidate Georg-August Zinn Alfred Dregger Heinrich Kohl
Party SPD CDU FDP
Last election 51 seats, 50.8% 28 seats, 28.8% 11 seats, 11.4%
Seats won 52 26 10
Seat change Increase 1 Decrease 2 Decrease 1
Popular vote 1,442,230 745,409 293,394
Percentage 51.0% 26.4% 10.4%
Swing Increase 0.2pp Decrease 2.5pp Decrease 1.0pp
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Candidate Heinrich Fassbender
Party NPD GDP
Last election Did not exist 6 seats, 6.3%
Seats won 8 0
Seat change Increase 8 Decrease 6
Popular vote 224,674 121,326
Percentage 7.9% 4.3%
Swing New Decrease 2.0pp
Results for the single-member constituencies.
Government before election

Fourth Zinn cabinet
SPD–GDP

 Government after election

Fifth Zinn cabinet
SPD

The SPD retained its majority and remained stable on 51%. The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) slipped to 26%, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) 10%. The GDP, which had been in government with the SPD since 1955, fell to 4% and lost its representation in the Landtag. In its place the new radical right-wing National Democratic Party (NPD), led by former FDP politician Heinrich Fassbender, won 8% and 8 seats. This marked the party's first entry into a state parliament and attracted great attention and concern both domestically and internationally. After the election, the SPD chose to govern alone and Minister-President Zinn continued in office.

Electoral system

The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 48 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and 48 then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.

Background
Main article: 1962 Hessian state election

In the previous election held on 11 November 1962, the SPD won an absolute majority of both votes and seats for the first time. This came to the detriment of both the CDU and GDP. Despite being able to govern alone, the SPD retained the GDP in its coalition.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 5th Landtag of Hesse.

Name Ideology Lead
candidate		 1962 result
Votes (%) Seats
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands		 Social democracy Georg-August Zinn 50.8%
51 / 96
CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany
Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands		 Christian democracy Alfred Dregger 28.8%
28 / 96
FDP Free Democratic Party
Freie Demokratische Partei		 Classical liberalism Heinrich Kohl 11.4%
11 / 96
GDP All-German Party
Gesamtdeutsche Partei		 National conservatism 6.3%
6 / 96

Results
PartyVotes%+/–Seats
Con.ListTotal+–
Social Democratic Party1,442,23051.00+0.1644852+1
Christian Democratic Union745,40926.36–2.4842226–2
Free Democratic Party293,99410.40–1.0501010–1
National Democratic Party224,6747.95New088New
All-German Party121,3264.29–2.05000–6
Total2,827,633100.00–4848960
Valid votes2,827,63398.58
Invalid/blank votes40,8131.42
Total votes2,868,446100.00
Registered voters/turnout3,543,07980.96
  • "Final Results for the Landtag election of 6 November 1966" (PDF). Parliamentary Data Bank of the Hessian Landtag (in German). 24 November 1966. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  • "Elections to the Hessian state parliament, November 6, 1966". Hessian Regional History Information System (in German). Retrieved 17 September 2023.

Notes
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