December 1946 Hessian state election

The December 1946 Hessian state election was held on 1 December 1946 to elect the 1st Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was an all-party coalition led by Minister-President Karl Geiler.

December 1946 Hessian state election
1 December 1946
All 90 seats in the Landtag of Hesse
46 seats needed for a majority
Turnout1,741,416 (73.2% Increase 2.2pp)
  First party Second party
 
Christian Stock.jpg
Werner Hilpert.png
Candidate Christian Stock Werner Hilpert
Party SPD CDU
Last election 42 seats, 44.3% 35 seats, 37.3%
Seats won 38 28
Seat change Decrease 4 Decrease 7
Popular vote 687,431 498,158
Percentage 42.7% 31.0%
Swing Decrease 1.5pp Decrease 6.3pp
  Third party Fourth party
 
August-Martin Euler.jpg
Candidate August-Martin Euler Oskar Müller
Party LDP KPD
Last election 6 seats, 8.1% 7 seats, 9.8%
Seats won 14 10
Seat change Increase 8 Increase 3
Popular vote 252,207 171,592
Percentage 15.7% 10.7%
Swing Increase 7.6pp Increase 0.9pp
Results of the election.
Government before election

Geiler cabinet
SPD–CDU–KPD–LDP

 Government after election

Stock cabinet
SPD–CDU

Compared to the elections for the Constituent Assembly held at the end of June, both the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) declined, while the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) particularly improved. The SPD remained the largest party with 43%, followed by the CDU on 31%, LDP on 16%, and Communist Party (KPD) on 11%. The SPD subsequently formed a grand coalition with the CDU, led by Minister-President Christian Stock.

Electoral system

The Landtag was elected via party-list proportional representation. 62 members were elected in multi-member constituencies, and 28 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

In the previous election held on 30 June 1946, the SPD emerged as the largest party with 44.3%, followed by the CDU on 37%, KPD on 10%, and LDP on 8%.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the Constituent Assembly.

Name Ideology Lead
candidate		 June 1946 result
Votes (%) Seats
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands		 Social democracy Christian Stock 44.3%
44 / 90
CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany
Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands		 Christian democracy Werner Hilpert 37.3%
35 / 90
KPD Communist Party of Germany
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands		 Communism Oskar Müller 9.8%
9 / 90
LDP Liberal Democratic Party
Liberal Demokratische Partei		 Classical liberalism August-Martin Euler 8.1%
6 / 90

Results
PartyVotes%+/–Seats
Con.ListTotal+–
Social Democratic Party687,43142.71–1.5430838–4
Christian Democratic Union498,15830.95–6.3121728–7
Free Democratic Party252,20715.67+7.588614+8
Communist Party171,59210.66+0.873710+3
Total1,609,388100.00–6228900
Valid votes1,609,38892.42
Invalid/blank votes132,0287.58
Total votes1,741,416100.00
Registered voters/turnout2,380,10973.17
  • "Elections to the Hessian Landtag, 1946 - 1954" (PDF). Parliamentary Data Bank of the Hessian Landtag (in German). 1978. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  • "Elections to the Hessian state parliament, December 1, 1946". Hessian Regional History Information System (in German). Retrieved 17 September 2023.

Notes
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