1969 West German federal election

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.

1969 West German federal election

28 September 1969 (1969-09-28)

All 496 seats in the Bundestag[lower-alpha 1]
249 seats needed for a majority
Registered38,677,235 Increase 0.4%
Turnout33,523,064 (86.7%) Decrease 0.1pp
  First party Second party Third party
 
Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F029561-0008, Essen, CDU-Bundestagswahlkongress (cropped).jpg
Aankomst en vertrek, ministers, portretten, Bestanddeelnr 922-6063 (cropped).jpg
Walter Scheel 1971 (cropped).jpg
Leader Kurt Georg Kiesinger Willy Brandt Walter Scheel
Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP
Last election 47.6%, 245 seats 39.3%, 202 seats 9.5%, 49 seats
Seats won 242[lower-alpha 2] 224[lower-alpha 3] 30[lower-alpha 4]
Seat change Decrease 3 Increase 22 Decrease 19
Popular vote 15,195,187 14,065,716 1,903,422
Percentage 46.1% 42.7% 5.8%
Swing Decrease 1.5pp Increase 3.4pp Decrease 3.7pp

Results of the 1969 West German federal election
Results by constituency. Gray denotes seats won by the
CDU/CSU, and red denotes those won by the SPD.

Government before election

Kiesinger cabinet
CDU/CSUSPD

Government after election

First Brandt cabinet
SPDFDP

The federal election resulted in the election of the first ever SPD Chancellor in West Germany Willy Brandt.

Campaign

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

PartyParty-listConstituencySeats
Votes%SeatsVotes%SeatsElectedWest BerlinTotal+/–
Social Democratic Party14,065,71642.679714,402,37444.0312722413237+20
Christian Democratic Union12,079,53536.6410612,137,14837.10871938201–1
Christian Social Union3,115,6529.45153,094,1769.4634490490
Free Democratic Party1,903,4225.77301,554,6514.75030131–19
National Democratic Party1,422,0104.3101,189,3753.6400000
Campaign for Democratic Progress197,3310.600209,1800.640000New
Bavaria Party49,6940.15054,9400.170000New
European Federalist Party49,6500.15020,9270.0600000
All-German Party45,4010.140000New
Free Social Union16,3710.05010,1920.0300000
Centre Party15,9330.050000New
Independent Workers' Party5,3090.0201,5310.0000000
German People's Party4610.000000New
Independents and voter groups38,5610.1200000
Total32,966,024100.0024832,713,516100.00248496225180
Valid votes32,966,02498.3432,713,51697.59
Invalid/blank votes557,0401.66809,5482.41
Total votes33,523,064100.0033,523,064100.00
Registered voters/turnout38,677,23586.6738,677,23586.67
Source: Bundeswahlleiter

Constituency seats

State Total
seats
Seats won
SPD CDU CSU
Baden-Württemberg 36 9 27
Bavaria 44 10 34
Bremen 3 3
Hamburg 8 8
Hesse 22 20 2
Lower Saxony 30 18 12
North Rhine-Westphalia 73 47 26
Rhineland-Palatinate 16 6 10
Saarland 5 2 3
Schleswig-Holstein 11 4 7
Total 248 127 87 34

List seats

State Total
seats
Seats won
CDU SPD FDP CSU
Baden-Württemberg 34 10 18 6
Bavaria 40 21 4 15
Bremen 2 2
Hamburg 9 6 2 1
Hesse 24 17 4 3
Lower Saxony 33 18 11 4
North Rhine-Westphalia 78 43 26 9
Rhineland-Palatinate 15 6 7 2
Saarland 3 1 2
Schleswig-Holstein 10 3 6 1
Total 248 106 97 30 15

Aftermath

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 Müller 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

  1. As well as the 22 non-voting delegates for West Berlin, elected by the West Berlin Legislature.
  2. As well as 8 non-voting delegates for West Berlin.
  3. As well as 13 non-voting delegates for West Berlin.
  4. As well as 1 non-voting delegates for West Berlin.

References

  1. Bjöl, Erling (1984). Grimberg's History of the Nations, volume 22: From Peace to the Cold War. Helsinki: WSOY. p. 491.
  2. Bjöl, Erling. Grimberg's History of the Nations, volume 23: The Rich West. pp. 345–347.
  3. Bark, Dennis L.; Gress, David R. (1989). A History of West Germany, volume 2: Democracy and Its Discontents, 1963–1988. London, UK: Basil Blackwell.
  4. Brenner, Robert (2006). The Economics of Global Turbulence: The Advanced Capitalist Economies from Long Boom to Long Downturn, 1945-2005. p. 126. ISBN 9781859847305.
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