1907 German federal election

← 1903 25 January 1907 (1907-01-25) 1912 →
All 397 seats in theReichstag 199 seats needed for a majority
Registered	13,352,880 6.56%
Turnout	11,303,537 (84.65%) 8.57pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Franz von Ballestrem Otto von Manteuffel Ernst Bassermann Party Centre DKP NLP Last election 19.75%, 100 seats 9.49%, 52 seats 13.71%, 50 seats Seats won 101 59 56 Seat change 1 7 6 Popular vote 2,116,246 1,060,209 1,666,705 Percentage 18.79% 9.41% 14.80% Swing 0.96pp 0.08pp 1.10pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   DRP Leader Paul Singer & August Bebel Hermann Müller-Sagan [de] Party SPD FVP DRP Last election 31.71%, 81 seats 5.65%, 21 seats 3.54%, 21 seats Seats won 43 29 24 Seat change 38 8 3 Popular vote 3,259,029 737,220 471,863 Percentage 28.94% 6.55% 4.19% Swing 2.77pp 0.90pp 0.65pp
Map of results (by constituencies)
President of theReichstag before election Franz von Ballestrem Centre President of the Reichstag after election Udo zu Stolberg-Wernigerode Independent

Federal elections were held inGermany on 25 January 1907.^[1] Despite theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) receiving a clear plurality of votes, they were hampered by the unequal constituency sizes that favoured rural seats.^[2] As a result, theCentre Party remained the largest party in theReichstag after winning 101 of the 397 seats, whilst the SPD won only 43.^[3] Voter turnout was 84.7%.^[4]

This election was known as the "Hottentot election" due to the scandal over theongoing genocide of theKhoisan people inGerman South West Africa.^[5]

The election became known as the "Hottentot Election" because its causes and campaign were dominated by theHerero and Nama genocide in the colony ofGerman South West Africa. TheNama were referred to as "Hottentots", a term that was derogatory even at the time. The sustained and increasingly expensive colonial war led to a political crisis in Germany on 2 August 1906, when the Government requested an appropriation of 29 million marks from the Reichstag. TheSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), in particular, refused to approve further money given the ruthless conduct of the war with genocidal casualties among the Nama. The Government attempted to settle the conflict by making concessions, but soon met opposition fromCentre Party representativeMatthias Erzberger in particular, who criticised the extensive spending and argued against the colonial wars. This led to the Centre Party group, against the will of some of its members, voting against the appropriation. On the other hand, theConservatives andNational Liberals were vehemently in favour of continuing the colonial war. On the 13th of December, the vote in the Reichstag came down with a narrow majority of 177 to 168 against the appropriation.

On the same day, ChancellorBernhard von Bülow ordered the Reichstag dissolved with the agreement of EmperorWilhelm II. One reason for dissolving the legislature over such a minor issue was that the Emperor as well as parts of the bureaucracy had increasing reservations about the Centre Party. Bülow, who did not share this position and would have liked to continue relying on the centre, gave in to this. He hoped that establishing a new political majority would allow him to restore his damaged trust with the Emperor. Under the circumstances, the only way to do this would be to resume the formerCartel Parties [de] alliance between Conservatives and National Liberals, expanded to include the left-liberal parties. Following the death ofEugen Richter the previous year, the left-liberals had tended to indicate their willingness to support the Government. This alliance came to pass and is generally referred to as theBülow Bloc [de]. Through the mediation of the government, agreements were reached to cooperate during runoff elections, which had now become common.

During the election campaign, the Government itself would be responsible for setting the tone, with its demands for a reliable majority on "national issues" and the struggle against the Social Democrats, who were seen as an enemy of monarchy, religion and property, and against the "unreliable" Centre Party. The goal was to create a nationalist, anti-socialist and anti-clerical bloc out of the Cartel parties and the left-liberals. This was supported by the newly foundedNational Association Against Social Democracy [de].

The SPD gained around a quarter of a million votes compared to 1903, receiving 10% more of the vote than any other party, although the high turnout meant the SPD's vote share in total was down. Also affecting the Social Democrats negatively were the runoff agreements between the parties of the bloc. So, despite their high share of the vote, they only won 43 seats compared to 81 in 1903. The centre were able to make gains, going from 100 to 105 seats. The bloc parties made minor seat gains, primarily because their electoral agreements meant they did not compete with each other. The two conservative parties increased their seat number from 75 to 84. Even more minor were the gains for the National Liberals, who rose from 51 to 54 seats. However, the left-liberals made clearer gains, improving their position from 36 to 49 seats. In total, when counting minor parties and independents aligned with it, the bloc achieved a majority of 220 out of 397 seats.

Also notable was the success ofPolish candidates inUpper Silesia, winning five out of the region's twelve constituencies. This was in contrast to the elections from 1871 to 1898, in which, despite the Polish-speaking majority, no Polish candidate ever won a seat there. This politicisation of the Upper Silesian Poles was primarily caused by the anti-Polish linguistic and cultural policies of the Prussian state government (see theWrześnia school strike).

• Epstein, Klaus. "Erzberger and the German Colonial Scandals, 1905-1910."The English Historical Review 74, no. 293 (1959): 637–63.

• Federal elections in Germany
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