1912 German federal election

← 1907 12 January 1912 (1912-01-12) 1919 →
All 397 seats in theReichstag 199 seats needed for a majority
Registered	14,442,387 ( 8.16%)
Turnout	84.89% ( 0.24pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader August Bebel & Hugo Haase Georg von Hertling Ernst Bassermann Party SPD Centre NLP Last election 28.94%, 43 seats 18.79%, 101 seats 14.80%, 56 seats Seats won 110 90 45 Seat change 67 11 11 Popular vote 4,250,400 1,988,504 1,662,700 Percentage 34.82% 16.29% 13.53% Swing 5.88pp 2.50pp 1.27pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ernst von Heydebrand Otto Fischbeck Ferdynand Radziwiłł Party DKP FVp PP Last election 9.41%, 59 seats 10.66%, 50 seats[a] 4.03%, 20 seats Seats won 41 41 18 Seat change 18 9 2 Popular vote 1,006,570 1,448,097 441,744 Percentage 8.25% 11.86% 3.62% Swing 1.16pp 1.20pp 0.41pp
Results by constituency
President of theReichstag before election Hans Graf von Schwerin-Löwitz DKP President of the Reichstag after election Johannes Kaempf FVp

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Federal elections were held inGermany on 12 January 1912.^[1] Although theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) had received the most votes in every election since 1890, it had never won the most seats, and in the1907 elections, it had won fewer than half the seats won by theCentre Party despite receiving over a million more votes.^[2] However, the 1912 elections saw the SPD retain its position as the most voted-for party and become the largest party in the Reichstag, winning 110 of the 397 seats.^[3]

Parties hostile or ambivalent to the ruling elites of the German Empire – the Social Democrats, the Centre Party, and the left-liberalProgressives – together won a majority of the seats. This allowed a successful censure vote against the government ofTheobald von Bethmann Hollweg over theSaverne Affair in 1913 and the passage of theReichstag Peace Resolution of 1917. However, the Centre and the Progressives were unwilling to act consistently in opposition, which left the government largely free to do as it wished.

Some historians, such asFritz Fischer, have theorized that theFirst World War was partly a result of the strategy of the conservativePrussian Junkers to deal with the result.^[4] In an attempt to increase support for conservative parties and policies and to distract the population from the SPD, they hoped to drum up patriotism in an external conflict withRussia or another Eastern European state such asSerbia.

Georges Weill, an SPD candidate who won a seat inMetz, defected to France at the start ofWorld War I.

The members of theReichstag were elected in single-member constituencies via thetwo-round system. There was no requirement that constituencies had to be of equal sizes population sizes, meaning that rural constituencies, which tended to have smaller populations, were overrepresented.

Since 1869, suffrage was available to all residents who:

• were male,
• were at least 25 years old,
• were nationals of one of the states,
• were resident in one of the constituencies,
• were not active soldiers,
• were not convicts,
• did not live on poverty relief,
• were not incapacitated.

Since 1888, a constitutional amendment required elections to be held every five years.

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Social Democratic Party	4,250,399	34.82	+5.88	110	+67
	Centre Party	1,988,504	16.29	−2.50	90	−11
	National Liberal Party	1,651,115	13.53	−1.27	45	−11
	Progressive People's Party	1,448,097	11.86	+1.20	41	−9
	German Conservative Party	1,006,570	8.25	−1.16	41	−18
	German Reich Party	396,948	3.25	−0.94	14	−10
	Independent Polish	246,275	2.02	−0.11	10	0
	Agrarian League	165,034	1.35	+0.18	5	−2
	Alsace-Lorraine parties	148,202	1.21	−0.11	9	−2
	Christian Social Party	104,219	0.85	+0.33	3	0
	Polish Catholic Party	93,629	0.77	+0.33	4	+1
	German-Hanoverian Party	90,168	0.74	−0.08	5	+3
	Polish People's Party	81,140	0.66	−0.13	3	−1
	Independent conservatives	74,323	0.61	+0.18	4	+4
	German Social Party	73,169	0.60	−0.18	3	−5
	ELD	60,886	0.50	New	1	New
	German Reform Party	60,758	0.50	−0.52	3	−3
	Independent liberals	53,939	0.44	−0.32	0	−3
	Bavarian Peasants' League	48,219	0.39	+0.02	2	+2
	Peasants' League	41,352	0.34	New	2	New
	Democratic Union	29,444	0.24	New	0	New
	Middle Class parties	27,095	0.22	−0.44	0	−2
	Polish Court Party	20,700	0.17	−0.18	1	−1
	Danish Party	17,289	0.14	0.00	1	0
	Lorraine Land Party	7,039	0.06	−0.14	0	0
	Lithuanian Party	6,227	0.05	+0.01	0	0
	Independent anti-semites	1,604	0.01	−0.13	0	0
	Other conservatives	1,081	0.01	−0.03	0	0
	Other agrarians	4,027	0.03	−0.24	0	−1
Others		9,492	0.08	+0.01	0	0
Unknown		688	0.01	0.00	0	0
Total		12,207,632	100.00	–	397	0
Valid votes		12,207,632	99.57
Invalid/blank votes		53,099	0.43
Total votes		12,260,731	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		14,442,387	84.89
Source: Wahlen in Deutschland[5]

• Federal elections in Germany
• 1912 elections in Germany
• Elections in the German Empire
• January 1912 in Europe

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