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All 669 seats in theBundestag 335 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 60,762,751 ( 0.5%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 82.2% ( 3.2pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results of the election. The main map shows constituency winners, and results for the proportional list seats are shown in the bottom left. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1998 German federal election was held inGermany on 27 September 1998 to elect the members of the 14thBundestag. TheSocial Democratic Party (SPD) emerged as the largest faction in parliament for the first time since 1972, with its leaderGerhard Schröder becomingchancellor. The Christian Democrats had their worst election result since 1949.[1]
SinceGerman reunification on 3 October 1990, the unemployment rate in Germany had risen from 4.2% to 9.4% in 1998, with the Federal Labor Office registering more than 4 million unemployed. The unified Germany had to fight economic and domestic difficulties even as it actively participated in the project of European integration. Most people blamed the centre-rightcoalition government of theChristian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and theFree Democratic Party (FDP) for the economic difficulties. Longtime ChancellorHelmut Kohl's government was regarded by many as not having fully implemented the unification after eight years, in view of the mass protests in many eastern German towns due to job losses andsocial welfare cuts.
The 1998 campaign began with both the CDU and SPD working out who would lead their parties. There had been rumours that Kohl would resign and allowWolfgang Schäuble to take the reins of the CDU, but these rumours were rendered obsolete when Kohl announced in April 1997 that he would seek thechancellorship for a sixth term. The two contenders for the SPD nomination wereOskar Lafontaine, the party's chairman, andGerhard Schröder,Minister-President ofLower Saxony.
On 1 March 1998, Schröder led the SPD to a huge victory in theLower Saxony state election, gaining an unusual absolute majority for the second time and effectively receiving the SPD nomination for federal chancellor. Schröder had announced he would withdraw his bid for the nomination if he received below 42 percent of the popular vote. In the 1998 general elections, Schröder received 47.9 percent.[2] Following this election, Lafontaine withdrew his bid and Schröder was inaugurated in the May 1998 convention. For the SPD, Schröder offered a new face for the party. He gave the party a new vigor, one that was lacking in the CDU after Kohl proclaimed his nomination. Many in the CDU questioned if Kohl had made the right choice for the party.
The CDU campaign was based on the experience and reputation of Kohl. One of the CDU's main slogans was 'Safety, not Risks.' "Kohl exploited his familiarity and experience, as well as his status as Europe's longest serving head of government."[2] The SPD on the other hand ran the campaign using strategies developed in the United States and the United Kingdom. The SPD set up election headquarters and introduced 'rapid rebuttal units' not unlike those used byBill Clinton of the United States in hissuccessful presidential bid in 1992.[3] The SPD avoided direct attacks at Kohl, but rather focused on their message of a "new center".[3]
The FDP had usually ridden on the coattails of the CDU, and was mostly disapproved in the polls. With the SPD well ahead in the polls, many of the voters from the CDU had fewer incentives to vote for the FDP. The FDP was also having trouble projecting a coherent platform to voters.The Greens too were having issues concerning their platform.
The two factions in the Greens, thefundamentalists and thepragmatists, had problems settling on their platform since the founding of the Green party.
The major issue of the 1998 campaign wasunemployment. In 1996, the unemployment rate in Germany surpassed the government's "limit" of 4 million unemployed people. Both parties blamed high labor costs, hightaxes and the high welfare costs as the causes of the problem. During the campaign, Schröder used this issue against Kohl, calling him 'the unemployment chancellor.' Unemployment was worst in the former East Germany. While the national rate stood at 9.4 percent, formerEast Germany was suffering with unemployment at 20 percent. Many in the former East Germany blamed Kohl for the slow economic recovery.
Another issue at hand were Germany's tax and welfare reforms. While the CDU/CSU had offered proposals to reduce benefits inhealthcare andpensions, the SPD controlledBundesrat secured the passage of the bill. The proposed bill also offered tax cuts that were to benefit the rich, something the SPD opposed. While Kohl continually pushed the issue of European integration, the issue fell short from voters' minds. Schröder, on the other hand, almost ignored the issue. Many voters in Germany had other concerns besides theEuropean Union.
 SPD vote CDU/CSU vote Green vote FDP vote PDS vote REP vote DVU vote |
 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Party-list | Constituency | Total seats | +/– | |||||
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
| Social Democratic Party | 20,181,269 | 40.93 | 86 | 21,535,893 | 43.80 | 212 | 298 | +46 | |
| Christian Democratic Union | 14,004,908 | 28.40 | 124 | 15,854,215 | 32.25 | 74 | 198 | −46 | |
| Christian Social Union | 3,324,480 | 6.74 | 9 | 3,602,472 | 7.33 | 38 | 47 | −3 | |
| Alliance 90/The Greens | 3,301,624 | 6.70 | 47 | 2,448,162 | 4.98 | 0 | 47 | −2 | |
| Free Democratic Party | 3,080,955 | 6.25 | 43 | 1,486,433 | 3.02 | 0 | 43 | −4 | |
| Party of Democratic Socialism | 2,515,454 | 5.10 | 32 | 2,416,781 | 4.92 | 4 | 36 | +6 | |
| The Republicans | 906,383 | 1.84 | 0 | 1,115,664 | 2.27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| German People's Union | 601,192 | 1.22 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
| Initiative Pro D-Mark | 430,099 | 0.87 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
| The Grays – Gray Panthers | 152,557 | 0.31 | 0 | 141,763 | 0.29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Human Environment Animal Protection Party | 133,832 | 0.27 | 0 | 1,734 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| National Democratic Party | 126,571 | 0.26 | 0 | 45,043 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Federation of Free Citizens – The Offensive | 121,196 | 0.25 | 0 | 134,795 | 0.27 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Ecological Democratic Party | 98,257 | 0.20 | 0 | 145,308 | 0.30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Party of Bible-abiding Christians | 71,941 | 0.15 | 0 | 46,379 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Anarchist Pogo Party | 35,242 | 0.07 | 0 | 1,676 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Natural Law Party | 30,619 | 0.06 | 0 | 35,132 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Feminist Party | 30,094 | 0.06 | 0 | 3,966 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Chance 2000 | 28,566 | 0.06 | 0 | 3,206 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Bavaria Party | 28,107 | 0.06 | 0 | 1,772 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Family Party | 24,825 | 0.05 | 0 | 8,134 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Christian Centre | 23,619 | 0.05 | 0 | 9,023 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität | 9,662 | 0.02 | 0 | 10,260 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Party of the Non-voters | 6,827 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
| Car-drivers' and Citizens' Interests Party | 6,759 | 0.01 | 0 | 1,458 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Party for Social Equality | 6,226 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Alliance for Germany | 6,196 | 0.01 | 0 | 1,946 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Party of the Willing to Work and Socially Vulnerable | 5,556 | 0.01 | 0 | 10,449 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Marxist–Leninist Party | 4,731 | 0.01 | 0 | 7,208 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| New Forum | 4,543 | 0.01 | 0 | 6,296 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Alternative Citizens' Movement 2000 | 3,355 | 0.01 | 0 | 4,097 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Democratic Party | 2,432 | 0.00 | 0 | 1,172 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | |
| Humanist Party | 435 | 0.00 | 0 | 532 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| German Social Union | 8,180 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Statt Party | 4,406 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| German Communist Party | 2,105 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Centre Party | 2,076 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Middle Class Party | 1,924 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
| Free Social Union | 763 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Freedom Party | 131 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
| Independents and voter groups | 66,026 | 0.13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 49,308,512 | 100.00 | 341 | 49,166,580 | 100.00 | 328 | 669 | −3 | |
| Valid votes | 49,308,512 | 98.72 | 49,166,580 | 98.44 | |||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 638,575 | 1.28 | 780,507 | 1.56 | |||||
| Total votes | 49,947,087 | 100.00 | 49,947,087 | 100.00 | |||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 60,762,751 | 82.20 | 60,762,751 | 82.20 | |||||
| Source:Bundeswahlleiter | |||||||||
Second vote (Zweitstimme, or votes forparty list)
| State results in % | SPD | CDU/CSU | GRÜNE | FDP | PDS | REP | DVU | all others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Baden-Württemberg | 35.6 | 37.8 | 9.2 | 8.8 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 0.6 | 3.0 |
 Bavaria | 34.4 | 47.7 | 5.9 | 5.1 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 0.6 | 3.0 |
 Berlin | 37.8 | 23.7 | 11.3 | 4.9 | 13.5 | 2.4 | 2.1 | 4.3 |
 Brandenburg | 43.9 | 20.7 | 3.4 | 2.8 | 20.0 | 1.7 | 2.8 | 4.7 |
 Bremen | 50.2 | 25.4 | 11.3 | 5.9 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 2.4 |
 Hamburg | 45.8 | 30.0 | 10.8 | 6.5 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
 Hesse | 41.6 | 34.7 | 8.2 | 7.9 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 2.8 |
 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 35.3 | 29.3 | 3.0 | 2.2 | 23.6 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
 Lower Saxony | 49.4 | 34.1 | 5.9 | 6.4 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 1.7 |
 North Rhine-Westphalia | 46.9 | 33.8 | 6.9 | 7.3 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 1.9 |
 Rhineland-Palatinate | 41.3 | 39.1 | 6.1 | 7.1 | 1.0 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 2.5 |
 Saarland | 52.4 | 31.8 | 5.5 | 4.7 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 2.5 |
 Saxony | 29.1 | 32.7 | 4.4 | 3.7 | 20.0 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 5.6 |
 Saxony-Anhalt | 38.1 | 27.2 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 20.7 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 2.8 |
 Schleswig-Holstein | 45.4 | 35.7 | 6.5 | 7.6 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 1.6 |
 Thuringia | 34.5 | 28.9 | 3.9 | 3.4 | 21.2 | 1.6 | 2.9 | 3.6 |
| State | Total seats | Seats won | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | CDU | CSU | PDS | ||
| Baden-Württemberg | 37 | 11 | 26 | ||
| Bavaria | 45 | 7 | 38 | ||
| Berlin | 13 | 9 | 4 | ||
| Brandenburg | 12 | 12 | |||
| Bremen | 3 | 3 | |||
| Hamburg | 7 | 7 | |||
| Hesse | 22 | 18 | 4 | ||
| Lower Saxony | 31 | 27 | 4 | ||
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 9 | 7 | 2 | ||
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 71 | 53 | 18 | ||
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 16 | 10 | 6 | ||
| Saarland | 5 | 5 | |||
| Saxony | 21 | 8 | 13 | ||
| Saxony-Anhalt | 13 | 13 | |||
| Schleswig-Holstein | 11 | 11 | |||
| Thuringia | 12 | 11 | 1 | ||
| Total | 328 | 212 | 74 | 38 | 4 |
| State | Total seats | Seats won | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | SPD | Grüne | FDP | PDS | CSU | ||
| Baden-Württemberg | 41 | 6 | 19 | 8 | 7 | 1 | |
| Bavaria | 48 | 27 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 9 | |
| Berlin | 12 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||
| Brandenburg | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Bremen | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Hamburg | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Hesse | 25 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | |
| Lower Saxony | 37 | 20 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 1 | |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 6 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 77 | 34 | 19 | 11 | 11 | 2 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 18 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Saarland | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Saxony | 16 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||
| Saxony-Anhalt | 13 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| Schleswig-Holstein | 13 | 9 | 2 | 2 | |||
| Thuringia | 13 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| Total | 341 | 124 | 86 | 47 | 43 | 32 | 9 |
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Toward the end of the campaign, polls placed the CDU/CSU and FDP coalition in a tie with the SPD and Green coalition. Despite these polls, the final numbers told a different story. The SPD-Green coalition won an unexpectedly large victory, taking 345 seats and earning a strong majority in the Bundestag—the firstcentre-left absolute majority inpost-World War II Germany. The SPD won 40.9 percent of the vote, due to an increase of 4.5 percent from1994.
The CDU/CSU-FDP coalition had gone into the election with a solid majority and 341 seats, but was cut down to 288 seats. The CDU/CSU lost 6.2% of its 1994 vote, and lost 109 electoral districts to the SPD. Germany'smixed-member proportional system, in which a slate of statewide delegates are elected alongside the electorate delegates, softened the blow somewhat, so the CDU/CSU only suffered a net loss of 49 seats. It was still the CDU/CSU's worst defeat ever. By contrast, their junior coalition partner, the FDP, netted a loss of just 4 seats.
The SPD swept allsingle-member constituency seats in the states ofBrandenburg,Saxony-Anhalt,Saarland,Bremen,Hamburg and (for the first and last time)Schleswig-Holstein. Kohl lost his own constituency ofLudwigshafen, though he was still re-elected to the Bundestag through theRhineland-Palatinate CDU party list, and he had not won the seat in the1983 and1987 elections. Future ChancellorAngela Merkel only narrowly won her constituency ofStralsund – Rügen – Grimmen with only 37.3 percent of the vote; the only time she got less than 40 percent of the vote.
A new government was formed by a coalition between the SPD and the Greens, with the SPD'sGerhard Schröder as chancellor and Greens leaderJoschka Fischer asvice-chancellor andforeign minister. It was the firstred-green coalition government at the federal level in Germany, as well as the first purely centre-left government in post-World War II Germany.
Kohl stepped down as chairman of the CDU, as did CSU chairmanTheodor Waigel.
The 1998 German election was historic in many ways. It resulted in acentre-right government being succeeded by a left-wing one—the first in postwar Germany (the SPD's previous term in government had been at the helm of a centre-left coalition).
In addition, it brought to an end the sixteen-year rule of Kohl – the second-longest of any German chancellor, and the longest tenure for a democratically elected head of government in German history. It has been compared to the defeat ofWinston Churchill in1945 – both were seen as conservative wartime leaders, and in both cases both were turned out of office by the electorate once the war was over. Churchill was ousted before World War II was even over, while Kohl managed to hang onto power for two more terms after the reunification of Germany (which is often considered to be the end of theCold War).[citation needed]
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