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All 496 seats in theBundestag[a] 249 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 41,446,302 ( 7.2%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 91.1% ( 4.4pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The left side shows constituency winners of the election by their party colours. The right side shows party list winners of the election for the additional members by their party colours. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of Germany |
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Head of state |
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Federal elections were held inWest Germany on 19 November 1972 to elect the members of the seventhBundestag. In the firstsnap elections since the resumption of democratic elections in 1949, theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) emerged as the largest party in parliament, winning 230 of the 496 seats. The SPD'sWilly Brandt remained chancellor after resuming his coalition government with theFree Democratic Party.
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TheSocial-liberal coalition ofSPD andFDP had lost its majority after several Bundestag MPs (like former FDP ministersErich Mende andHeinz Starke or SPD partisanHerbert Hupka) had left their party and become members of theCDU/CSU opposition to protest against ChancellorWilly Brandt'sNeueOstpolitik, especially against thede facto recognition of theOder-Neisse line by the 1970Treaty of Warsaw.[citation needed]
On 27 April 1972 the opposition had tried to have CDU leaderRainer Barzel elected new chancellor in aconstructive vote of no confidence, but Barzel surprisingly missed the majority of 249 by two votes. Rumours that at least one member of the CDU/CSU faction had been paid by the East GermanStasi to abstain (in effect, voting against Barzel) were confirmed byMarkus Wolf, former head of theHauptverwaltung Aufklärung, in 1997.[citation needed] Nevertheless, the following budget debates revealed that the government's majority was lost and only the upcoming organisation of the1972 Summer Olympics inMunich delayed the arrangement of new elections. On 22 September 1972 Chancellor Brandt asked for a vote of confidence, which required the same majority of 249 "yes" votes: it failed with 233 "yes" votes to 246 "no" votes. The members of the government did not participate (in effect, voting no) to ensure the vote would fail, however it would have regardless. This allowed Brandt to advise PresidentGustav Heinemann to dissolve the Bundestag and call new elections the same day.[1]
In the tense campaign, the CDU/CSU attacked Brandt as being too lenient towards Eastern Europe and having the wrong ideas on the economy. SPD and FDP benefited from the enormous personal popularity of the chancellor, laureate of the 1971Nobel Peace Prize. He gained the support by numerous celebrities of the West German culture and media scene (e.g.Günter Grass), expressed by the sloganWilly wählen! ("Vote for Willy!").[citation needed]
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Union | SPD | FDP | NPD | Others | Abstention | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 federal election | 19 Nov 1972 | – | 44.9 | 45.8 | 8.4 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 8.9 | 0.9 |
| Allensbach | 1–7 Nov 1972 | ? | 46.5 | 45.7 | 6.1 | — | 1.7 | — | 0.8 |
| Allensbach | 1–7 Oct 1972 | ? | 45.0 | 46.0 | 6.0 | — | 3.0 | — | 1 |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | Feb 1971 | N/A | 39 | 33 | 5 | — | 23 | 6 | |
| 1969 federal election | 19 Nov 1972 | – | 46.1 | 42.7 | 5.8 | 4.3 | 1.2 | 13.3 | 3.4 |
Voter turnout was 91.1%, the highest ever since 1949. In 1970 thevoting age had been lowered from 21 to 18.
 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Party-list | Constituency | Seats | |||||||||
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Elected | West Berlin | Total | +/– | |||
| Social Democratic Party | 17,175,169 | 45.85 | 78 | 18,228,239 | 48.86 | 152 | 230 | 12 | 242 | +5 | ||
| Christian Democratic Union | 13,190,837 | 35.21 | 112 | 13,304,813 | 35.67 | 65 | 177 | 9 | 186 | –15 | ||
| Christian Social Union | 3,615,183 | 9.65 | 17 | 3,620,625 | 9.71 | 31 | 48 | 0 | 48 | –1 | ||
| Free Democratic Party | 3,129,982 | 8.36 | 41 | 1,790,513 | 4.80 | 0 | 41 | 1 | 42 | +11 | ||
| National Democratic Party | 207,465 | 0.55 | 0 | 194,389 | 0.52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| German Communist Party | 113,891 | 0.30 | 0 | 146,258 | 0.39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | New | ||
| European Federalist Party | 24,057 | 0.06 | 0 | 7,581 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Free Social Union | 3,166 | 0.01 | 0 | 1,864 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Independents and voter groups | 9,497 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Total | 37,459,750 | 100.00 | 248 | 37,303,779 | 100.00 | 248 | 496 | 22 | 518 | 0 | ||
| Valid votes | 37,459,750 | 99.20 | 37,303,779 | 98.79 | ||||||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 301,839 | 0.80 | 457,810 | 1.21 | ||||||||
| Total votes | 37,761,589 | 100.00 | 37,761,589 | 100.00 | ||||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 41,446,302 | 91.11 | 41,446,302 | 91.11 | ||||||||
| Source:Bundeswahlleiter | ||||||||||||
The SPD celebrated their best result ever, representing the largest faction in the German parliament for the first time since the1930 Reichstag elections. It enabled the party to nominateAnnemarie Renger forPresident of the Bundestag; she was the first Social Democrat and also the first woman to hold this office.
| State | Total seats | Seats won | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | CDU | CSU | ||
| Baden-Württemberg | 36 | 12 | 24 | |
| Bavaria | 44 | 13 | 31 | |
| Bremen | 3 | 3 | ||
| Hamburg | 8 | 8 | ||
| Hesse | 22 | 20 | 2 | |
| Lower Saxony | 30 | 23 | 7 | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 73 | 52 | 21 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 16 | 9 | 7 | |
| Saarland | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 11 | 9 | 2 | |
| Total | 248 | 152 | 65 | 31 |
| State | Total seats | Seats won | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | SPD | FDP | CSU | ||
| Baden-Württemberg | 36 | 12 | 16 | 8 | |
| Bavaria | 42 | 20 | 5 | 17 | |
| Bremen | 1 | 1 | |||
| Hamburg | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | |
| Hesse | 25 | 17 | 3 | 5 | |
| Lower Saxony | 32 | 20 | 7 | 5 | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 75 | 40 | 23 | 12 | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | |
| Saarland | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Schleswig-Holstein | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | |
| Total | 248 | 112 | 78 | 41 | 17 |
On 14 December 1972 the Bundestag MPs of the social-liberal coalition re-elected Willy Brandt chancellor. HisCabinet Brandt II returned to government the next day, again with FDP chairmanWalter Scheel as vice-chancellor and foreign minister. Defeated Rainer Barzel resigned as CDU chairman on 9 May 1973; he was succeeded byHelmut Kohl.
On 7 May 1974, Brandt would resign in the course of theGuillaume Affair, after one of his personal aides had been unmasked as aStasi agent. The coalition continued under his party fellowHelmut Schmidt, while Brandt remained SPD chairman until 1987.
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