December 1946 Bavarian state election

The December 1946 Bavarian state election was held on 1 December 1946 to elect the members of the First Bavarian Landtag. The election came after the dissolution of the Bavarian Constituent Assembly after the passing of the Constitution, which stipulated that a democratically elected Landtag would elect the Minister-President. It saw Bavaria's first democratically chosen Minister-President since Heinrich Held.

1946 Bavarian state election

1 December 1946

All 180 seats in the Landtag of Bavaria
91 seats needed for a majority
Turnout3,048,337 (75.7%)
3.6%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Alois Hundhammer Jean Stock Alfred Loritz
Party CSU SPD WAV
Seats won 104 54 13
Seat change 5 3 5
Popular vote 1,593,908 871,760 225,404
Percentage 52.3% 28.6% 7.4%
Swing 6% 0.2% 2.3%

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Hermann Schirmer Thomas Dehler
Party KPD FDP
Seats won 0 9
Seat change 9 6
Popular vote 185,023 172,242
Percentage 6.1% 5.7%
Swing 0.8% 3.2%

Minister-President before election

Wilhelm Hoegner
SPD

Elected Minister-President

Hans Ehard
CSU

Background

Bavaria was completely occupied by American troops at the end of April 1945. General George S. Patton appointed Christian democrat Fritz Schäffer as interim Minister-President on 28 May 1945, before being dismissed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower on 28 September 1945 due to Schäffer's past anti-Semitic positions, and hiring of ex-Nazis within his administration.[1]

The Ministry was then handed over to social democrat Wilhelm Hoegner, who oversaw the creation of a new Bavarian constitution in the spring and summer of 1946. To aid him, the Advisory State Committee was formed, with its members being appointed by the political parties or the state. The body was eventually dissolved, with direct elections being called for a Constituent State Assembly to oversee the passage of the Constitution. After the Constitution had been ratified by the State Assembly, the body was dissolved and elections were called for the first official Landtag since the Weimar Republic. On the same day of the Landtag elections, Bavaria held a plebiscite whether to affirm the newly written Constitution.[2]

Results

The Wilhelm Hoegner regime had been installed by the American military forces in Germany and did not reflect the popular opinion of Bavarians. The Constitution stated that the Minister-President was to be elected by the Landtag, thus when the CSU gained a majority of the seats, the SPD entered a coalition with the CSU and WAV, with a CSU Minister-President, Hans Ehard. In September of 1947, the SPD withdrew its ministers and the CSU abandoned its partnership with WAV, forming a sole majority government.[3] This was also the first election in post-war Bavaria that introduced the ten-percent rule, in which a seat would only be allotted to a candidate if they received at least ten percent of the vote in any given constituency. The KPD, while gaining a net positive in overall votes, failed to meet this requirement in any constituency and lost all of their seats.[4]

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the Constituent State Assembly of Bavaria.

Name Ideology Leader(s) June 1946 result
Votes (%) Seats
CSU Christian Social Union in Bavaria
Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern
Christian democracy Alois Hundhammer 58.3
109 / 180
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
Social democracy Jean Stock 28.8
51 / 180
KPD Communist Party of Germany
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
Marxism–Leninism Hermann Schirmer 5.3
9 / 180
WAV Economic Reconstruction Union
Wirtschaftliche Aufbau-Vereinigung
Right-wing populism Alfred Loritz 5.1
8 / 180
FDP Free Democratic Party
Freie Demokratische Partei
Liberalism Thomas Dehler 2.5
3 / 180


Summary of the 1 December 1946 election results of the Landtag of Bavaria

Party Votes % +/- Seats +/- Seats %
Christian Social Union (CSU) 1,593,908 52.3 6% 104 5 56.1
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 871,760 28.6 0.2% 54 3 30
Economic Reconstruction Union (WAV) 225,404 5.1 2.3% 13 5 7.2
Communist Party (KPD) 185,023 6.1 0.8% 0 9 0
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 172,242 5.7 3.2% 9 6 5
Total 3,048,337 100.0 180 ±0
Voter turnout 75.7 3.6
Source: Statistik Bayern and Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
Popular Vote
CSU
52.3%
SPD
28.6%
WAV
7.4%
KPD
6.1%
FDP
5.7%
Landtag seats
CSU
56.1%
SPD
30%
WAV
7.2%
FDP
5.7%
KPD
0%

References

  1. Power Grabber Time Magazine, 20 February 1956, accessed: 27 May 2020
  2. Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, accessed 27 May 2020
  3. Bayerische Staatsregierung, accessed 29 May 2020
  4. Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, accessed 29 May 2020
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.