1961 West German federal election

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "1961 West German federal election" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

1961 West German federal election

← 1957 17 September 1961 (1961-09-17) 1965 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 499 seats in the Bundestag[a] 250 seats needed for a majority
Registered	37,440,715 ( 5.8%)
Turnout	87.7% ( 0.1pp)
First party Second party Third party   Candidate Konrad Adenauer Willy Brandt Erich Mende Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP Last election 50.2%, 270 seats 31.8%, 169 seats 7.7%, 41 seats Seats won 242[b] 190[c] 67 Seat change 28 21 26 Popular vote 14,298,372 11,427,355 4,028,766 Percentage 45.3% 36.2% 12.8% Swing 4.9 pp 4.4 pp 5.1 pp
Results by constituency (left) and seats by state (right). The pie chart over West Berlin shows the composition of its legislature.
Government before election Third Adenauer cabinet CDU/CSU Government after election Fourth Adenauer cabinet CDU/CSU–FDP

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of Germany
Constitution (Basic Law) Federal Constitutional Court Human rights
Head of State President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD)
Executive Chancellor of Germany (list) Olaf Scholz (SPD) Vice Chancellor of Germany Robert Habeck (Grüne) Cabinet Scholz Federal agencies
Legislature Bundestag constituencies members Bundesrat Vermittlungsausschuss Gemeinsamer Ausschuss
Judiciary Federal Constitutional Court Federal courts Ordinary Administrative Fiscal Labour Social Joint Senate Other courts
Subdivisions State (Land) Minister president State Parliament (Landtag) composition Regierungsbezirk District (Kreis) list Collective municipality (Amt) Municipality (Gemeinde) list
Elections Electoral system Political parties Referendums Coalitions Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung) Presidential elections Weimar Republic (1919–1933) 1919 1925 1932 East Germany (1949–1960) 1949 1953 1957 Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949) 1949 1954 1959 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2010 2012 2017 2022 Parliamentary election 1867 (Feb) 1867 (Aug) 1868 1871 1874 1877 1878 1881 1884 1887 1890 1893 1898 1903 1907 1912 1919 1920 1924 (May) 1924 (Dec) 1928 1930 1932 (July) 1932 (Nov) 1933 (Mar) 1933 (Nov) 1936 1938 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1983 1987 1990 1994 1998 2002 2005 2009 2013 2017 2021 2025 European elections 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
State and local politics State Politics Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia
Foreign relations Foreign relations by country France Italy UK USA China Russia International Relations Politics of the European Union Visa Passport
Political ideologies Political culture / Federalism Communism Conservatism (Agrarian Conservatism) Far-right Liberalism Social Democracy
Germany portal Politics portal Other countries
v t e

Federal elections were held in West Germany on 17 September 1961 to elect the members of the fourth Bundestag. The CDU/CSU remained the largest faction, winning 242 of the 499 seats. However, the loss of its majority and the All-German Party losing all its seats led to the CDU having to negotiate a coalition with the long-term junior coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party, leading to a demand for long-term chancellor Konrad Adenauer to leave office in 1963, halfway through his term.

The election campaign occurred in the context of the Berlin Crisis and the erection of the Berlin Wall.^[1]

For the first time, the SPD announced a Chancellor candidate who was not chairman of the party: Willy Brandt, the Governing Mayor of West Berlin. After the building of the Berlin Wall, he gained more and more sympathy, while chancellor Konrad Adenauer was criticised for not showing enough support for the people of West Berlin. Adenauer had to save the absolute majority of CDU and CSU, but, considering his age and his long term as chancellor, there were big doubts if he should lead the country in a fourth term.

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Elected	West Berlin	Total	+/–
	Social Democratic Party	11,427,355	36.22	99	11,672,057	36.47	91	190	13	203	+22
	Christian Democratic Union	11,283,901	35.76	78	11,622,995	36.32	114	192	9	201	−21
	Free Democratic Party	4,028,766	12.77	67	3,866,269	12.08	0	67	0	67	+24
	Christian Social Union	3,014,471	9.55	8	3,104,742	9.70	42	50	0	50	−5
	All-German Party	870,756	2.76	0	859,290	2.68	0	0	0	0	−17
	German Peace Union [de]	609,918	1.93	0	587,488	1.84	0	0	0	0	0
	Deutsche Reichspartei	262,977	0.83	0	242,649	0.76	0	0	0	0	0
	German Community [de]	27,308	0.09	0	21,083	0.07	0	0	0	0	0
	South Schleswig Voters' Association	25,449	0.08	0	24,951	0.08	0	0	0	0	0
	Electoral Group for a Neutral Germany				778	0.00	0	0	0	0	New
	Independents and voter groups				2,164	0.01	0	0	0	0	0
Total		31,550,901	100.00	252	32,004,466	100.00	247	499	22	521	+2
Valid votes		31,550,901	96.05		32,004,466	97.43
Invalid/blank votes		1,298,723	3.95		845,158	2.57
Total votes		32,849,624	100.00		32,849,624	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		37,440,715	87.74		37,440,715	87.74
Source: Bundeswahlleiter

The absolute majority was lost by the conservative union due to the gains of the liberal FDP under Erich Mende. From 1961 on, the Union, SPD and FDP established an electoral "triopoly" in the Bundestag that would last until 1983.

Konrad Adenauer remained Chancellor, building a coalition between the CDU/CSU-FDP. In 1962 he had to announce a fifth cabinet: The FDP had temporarily left the coalition after the secretary of defense, Franz Josef Strauß (CSU), had ordered the arrest of five journalists for publishing a memo detailing alleged weaknesses in the German armed forces (known as the Spiegel scandal). In 1963 Adenauer finally retired; Ludwig Erhard took over his position as head of the coalition government.

• Barnes, Samuel H.; Grace, Frank; Pollock, James K.; Sperlich, Peter W. (1962). "The German Party System and the 1961 Federal Election". American Political Science Review. 56 (4): 899–914. doi:10.2307/1952792. JSTOR 1952792.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1961 Germany Bundestagswahl.

• The Federal Returning Officer
• Psephos