1950 Bavarian state election

26 November 1950

All 204 seats in the Landtag of Bavaria
103 seats needed for a majority
Registered6,026,641
Turnout4,813,528 (79.9%)
Increase 4.2%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Alois Hundhammer Jean Stock Joseph Baumgartner
Party CSU SPD BP
Seats won 64 63 39
Seat change Decrease 40 Increase 9 Increase 39
Popular vote 2,527,370 2,588,549 1,657,713
Percentage 27.4% 28.0% 17.9%
Swing Decrease 24.9% Decrease 0.6% Increase 17.9%

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Theodor Oberländer Thomas Dehler
Party BHE–DG FDP
Seats won 26 12
Seat change Increase 26 Increase 3
Popular vote 1,136,148 653,741
Percentage 12.2% 7.1%
Swing Increase 12.2% Increase 1.4%

Results for the single-member constituencies.

Minister-President before election

Hans Ehard
CSU

Elected Minister-President

Hans Ehard
CSU

The 1950 Bavarian state election was held on 26 November 1950 to elect the members of the 2nd Landtag of Bavaria. The outgoing government was a majority of the Christian Social Union (CSU) led by Minister-President Hans Ehard.

The CSU suffered an enormous decline of 25 percentage points, and lost first place in the overall vote to the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) by a slight margin. However, the CSU narrowly retained a plurality of 64 seats to the SPD's 63 thanks to the regional apportionment of seats. Two new parties entered the Landtag: the Bavaria Party (BP) with 18% of the vote and the All-German Bloc (BHE) with 12%. The Free Democratic Party (FDP) also improved to 7%. The CSU subsequently formed a grand coalition with the SPD, and Minister-President Ehard continued in office.

The 1950 election remains the CSU's worst performance in a Bavarian election and the only occasion they did not win a plurality of the vote.[1][2]

Background

After the 1946 state elections, the CSU had won a majority of seats in the Landtag, and proceeded to form a coalition government with the SPD and right-wing populist WAV under Minister-President Hans Ehard. The coalition, however, was short lived. On 20 June 1947, WAV party chairman and Minister for Denazification Alfred Loritz was ousted by his fellow party-members over a power struggle involving a fellow state delegate, Karl Meissner. Four days later, on 24 June, Loritz was dismissed from his post on charges of blackmail and patronage. He subsequently was arrested on 19 July 1947, before escaping custody, being re-arrested, and eventually found asylum in Switzerland in April 1948.[3] In his place, a CSU attorney, Ludwig Hagenauer was appointed. Only three months after the Loritz episode, all of the SPD ministers within the government resigned, ending the coalition government, which lasted for under a year. The CSU then ruled alone (still as a majority government) for the remaining three years. In the intervening time, Ehard mainly battled with other member of his party to pass the Basic Law.[4] The electoral system was changed since the 1946 election, now every voter has two votes. One for local district candidate (first vote) and one for a constituency candidate (second vote).

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the First Landtag of Bavaria.

Name Ideology Leader(s) December 1946 result
Votes (%) Seats
CSU Christian Social Union in Bavaria
Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern
Christian democracy Alois Hundhammer 52.3
104 / 180
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
Social democracy Jean Stock 28.6
54 / 180
WAV Economic Reconstruction Union
Wirtschaftliche Aufbau-Vereinigung
Right-wing populism Alfred Loritz 7.4
13 / 180
FDP Free Democratic Party
Freie Demokratische Partei
Liberalism Thomas Dehler 5.7
9 / 180

Results

With the WAV now essentially collapsed due to factional disputes, the right-wing vote was scattered over several different parties, the most important being the GB/BHE and the Bavaria Party, which capitalized on nationalism and took votes away from both the WAV and CSU. With the right-wing vote now spread thin, the SPD captured a majority of the first and second votes combined, but were still one seat off of being tied with the CSU's delegation, and neither party being close to a majority. After 17 days of negotiations, a mass coalition between the CSU, SPD, and GB/BHE was declared. On 18 December 1950, Hans Ehard received 131 votes in the Landtag to serve a second term as Minister-President, with 5 votes against, and 36 members abstaining.[5]

Party Votes List
seats
Total
seats
+/-
Constituency  % Seats List  % Total  % Swing
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 1,334,888 28.33 38 1,253,661 27.70 2,588,549 28.02 Decrease 0.58 25 63 Increase 9
Christian Social Union (CSU) 1,264,993 26.85 46 1,262,377 27.89 2,527,370 27.36 Decrease 24.93 18 64 Increase 40
Bavaria Party (BP) 862,123 18.30 16 795,590 17.58 1,657,713 17.94 New 23 39 New
German Community Block of Expellees and Dispossessed (BHE–DG) 586,067 12.44 0 550,081 12.15 1,135,148 12.30 New 26 26 New
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 334,289 7.09 1 319,452 7.06 653,741 7.08 Increase 1.43 11 12 Increase 3
Economic Reconstruction Union (WAV) 132,183 2.81 0 127,504 2.82 259,687 2.81 Decrease 4.58 0 0 Decrease 13
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) 91,750 1.95 0 86,018 1.90 177,768 1.92 Decrease 4.15 0 0 Steady 0
German Block (DB) 40,454 0.86 0 41,584 0.92 82,038 0.89 New 0 0 New
Bavarian Homeland and King's Party (BHKP) 29,641 0.64 0 41,448 0.92 71,089 0.77 New 0 0 New
Electoral Bloc of the War-Damaged, Expelled, and Dispossessed (WKHE) 19,499 0.41 0 32,740 0.72 52,239 0.57 New 0 0 New
Bloc of Expellees (BdH) 10,074 0.21 0 10,703 0.24 20,777 0.22 New 0 0 New
Association of Economically and Politically Disenfranchised (VWPE) 5,085 0.11 0 4,254 0.09 9,339 0.10 New 0 0 New
Nonpartisan Farmers' Emergency Association – Aid for the Bavarian Forest (UBN) 586 0.01 0 796 0.02 1,382 0.01 New 0 0 New
Total 4,711,632 100.00 101 4,526,208 100.00 9,237,840 100.00 103 204 Increase 24
Invalid 100,290 2.08 283,561 5.90 383,851 3.99
Turnout 4,811,922 79.84 4,809,769 79.81 9,621,691 Increase 4.11
Registered voters 6,026,641 6,026,641
Source: Statistik Bayern and Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
Popular Vote
SPD
28.02%
CSU
27.36%
BP
17.94%
GB/BHE
12.30%
FDP
7.08%
WAV
2.81%
KPD
1.92%
Other
2.57%
Landtag seats
CSU
31.37%
SPD
30.88%
BP
19.12%
GB/BHE
12.75%
FDP
5.88%

References

  1. Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, accessed 30 May 2020
  2. "Election Results 1946-2018" (PDF).
  3. Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, accessed 30 May 2020
  4. Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, accessed 30 May 2020
  5. Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, accessed 30 May 2020
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