German federal election, 1990

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German federal election, 1990

← 1987 2 December 1990 (1990-12-02) 1994 →

All 662 seats in the Bundestag
332 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout 77.8% (voting eligible)[1]
  First party Second party Third party
  Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F074398-0021 Kohl (cropped).jpg Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F079276-0010 Lafontaine (cropped).jpg Otto-Graf-Lambsdorff b.jpg
Leader Helmut Kohl Oskar Lafontaine Otto Graf Lambsdorff
Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP
Leader since 1973 1988
Last election 234 seats 193 seats 48 seats
Seats won 319 239 79
Seat change Increase85 Increase46 Increase31
Popular vote 20,358,096 15,545,366 5,123,233
Percentage 43.8% 33.5% 11.0%
Swing Decrease0.4% Decrease3.5% Increase1.9%

  Fourth party Fifth party
  Petra Kelly.jpg Gregor Gysi.jpg
Leader Petra Kelly Gregor Gysi
Party Green PDS
Leader since 1990
Last election 28 seats new party
Seats won 8 17
Seat change Decrease20 Increase17
Popular vote 2,347,407 1,129,578
Percentage 5.0% 2.4%
Swing Decrease3.3% Increase2.4%

180px
Party list election results by state: dark blue denotes states where CSU had the absolute majority of the votes; lighter blue denotes states where CDU had the plurality of votes; red denotes states where the SPD had the absolute majority of the votes; and pink denotes states where the SPD had the plurality of votes

Chancellor before election

Helmut Kohl
CDU/CSU

Elected Chancellor

Helmut Kohl
CDU/CSU

German federal elections took place on 2 December 1990, to elect members to the 12th Bundestag (parliament) of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was the first free and universal election in all of Germany since the election of 1933 which cemented Adolf Hitler's power. The result was a comprehensive victory for the governing coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union and the Free Democratic Party, which was reelected to a third term.

Issues and campaign

This was the first election conducted after German reunification which took place on 3 October. Almost 150 seats had been added to represent the newly re-established eastern states of Germany without reducing the number of Western members. The euphoria following the reunification gave the ruling CDU/CSU–FDP coalition a dramatic advantage in both Western and Eastern Germany throughout the campaign.

Results

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All change figures are relative to the pre-existing West German Bundestag.

e • d Summary of the 2 December 1990 German Bundestag election results
Parties Constituency Party list Total seats
Votes  % +/− Seats +/− Votes  % +/− Seats +/− Seats +/−  %
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) 17,707,574 38.3 +0.8 192 +68 17,055,116 36.7 +2.3 76 +26 268 +83 40.5
Social Democratic Party (SPD) 16,279,980 35.2 −4.0 91 +12 15,545,366 33.5 −3.5 148 +41 239 +46 36.1
Free Democratic Party (FDP) 3,595,135 7.8 +3.1 1 +1 5,123,233 11.0 +1.9 78 +32 79 +31 11.9
Christian Social Union (CSU) 3,423,904 7.4 −2.8 43 −2 3,302,980 7.1 −2.7 8 +4 51 +2 7.7
Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) 1,049,245 2.3 +2.3 1 +1 1,129,578 2.4 +2.4 16 +16 17 +17 2.6
Alliance '90/The Greens (B90/Gr.) (East) 552,027 1.2 +1.2 0 ±0 559,207 1.2 +1.2 8 +8 8 +8 1.2
The Greens (West) 2,037,885 4.4 −2.6 0 ±0 1,788,200 3.8 −4.5 0 −42 0 −44 0
The Republicans (REP) 767,652 1.7 +1.7 0 ±0 987,269 2.1 +2.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
The Grays – Gray Panthers (GRAUE) 218,412 0.5 +0.5 0 ±0 385,910 0.8 +0.8 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP) 243,469 0.5 +0.4 0 ±0 205,206 0.4 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
National Democratic Party (NPD) 190,105 0.4 −0.1 0 ±0 145,776 0.3 −0.3 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
German Social Union (DSU) 131,747 0.3 +0.3 0 ±0 89,008 0.2 +0.2 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Christian League (Liga) 8,667 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 39,640 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Christian Centre (CM) 9,824 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 36,466 0.1 +0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Bavaria Party (BP) 10,836 0.0 ±0 0 ±0 31,315 0.1 ±0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
The Women (FRAUEN) 1,433 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 12,077 0.0 −0.2 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Patriots for Germany (Patrioten) 746 0.0 −0.1 0 ±0 4,687 0.0 −0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Eco-Union (ÖKO-UNION) 1,106 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 4,661 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Union of Working Groups for Employee Politics and Democracy (VAA) 704 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 4,530 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) 1,630 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Spartacist Workers' Party of Germany (SpAD) 124 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 1,610 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Federation of German Democrats (DDD) 474 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 1,009 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Federation of Socialist Workers (BSA) 214 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 826 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Responsible Citizens 72 0.0 ±0 0 ±0 492 0.0 −0.1 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
European Federalist Party (EFP) 266 0.0 +0.0 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Electoral groups and independents 43,324 0.1 −0.6 0 ±0 0 ±0 0
Invalid/blank votes 720,990 540,143
Totals 46,995,915 100 ±0.0 328 +80 46,995,915 100 ±0.0 334 +85 662 +143 ±0
Registered voters/turnout 60,436,560 77.8 60,436,560 77.8
Source: Federal Returning Officer


This was the one and only election for which the 5% threshold was not applied nationwide, but separately for East and West. As a result, while the Western Greens failed to gain representation, an ideologically similar party from the East, Alliance 90, did.

319 239 79 17 8
CDU/CSU SPD FDP PDS Grüne
Popular Vote
CDU/CSU
  
43.82%
SPD
  
33.46%
F.D.P.
  
11.03%
B'90/GRÜNE
  
5.05%
PDS
  
2.43%
REP
  
2.13%
Other
  
2.08%
Bundestag seats
CDU/CSU
  
48.19%
SPD
  
36.10%
F.D.P.
  
11.93%
PDS
  
2.57%
B'90/GRÜNE
  
1.21%

Post-election

The governing CDU/CSU-FDP coalition was returned to office with a landslide majority, and Helmut Kohl remained chancellor. The CDU did exceptionally well in the former East Germany, which ironically had been the heartland of the SPD before the Nazi era. Kohl's CDU received over 20 million votes, the largest number ever received by one party in a German election since the end of World War II.

File:1990 federal german result.svg
Seat results – SPD in red, combined Greens in green, PDS in purple, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

References

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Sources