December 1946 Hessian state election

The December 1946 Hessian state election was held on 1 December 1946 to elect the 1st Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was an all-party coalition led by Minister-President Karl Geiler.

December 1946 Hessian state election

1 December 1946
All 90 seats in the Landtag of Hesse 46 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	1,741,416 (73.2% 2.2pp)
First party Second party   Candidate Christian Stock Werner Hilpert Party SPD CDU Last election 42 seats, 44.3% 35 seats, 37.3% Seats won 38 28 Seat change 4 7 Popular vote 687,431 498,158 Percentage 42.7% 31.0% Swing 1.5pp 6.3pp   Third party Fourth party   Candidate August-Martin Euler Oskar Müller Party LDP KPD Last election 6 seats, 8.1% 7 seats, 9.8% Seats won 14 10 Seat change 8 3 Popular vote 252,207 171,592 Percentage 15.7% 10.7% Swing 7.6pp 0.9pp
Results of the election.
Government before election Geiler cabinet SPD–CDU–KPD–LDP Government after election Stock cabinet SPD–CDU

Compared to the elections for the Constituent Assembly held at the end of June, both the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) declined, while the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) particularly improved. The SPD remained the largest party with 43%, followed by the CDU on 31%, LDP on 16%, and Communist Party (KPD) on 11%. The SPD subsequently formed a grand coalition with the CDU, led by Minister-President Christian Stock.

Electoral system

The Landtag was elected via party-list proportional representation. 62 members were elected in multi-member constituencies, and 28 then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.

Background

Main article: June 1946 Hessian state election

In the previous election held on 30 June 1946, the SPD emerged as the largest party with 44.3%, followed by the CDU on 37%, KPD on 10%, and LDP on 8%.

Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the Constituent Assembly.

Name			Ideology	Lead candidate	June 1946 result
					Votes (%)	Seats
	SPD	Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands	Social democracy	Christian Stock	44.3%	44 / 90
	CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands	Christian democracy	Werner Hilpert	37.3%	35 / 90
	KPD	Communist Party of Germany Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands	Communism	Oskar Müller	9.8%	9 / 90
	LDP	Liberal Democratic Party Liberal Demokratische Partei	Classical liberalism	August-Martin Euler	8.1%	6 / 90

Results

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats
					Con.	List	Total	+–
	Social Democratic Party	687,431	42.71	–1.54	30	8	38	–4
	Christian Democratic Union	498,158	30.95	–6.31	21	7	28	–7
	Free Democratic Party	252,207	15.67	+7.58	8	6	14	+8
	Communist Party	171,592	10.66	+0.87	3	7	10	+3
Total		1,609,388	100.00	–	62	28	90	0
Valid votes		1,609,388	92.42
Invalid/blank votes		132,028	7.58
Total votes		1,741,416	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,380,109	73.17

External links

• "Elections to the Hessian Landtag, 1946 - 1954" (PDF). Parliamentary Data Bank of the Hessian Landtag (in German). 1978. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
• "Elections to the Hessian state parliament, December 1, 1946". Hessian Regional History Information System (in German). Retrieved 17 September 2023.