1954 West German presidential election

An indirect presidential election (officially the 2nd Federal Convention) was held in West Germany on 17 July 1954. The government parties and the opposition SPD renominated incumbent Theodor Heuss. Against his wishes, the Communist Party of Germany nominated Alfred Weber. Heuss was reelected on the first ballot with about 85% of the vote.

1954 West German presidential election

17 July 1954

Nominee Theodor Heuss Alfred Weber Party FDP KPD Electoral vote 871 12

President before election Theodor Heuss FDP Elected President Theodor Heuss FDP

Composition of the Federal Convention

The president is elected by the Federal Convention consisting of all the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of delegates representing the states. These are divided proportionally by population to each state, and each state's delegation is divided among the political parties represented in its parliament so as to reflect the partisan proportions in the parliament.

By party		By state
Party	Members	State	Members
CDU/CSU	431	Bundestag	509
SPD	347	Baden-Württemberg	68
FDP	112	Bavaria	91
DP	15	Berlin	22
BP	15	Bremen	6
Z	12	Hamburg	17
KPD	10	Hesse	44
Hamburg-Block	9	Lower Saxony	65
SSW	1	North Rhine-Westphalia	141
DRP	1	Rhineland-Palatinate	32
Independents	4	Schleswig-Holstein	23
Total	1018	Total	1018

Source: Eine Dokumentation aus Anlass der Wahl des Bundespräsidenten am 18. März 2012

Results

Candidate	Parties	Votes	%
Theodor Heuss	CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP, DP	871	85.6
Alfred Weber	KPD	12	1.2
Others1		6	0.6
Abstentions		95	9.3
Invalid votes		3	0.3
Not cast		31	3.0
Total		1,018	100
Source: Bundestag

Note:1. In addition to the two formally nominated candidates President of the Reich Karl Dönitz, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, Marie Elisabeth Lüders, Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover, Franz-Josef Wuermeling, and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer received one vote each.