1946 Berlin State Election
   HOME
*





1946 Berlin State Election
The election to the Greater Berlin City Council on October 20, 1946 was the only overall Berlin election in the period between the end of the Second World War and the reunification of Germany. The clear winner of the election was the SPD under Otto Ostrowski, which with 48.7% and 63 of 130 seats fell just three seats short of holding an absolute majority. The CDU finished in second place under Ferdinand Friedensburg with a meager 22.2% of votes and 29 seats. The SED suffered a significant defeat, winning just 19.8% of the vote and 26 mandates. The remaining 9.3% of the votes went to the Free Democratic Party which received 12 mandates. Voter turnout was 92.3%. The result was a clear rejection of the Socialist Unity Party, which was the party favored by the Soviet occupying forces, and of the CDU, which came to dominate politics in West Germany. The city council chose Ernst Reuter as mayor and formed a black-red-yellow coalition of the SPD, CDU and FDP. The pro-western coalition co ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Otto Ostrowski
Otto Ostrowski (28 January 1883 in Spremberg – 16 June 1963 in Knokke, Belgium) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Mayor of Berlin in 1946–1947. Ostrowski graduated in Romance studies and after World War I joined the SPD. From 1922 he served as mayor of Finsterwalde until he was elected mayor of the Berlin borough of Prenzlauer Berg in 1926. He held this office up to the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, when he was forced to resign. A fierce opponent of the Nazis, he helped hiding Jewish persecutees to protect them from deportation to the extermination camps. After World War II he was appointed mayor of Berlin-Wilmersdorf in 1946. In the elections of 20 October 1946 the SPD had reached a 48.7% share of votes and the new city parliament of Berlin (predecessor of the present-day Abgeordnetenhaus) elected Ostrowski for mayor on 5 December 1946. He stepped into office on 8 January 1947, but from the beginning had to deal with the uncerta ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Ferdinand Friedensburg
Ferdinand Friedensburg (17 November 1886 in Schweidnitz (present-day Świdnica) – 11 March 1972) was the interim Mayor of Berlin due to the illness of mayor Louise Schroeder during the Berlin Blockade in 1948. Biography The son of a judge graduated in 1914 at the Berlin College of Mines ''(Bergakademie)''. Homebound from the United States at the outbreak of World War I he was arrested by British Forces Gibraltar. On an attempt at flight Friedensburg was severely injured, resulting in a long-term stay in hospital. Not able-bodied for military service he served at the German embassy in Bern until the end of the war. Back to Berlin he joined the German Democratic Party (DDP) in 1920 and in 1921 became district administrator ''(Landrat)'' at Rosenberg, Marienwerder (today Susz, Poland). In 1925 Friedensburg was appointed vice president of the Berlin state police agency and in 1927 became region president of the Prussian Regierungsbezirk Kassel. As a supporter of the Weimar Coal ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 October 1990. During the Cold War, the western portion of Germany and the associated territory of West Berlin were parts of the Western Bloc. West Germany was formed as a political entity during the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, established from eleven states formed in the three Allied zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. The FRG's provisional capital was the city of Bonn, and the Cold War era country is retrospectively designated as the Bonn Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided between the Western and Eastern blocs. Germany was divided into the two countries. Initially, West Germany claimed an exclusive mandate for all of Germany, representing itself as t ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Ernst Reuter
Ernst Rudolf Johannes Reuter (29 July 1889 – 29 September 1953) was the mayor of West Berlin from 1948 to 1953, during the time of the Cold War. Biography Early years Reuter was born in Apenrade (Aabenraa), Province of Schleswig-Holstein (now in Denmark). He spent his childhood days in Leer where a public square is named after him. Reuter attended the universities of Münster and Marburg where he completed his studies in 1912 and passed the examinations as a teacher. Moreover, he was member in a fraternity called "SBV Frankonia Marburg". The same year he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Reuter opposed Kaiser Wilhelm's regime at the start of the First World War. After being drafted, Reuter was sent to the Eastern front where he was wounded and captured by the Russians. During the 1917 October Revolution Reuter joined the Bolsheviks and organized his fellow prisoners into a soviet. After his release, Lenin sent him to Saratov in the to-be-es ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Social Democratic Party Of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together with Lars Klingbeil, who joined her in December 2021. After Olaf Scholz was elected chancellor in 2021 the SPD became the leading party of the federal government, which the SPD formed with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party, after the 2021 federal election. The SPD is a member of 11 of the 16 German state governments and is a leading partner in seven of them. The SPD was established in 1863. It was one of the earliest Marxist-influenced parties in the world. From the 1890s through the early 20th century, the SPD was Europe's largest Marxist party, and the most popular political party in Germany. During the First World War, the party split between a pro-war mainstream ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Christian Democratic Union Of Germany
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (german: link=no, Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands ; CDU ) is a Christian democratic and liberal conservative political party in Germany. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 January 2022. The CDU is the second largest party in the Bundestag, the German federal legislature, with 152 out of 736 seats, having won 18.9% of votes in the 2021 federal election. It forms the CDU/CSU Bundestag faction, also known as the Union, with its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). The group's parliamentary leader is also Friedrich Merz. Founded in 1945 as an interdenominational Christian party, the CDU effectively succeeded the pre-war Catholic Centre Party, with many former members joining the party, including its first leader Konrad Adenauer. The party also included politicians of other backgrounds, including libe ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Socialist Unity Party Of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany) from the country's foundation in October 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Marxist–Leninist communist party, established in April 1946 as a merger between the East German branches of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party of Germany. Although the GDR was a one-party state, some other institutional popular front parties were permitted to exist in alliance with the SED; these parties included the Christian Democratic Union, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Farmers' Party, and the National Democratic Party. In the 1980s, the SED rejected the liberalisation policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, such as '' perestroika'' and '' glasnost'', which would le ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party (german: link=no, Freie Demokratische Partei; FDP, ) is a liberal political party in Germany. The FDP was founded in 1948 by members of former liberal political parties which existed in Germany before World War II, namely the German Democratic Party and the German People's Party. For most of the second half of the 20th century, the FDP held the balance of power in the Bundestag. It has been a junior coalition partner to both the CDU/CSU (1949–1956, 1961–1966, 1982–1998 and 2009–2013) and Social Democratic Party of Germany (1969–1982, 2021–presenter). In the 2013 federal election, the FDP failed to win any directly elected seats in the Bundestag and came up short of the 5 percent threshold to qualify for list representation, being left without representation in the Bundestag for the first time in its history. In the 2017 federal election, the FDP regained its representation in the Bundestag, receiving 10.6% of the vote. After the 2021 fe ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Elections In Berlin
All Berlin residents who are 16 years and older, hold EU citizenship, have lived there for three months and were registered six weeks before the election are eligible to vote for the districts' assemblies. In order to be eligible to vote for the parliament of Berlin (''Abgeordnetenhaus''), one has to be 18 years old and hold German citizenship, too. Only those under disability or in psychiatric wards are excluded. Courts of justice also have the possibility to revoke the right to vote. Elections are held about every five years. The Senate of Berlin decides the exact date of the election for the Abgeordnetenhaus, which is usually the same as for the assemblies of the twelve districts of Berlin. The last state election was held on Sunday, 18 September 2016. Elections to the Abgeordnetenhaus The first general, direct and democratic elections to the Abgeordnetenhaus were held in West Berlin on 3 December 1950. On 2 December 1990 the first Abgeordnetenhaus election for all Berlin was h ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]