Federal elections were held in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

on 2 December 1990 to elect the members of the 12th

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

. This was the first all-German election since the Nazi show election in

April 1938 The following events occurred in April 1938: April 1, 1938 (Friday) *The Battle of Gandesa began. * Upper and Lower Silesia were reunified into the Province of Silesia. *''L'Osservatore Romano'' stated that the Vatican had not been consulted by ...

, the first multi-party all-German election since that of

March 1933 The following events occurred in March 1933: March 1, 1933 (Wednesday) *The fictional defense attorney Perry Mason was introduced, along with his secretary Della Street, and detective Paul Drake, in Erle Stanley Gardner's novel, ''The Case ...

, which was held after the

Nazi seizure of power Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

and was subject to widespread suppression, and the first free and fair all-German election since

November 1932 The following events occurred in November 1932: November 1, 1932 (Tuesday) *The Liberal Party won mid-term parliamentary elections in Cuba. *Police in London clashed with National Hunger Marchers trying to present a petition to parliament aga ...

. The result was a comprehensive victory for the governing coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/ Christian Social Union and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which was reelected to a third term. The second vote result of the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...

, 20,358,096 votes, remains the highest ever total vote count in a democratic German election. The elections marked the first since

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

that a party other than CDU/CSU and the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD) won a constituency seat, and the first (and only) time since 1957 that FDP won a constituency seat ( Halle).

Campaign

This was the first election conducted after

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

which took place on 3 October. Previously, the had selected 144 of its members which were then co-opted as Members of the German Bundestag and served until the end of the 11th Bundestag. Almost 150 seats had been added to represent the 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. It was the one election for which the 5% threshold was applied not nationwide but separately for the former

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

(including

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

) and former

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 O ...

(including

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

). As a result, while the Western Greens did not gain representation, their ideologically-similar Eastern Alliance 90 did, with both merging to form

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

in 1993. The combined vote of the two lists totals over 5%, but as the two lists would not merge until 1993, it thus did not entitle the East German party to any elected members from the former West Germany, unlike the PDS, who managed to elect

Ulla Jelpke Ursula "Ulla" Jelpke (born 9 June 1951) is a German journalist and politician. Jelpke is a member of the German Bundestag where she is domestic affairs spokesperson for the party Die Linke and represents the party in the internal affairs commit ...

. The German Social Union (DSU) under leader

Hansjoachim Walther Hansjoachim Walther (16 December 1939 – 17 January 2005) was a German politician and mathematician. He was leader of the German Social Union, a right-wing party modelled after the Bavarian CSU, during the ''Wende'', serving as their parlia ...

, a

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

party modelled after the Bavarian CSU running only in former

, failed to achieve the separate 5% threshold, only receiving around 1% of the vote in the eastern states, mostly in the southeast. As part of the co-option, the DSU had previously had eight Members of the Bundestag, who sat as guests in the CDU/CSU caucus. The CSU, which had tried to convince the CDU to stand down in several

single-member constituency A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vot ...

to enable the DSU to enter the Bundestag separate from the 5% threshold, severed its ties in 1993 and the party fell into irrelevancy.

Results

All change figures are relative to the pre-existing West German Bundestag. 1990 federal german result

Results by state

Second vote ( ''Zweitstimme'', or votes for party list)

Constituency seats

List seats

Post-election

The governing CDU/CSU-FDP coalition was returned to office with a landslide majority, and remained

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

. The CDU did exceptionally well in the former East Germany, which had been the heartland of the SPD before the Nazi era.

Notes

References

Sources

The Federal Returning Officer

Psephos
{{German federal elections Federal elections in Germany 1990 elections in Germany Helmut Kohl December 1990 events in Europe