The election to the
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 ...
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
on 17 February 1963 was the first election in Berlin since the construction of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
.
The top candidate of the SPD was again the mayor
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
while the CDU chose deputy mayor Franz Amrehn.
The SPD won a major election victory: 61.9% of the vote, a vote increase of 9.3 percentage points, it achieved its second-best result since the end of the second world war. Furthermore, the SPD won all 80 direct constituency seats. Their current coalition partner, the CDU, saw its vote share fall by 8.9 percentage points to 28.8% of the votes. The FDP re-entered parliament after winning 7.9% of the vote.
Analysts point to a number of factors as to why the SPD won such a large electoral victory. Many point to Brandt's high energy speeches and appearances in connection to the building of the wall, while many voters saw the CDU's crisis management was unconvincing and was thus punished by the voters. Another factor was that, shortly before the election, Willy Brandt had to cancel a meeting with Soviet Secretary General
Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Premier of the Soviet Union, chairm ...
after coming under pressure from the CDU, some voters blamed the CDU for scuppering chances of reducing tensions with the Soviets.
Much like the last election, the SPD had another large majority, this time however Brandt choose not to form a coalition with the CDU, he did however form an SPD-FDP coalition, leaving the CDU in opposition.
, -style="background:#E9E9E9;"
! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , Parties
!Votes
!%
!+/-
!Seats
!+/-
, -
, width=5px style="background-color: " ,
, style="text-align:left;" ,
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 ...
, 962,197
, 61.9%
, +9.3%
, 89
, +11
, -
, style="background-color: " ,
, style="text-align:left;" ,
Christian Democratic Union
, 448,459
, 28.8%
, -8.9%
, 41
, -14
, -
, style="background-color: " ,
, style="text-align:left;" ,
Free Democratic Party
, 123,382
, 7.9%
, +4.1%
, 10
, +10
, -
, style="background-color: " ,
, style="text-align:left;" ,
Socialist Unity Party of Germany - West Berlin
, 20,929
, 1.4%
, -0.5%
, 0
,
, - style="background:#E9E9E9;"
! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , Total
! style="text-align:center;" , 1,572,027
! style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", 100%
! style="text-align:center;" , 140
! style="text-align:center;" , +7
, -
, colspan=7,
Source
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{{Berlin state elections
State election, 1963
1963 elections in Germany
February 1963 events in Europe