Federal elections were held in Germany on 2 December 1990 to elect the members of the 12th Bundestag. 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 result was a comprehensive victory for the governing coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/ Christian Social Union and the

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

(FDP), which was reelected to a third term. The second vote result of the CDU/CSU, 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 Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

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 Co-option (also co-optation, sometimes spelt coöption or coöptation) has two common meanings. It may refer to the process of adding members to an elite group at the discretion of members of the body, usually to manage opposition and so maintai ...

Members of the German Bundestag Member of the German Parliament (german: Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages) is the official name given to a deputy in the German Bundestag. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reich ...

and served until the end of the 11th Bundestag. Almost 150 seats had been added to represent the re-established

eastern states The eastern states of Australia are the states and territories of Australia, states adjoining the east continental coastline of Australia. These are the mainland Australia, mainland states of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, New South Wales and Q ...

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 (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 (including West Berlin). As a result, while the Western Greens did not gain representation, their ideologically-similar Eastern

Alliance 90 Alliance 90 () was a political alliance of three non-communist political groups in East Germany. It was formed in February 1990 by the New Forum, Democracy Now and the Initiative for Peace and Human Rights. It received 2.9% of the vote in the 19 ...

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. 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 East Germany, 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