Federal elections were held in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

on 19 November 1972 to elect the members of the 7th

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

. In the first snap elections since the resumption of democratic elections in 1949, the Social Democratic Party became the largest party in parliament for the first time since 1930, winning 230 of the 496 seats. The coalition with the Free Democratic Party was resumed.

Campaign

The Social-liberal coalition of SPD and FDP had lost its majority after several Bundestag MPs (like former FDP ministers Erich Mende and Heinz Starke or SPD partisan Herbert Hupka) had left their party and become members of the CDU/ CSU opposition to protest against Chancellor Willy Brandt's ''Neue Ostpolitik'', especially against the ''de facto'' recognition of the Oder-Neisse line by the 1970 Treaty of Warsaw. On 27 April 1972 the opposition had tried to have CDU leader Rainer Barzel elected new chancellor in a constructive vote of no confidence, but Barzel surprisingly missed the majority of 249 by two votes. Rumours that at least one member of the CDU/CSU faction had been paid by the East German '' Stasi'' to abstain (in effect, voting against Barzel) were confirmed by Markus Wolf, former head of the '' Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung'', in 1997. Nevertheless, the following budget debates revealed that the government's majority was lost and only the upcoming organisation of the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

delayed the arrangement of new elections. On 22 September 1972 Chancellor Brandt asked for a vote of confidence, which required the same majority of 249 "yes" votes: it failed with 233 "yes" votes to 246 "no" votes. The members of the government did not participate (in effect, voting no) to ensure the vote would fail, however it would have regardless. This allowed Brandt to advise President Gustav Heinemann to dissolve the Bundestag and call new elections the same day. In the tense campaign, the CDU/CSU attacked Brandt as being too lenient towards Eastern Europe and having the wrong ideas on the economy. SPD and FDP benefited from the enormous personal popularity of the chancellor, laureate of the 1971

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

. He gained the support by numerous celebrities of the West German culture and media scene (e.g. Günter Grass), expressed by the slogan ''Willy wählen!'' ("Vote for Willy!").

Opinion polls

Results

Voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 91.1%, the highest ever since 1949. In 1970 the

voting age A legal voting age is the minimum age that a person is allowed to Voting, vote in a democracy, democratic process. For General election, general elections around the world, the right to vote is restricted to adults, and most nations use 18 year ...

had been lowered from 21 to 18. The SPD celebrated their best result ever, representing the largest faction in the German parliament for the first time since the 1930 Reichstag elections. It enabled the party to nominate Annemarie Renger for

President of the Bundestag The president of the Bundestag ( or ; Grammatical gender in German#Professions, when the office is held by a man) presides over the sessions of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, with functions similar to that of a speaker (poli ...

; she was the first Social Democrat and also the first woman to hold this office.

Results by state

Constituency seats

List seats

Post-election

On 14 December 1972 the Bundestag MPs of the social-liberal coalition re-elected Willy Brandt chancellor. His Cabinet Brandt II returned to government the next day, again with FDP chairman Walter Scheel as vice-chancellor and foreign minister. Defeated Rainer Barzel resigned as CDU chairman on 9 May 1973; he was succeeded by

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

. On 7 May 1974, Brandt would resign in the course of the

Guillaume Affair The Guillaume affair () was an espionage scandal in Germany during the Cold War. The scandal revolved around the exposure of an East German spy within the West German government and had far-reaching political repercussions in Germany, the mo ...

, after one of his personal aides had been unmasked as a ''Stasi'' agent. The coalition continued under his party fellow Helmut Schmidt, while Brandt remained SPD chairman until 1987.

Notes

References

External links

The Federal Returning Officer

Psephos
{{German federal elections Federal elections in Germany Federal Federal