German Federal Election, 1928

A federal election was held in Germany on 20 May 1928 to elect the fourth Reichstag of the Weimar Republic.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 It resulted in a significant shift to the left, with gains for the socialists and communists and losses for the nationalists. The centre-right government of Wilhelm Marx was replaced by a centre-left grand coalition government led by Hermann Müller of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Background

During the almost four years since the previous Reichstag election in December 1924, Germany had been governed by four conservative cabinets, two of which included the radical nationalist German National People's Party (DNVP) and none the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which had the most seats of any party in the Reichstag. The final cabinet of Wilhelm Marx of the Catholic Centre Party collapsed in February 1928 due to a dispute over education policy, and an election was called for May.

Campaign

In social and economic terms, the election took place at the height of the Weimar Republic's economic stabilization. The economy was developing positively and unemployment figures were lower than in previous years.

The SPD, which had not led a government since mid-1920 nor participated in a cabinet since 1923, had made it clear in its 1927 party conference in Kiel that it was ready to take over a governing role again. Along with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the SPD centred its campaign around opposition to expanding the German Navy. Specifically at issue was funding the construction of the armoured cruiser A, which the SPD, KPD and German Democratic Party (DDP) had argued against during the final days of the Marx cabinet. Because the majority in the Reichstag had voted to cut subsidies for school children's meals while expressing approval for funding for the ship, first the KPD and then the SPD used the slogan "Food for children instead of armoured cruisers" () in their campaigns.

The Centre Party saw no possibility of pushing through its denominational school law in a centre-left coalition. The DDP, besides criticizing the naval expansion, advocated a grand coalition. The German People's Party (DVP) relied on the popularity of Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann in the election campaign. He, too, thought that there was no reasonable alternative to a grand coalition. In the power struggle that had been taking place at the top of the DNVP since 1927, the extreme faction led by the pan-German publisher Alfred Hugenberg had gained more and more influence, and the party sought to win back or retain voters who had been disappointed by its radicalism. The NSDAP had consolidated its position on the extreme right.

Electoral system

The Reichstag was elected via party list proportional representation. For this purpose, the country was divided into 35 multi-member electoral districts. A party was entitled to a seat for every 60,000 votes won. This was calculated via a three-step process on the constituency level, an intermediate level which combined multiple constituencies, and finally nationwide, where all parties' excess votes were combined. In the third nationwide step, parties could not be awarded more seats than they had already won on the two lower constituency levels. Due to the fixed number of votes per seat, the size of the Reichstag fluctuated between elections based on the number of voters.

The voting age was 20 years. People who were incapacitated according to the Civil Code, who were under guardianship or provisional guardianship, or who had lost their civil rights after a criminal court ruling were not eligible to vote.

Results

The results were a defeat for the parties of the ruling centre-right. The DNVP particularly suffered, falling to 14% of the vote and losing 30 seats. The German Democratic Party and the conservative German People's Party had more modest losses of seven and six seats respectively. The Catholic Centre Party, which lost eight seats, saw a decline in its Reichstag membership for the first time since 1920.

The winners of the election were the parties of the left. The SPD, in opposition since 1923, won 30% of the vote, up 5.5% since the previous election. The Communist Party also improved, to 10.6% from 8.9%. Much of the bourgeois and conservative electorate turned to small parties representing special interests, including the Reich Party of the German Middle Class (Economic Party) with 23 seats, the Christian National Peasants' and Farmers' Party (''Landvolk'' Party) with 9 seats and the Reich Party for Civil Rights and Deflation (People's Justice Party) with 2 seats.

Aftermath

With a strong left wing and splintered right, there was little alternative to a government led by the SPD. Social Democrat Hermann Müller, who had served briefly as chancellor in 1920, was charged with forming a new cabinet. The only viable majority was a great coalition stretching from the SPD to the DVP. Negotiations proved difficult: it took two weeks for the cabinet to be formed and sworn in, and then only as a "cabinet of personalities" rather than a formal coalition. It included ministers from the SPD, DVP, DDP and Bavarian People's Party (BVP). The Centre sent only one minister, Theodor von Guérard, as a so-called "observer". It was not until ten months later, in April 1929, that a coalition agreement could be signed and the Centre Party officially enter the cabinet.

The second Müller cabinet was the final democratic government of the Weimar Republic. Its fall in March 1930 marked the end of the parliamentary system and the beginning of the presidential cabinets that preceded the Nazi takeover in 1933.

See also

* Members of the 4th German Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

References

Works cited

*
*
*
*

{{German elections

Germany
Federal
Elections in the Weimar Republic
Federal elections in Germany
Germany