German federal election, 1919

German federal election, 1919

19 January 1919 (1919-01-19)

All 423 seats in the Weimar National Assembly 212 seats needed for a majority Turnout 83.0%   First party Second party Third party   Leader Hermann Müller Adolf Gröber Friedrich von Payer Party SPD Centre DDP Leader since 1919 1917 1918 Seats won 165 91 75 Popular vote 11,509,048 5,980,216 5,641,825 Percentage 37.9% 19.7% 18.6%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Arthur von Posadowsky-Wehner Hugo Haase Rudolf Heinze Party DNVP USPD DVP Leader since 1919 1917 1919 Seats won 44 22 19 Popular vote 3,121,479 2,317,290 1,345,638 Percentage 10.3% 7.6% 4.4%

Electoral results by districts (in German), strongest parties: ■ – SPD ■ – USPD ■ – Centre/BVP ■ – DNVP Hatched: occupied territory (Alsace-Lorraine, Posen) pending Treaty of Versailles

Chancellor/Chairman Council of the People's Deputies before election Friedrich Ebert SPD Resulting head of government Philipp Scheidemann, Ministerpräsident SPD

Federal elections were held in Germany on 19 January 1919,^[1] although members of the standing army in the east voted for their representatives only on 2 February. The elections were the first of the new Weimar Republic following World War I and the Revolution of 1918–19. It was also the first German election held using proportional representation and with women's suffrage. It is also reckoned as the first truly free and fair all-German election, as it was the first to be held after the scrapping of the old constituencies that grossly over-represented rural areas. The voting age was lowered to 20 from 25 in the last Reichstag election of 1912.

Austrian citizens living in Germany were allowed to vote, in the same way that German citizens living in Austria were also allowed to vote in the Austrian Constitutional Assembly election in the same year.^[2]

From its inaugural session on 6 February, the National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) functioned as both a constituent assembly and unicameral legislature. On 13 February, provisional Reichspräsident (President) Friedrich Ebert appointed Philipp Scheidemann Reichsministerpräsident (Minister President, the office was renamed Chancellor only when the Weimar Constitution came into force in August 1919). Scheidemann's government replaced the revolutionary Rat der Volksbeauftragten (Council of the People's Deputies). The supporting parties of the "Weimar Coalition" (SPD, Zentrum and DDP) together won 76.2% of the votes cast. Voter turnout was 83.0%.^[3]

Results

References

Elections in Germany Parliamentary elections 1848 1867 (Feb) 1867 (Aug) 1868 1871 1874 1877 1878 1881 1884 1887 1890 1893 1898 1903 1907 1912 1919 1920 1924 (May) 1924 (Dec) 1928 1930 1932 (July) 1932 (Nov) 1933 (Mar) 1933 (Nov) 1936 1938 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1983 1987 1990 1994 1998 2002 2005 2009 2013 Next Presidential elections 1925 1932 European elections 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 Referendums 1926 1928 1929 1933 1934 1936 1938 See also elections in Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia East Germany East Prussia Lower Silesia