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1950 Hessian state election

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1950 Hessian state election

← Dec. 1946 19 November 1950 1954 →

All 80 seats in the Landtag of Hesse
41 seats needed for a majority
Turnout1,936,762 (64.9% Decrease 8.3pp)
  First party Second party
 
Georg-August Zinn.jpg
August-Martin Euler.jpg
Candidate Georg-August Zinn August-Martin Euler
Party SPD FDPGB/BHE
Last election 38 seats, 42.7% 14 seats, 15.7%[a]
Seats won 47 21
Seat change Increase 9 Increase 7
Popular vote 821,268 588,739
Percentage 44.4% 31.8%
Swing Increase 1.7pp Increase 16.1pp

  Third party Fourth party
 
Werner Hilpert.png
Candidate Werner Hilpert
Party CDU KPD
Last election 28 seats, 31.0% 10 seats, 10.7%
Seats won 12 0
Seat change Decrease 16 Decrease 10
Popular vote 348,148 87,878
Percentage 18.8% 4.7%
Swing Decrease 12.1pp Decrease 5.9pp

Results for the single-member constituencies.

Government before election

Stock cabinet
SPDCDU

Government after election

First Zinn cabinet
SPD

The 1950 Hessian state election was held on 19 November 1950 to elect the 2nd Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a grand coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Minister-President Christian Stock, who retired at the election. He was succeeded as SPD lead candidate by Georg-August Zinn.

The SPD won a clear majority of seats thanks to quirks of the electoral system, which had been modified since 1946 to a form of mixed-member proportional representation. The Hessian CDU, who took a left-of-centre course in government with the SPD, were heavily defeated and pushed to third place with 19%. An alliance of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and All-German Bloc/League of Expellees (GB/HBE) emerged as the second-largest party with 32%, but were unable to prevent the SPD from achieving its majority. Further, the Communist Party (KPD) slipped just below the 5% electoral threshold and lost their seats. After the election, Minister-President Stock retired and was succeeded by justice minister Georg-August Zinn, who led an SPD majority government.

Electoral system

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The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 48 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and 32 then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.

Background

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In the previous election held on 1 December 1946, the SPD remained the largest party with 43%, followed by the CDU on 31%, FDP on 16%, and KPD on 11%. The SPD subsequently formed a grand coalition with the CDU.

Parties

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The table below lists parties represented in the 1st Landtag of Hesse.

Name Ideology Lead
candidate
1946 result
Votes (%) Seats
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
Social democracy Georg-August Zinn 42.7%
38 / 90
CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany
Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands
Christian democracy Werner Hilpert 31.0%
28 / 90
FDP Free Democratic Party
Freie Demokratische Partei
Classical liberalism August-Martin Euler 15.7%
14 / 90
KPD Communist Party of Germany
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
Communism 10.7%
10 / 90

Results

[edit]
PartyVotes%+/–Seats
Con.ListTotal+–
Social Democratic Party821,26844.37+1.65361147+9
Free Democratic PartyAll-German Bloc/League of Expellees588,73931.81+16.1381321+7
Christian Democratic Union348,14818.81–12.154812–16
Communist Party87,8784.75–5.91000–10
National Democratic Party–German Reich Party1,9890.11New000New
Hessian Farmers' and Peasants' Party1,2190.07New000New
Bloc of Fatherland Unification7650.04New000New
Independents1,0810.06+0.06000
Total1,851,087100.00483280–10
Valid votes1,851,08795.58
Invalid/blank votes85,6754.42
Total votes1,936,762100.00
Registered voters/turnout2,985,02164.88
[edit]
  • "The Election to the Hessian Landtag, 19 November 1950" (PDF). Parliamentary Data Bank of the Hessian Landtag (in German). March 1951. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  • "Absolute majority of the SPD in state elections in Hesse, November 19, 1950". Hessian Regional History Information System (in German). Retrieved 17 September 2023.

Notes

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  1. ^ Results for the LDP.