The 1990 German federal election was held in recently united

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on 2 December 1990 to elect the members of the 12th

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 ...

, within the regular time of nearly four years after the January 1987 West German federal election. Due to the accession of the former East German states on 3 October, after which the

was expanded with East German

Volkskammer The Volkskammer (, "People's Chamber") was the supreme power organ of East Germany. It was the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it. The Volkskammer was initia ...

delegates, the elections were the first democratic all-German elections since the early 1930s. The result was a comprehensive victory for Chancellor

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 ...

and his governing coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/ Christian Social Union and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which was reelected to a third term (and a fourth in 1994). The ''second vote'' (preferred national party, ''first vote'' is for a local candidate) 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 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

that a party other than CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) won a constituency seat ( Direktmandat), breaking up the dominance of the two ''Volksparteien''. The first (and only) time since 1957 that FDP won a constituency seat was by Uwe Lühr in Halle, home of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the "architect of German reunification". In addition, Gregor Gysi (PDS) won Berlin-Marzahn – Hellersdorf.

Campaign

This was the first election conducted after

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

which took place on 3 October. Previously, the had selected 144 of its members which were then co-opted as Members of the German Bundestag and served until the end of the 11th Bundestag. Almost 150 seats had been added to represent the re-established eastern states 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. For this election only, the country was divided into two areas for the purposes of the five-percent threshold: the former West German states and

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

, and the former East German states and

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

. Second votes were counted separately in each area, and passing the threshold in either area was sufficient to enter the Bundestag and receive list seats. As a result, while the Western Greens (4.8% of western second votes) did not gain representation, their ideologically-similar Eastern Alliance 90 (6.2% of eastern second votes) did, with both merging to form Alliance 90/The Greens in 1993. The Party of Democratic Socialism also entered the Bundestag with 11.1% of eastern second votes, despite receiving just 0.3% of the western second vote (and only 2.4% nationwide). However, the distribution of seats to state lists was not divided in this manner and still calculated on the national level, which resulted in the PDS receiving a list seat (

Ulla Jelpke Ursula "Ulla" Jelpke (born 9 June 1951) is a German journalist and politician. Jelpke is a member of the German Bundestag where she is domestic affairs spokesperson for the party Die Linke and represents the party in the internal affairs commit ...

) in the most populous state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. The German Social Union (DSU) under leader Hansjoachim Walther, a

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

party modeled after the Bavarian CSU running only in former

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, 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 heavily supported the DSU financially, severed its ties in 1993 and the party fell into irrelevancy. After a law allowing a linkage of the lists of the CSU and DSU was overturned by the Federal Constitutional Court, the CSU tried to convince the CDU to stand down in several

single-member constituencies A single-member district or constituency is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a Multiwinner voting, multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. In some countries, such as ...

to enable the DSU to enter the Bundestag separate from the 5% threshold, but Kohl adamantly refused.

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 () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

. 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 Federal Helmut Kohl Fwederal