1953 West German federal election

← 1949 6 September 1953 (1953-09-06) 1957 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 487 seats in the Bundestag[a] 244 seats needed for a majority
Registered	33,120,940 6.1%
Turnout	28,479,550 (86.0%) 7.5pp
First party Second party Third party   Candidate Konrad Adenauer Erich Ollenhauer Franz Blücher Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP Last election 31.0%, 139 seats 29.2%, 131 seats 11.9%, 52 seats Seats won 243[c] 151[d] 48[b] Seat change 104 20 4 Popular vote 12,443,981 7,944,943 2,629,163 Percentage 45.2% 28.8% 9.5% Swing 14.2pp 0.4pp 2.4pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   GB/BHE DP Zentrum Candidate Waldemar Kraft Heinrich Hellwege Johannes Brockmann Party GB/BHE DP Centre Last election Did not exist 4.0%, 17 seats 3.1%, 10 seats Seats won 27 15 3 Seat change New party 2 7 Popular vote 1,616,953 896,128 217,078 Percentage 5.9% 3.3% 0.8% Swing New party 0.7pp 2.3pp
The left side shows the winning party vote in the constituencies, the right side shows the seats won by parties in each of the states. The pie chart over West Berlin shows the partisan composition of its legislature.
Government before election First Adenauer cabinet CDU/CSU–FDP–DP Government after election Second Adenauer cabinet CDU/CSU–FDP–GB/BHE–DP

Federal elections were held in West Germany on 6 September 1953 to elect the members of the second Bundestag. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) emerged as the largest party.

This elections were the last before Saarland joined West Germany in 1957. It had been a separate entity, Saar protectorate, under French control since 1946.

Campaign

Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (who was also CDU leader) campaigned on his policies of economic reconstruction and growth, moderate conservatism or Christian democracy, and close relations with the United States. During the campaign he attacked the Social Democratic Party (SPD) ferociously. His staff had a comfortable coach on a train previously used only by Hermann Göring and behind that a dining car with sleeping berths for journalists.^[1] The new SPD leader (Kurt Schumacher had died in 1952) was Erich Ollenhauer, who was more moderate in his policies than Schumacher had been. He did not oppose, in principle, the United States' military presence in Western Europe. He later – in 1957 – supported a military alliance of most European countries, including Germany.^[2][3] On 3 September American Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said that "A defeat for Adenauer would have catastrophic consequences for the prospects for German reunification and the restoration of sovereignty" and that it would "trigger off such confusion in Germany that further delays in German efforts for reunification and freedom would be unavoidable."^[1] Adenauer managed to convince clearly more West German voters of his leadership abilities and economic and political success to easily win a second term, although he had to form a coalition government with the Free Democratic Party and the conservative German Party to gain a majority in the Bundestag.

Results

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Elected	West Berlin	Total	+/–
	Christian Democratic Union	10,016,594	36.36	61	9,577,659	34.80	130	191	6	197	+80
	Social Democratic Party	7,944,943	28.84	106	8,131,257	29.55	45	151	11	162	+26
	Free Democratic Party	2,629,163	9.54	34	2,967,566	10.78	14	48	5	53	0
	Christian Social Union	2,427,387	8.81	10	2,450,286	8.90	42	52	0	52	+28
	All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights	1,616,953	5.87	27	1,613,215	5.86	0	27	0	27	New
	German Party	896,128	3.25	5	1,073,031	3.90	10	15	0	15	−2
	Communist Party	607,860	2.21	0	611,317	2.22	0	0	0	0	−15
	Bavaria Party	465,641	1.69	0	399,070	1.45	0	0	0	0	−17
	All-German People's Party	318,475	1.16	0	286,465	1.04	0	0	0	0	New
	Deutsche Reichspartei	295,739	1.07	0	204,725	0.74	0	0	0	0	−5
	Centre Party	217,078	0.79	2	55,835	0.20	1	3	0	3	−7
	Dachverband der Nationalen Sammlung	70,726	0.26	0	78,356	0.28	0	0	0	0	New
	South Schleswig Voters' Association	44,585	0.16	0	44,339	0.16	0	0	0	0	−1
	Schleswig-Holstein Farmers and Farmworkers Democracy				6,269	0.02	0	0	0	0	New
	Patriotic Union				2,531	0.01	0	0	0	0	New
	Party of the Good Germans				654	0.00	0	0	0	0	New
	Independents and voter groups				17,185	0.06	0	0	0	0	−3
Total		27,551,272	100.00	245	27,519,760	100.00	242	487	22	509	+99
Valid votes		27,551,272	96.74		27,519,760	96.63
Invalid/blank votes		928,278	3.26		959,790	3.37
Total votes		28,479,550	100.00		28,479,550	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		33,120,940	85.99		33,120,940	85.99
Source: Bundeswahlleiter

Results by state

Constituency seats

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of Germany
Constitution (Basic Law) Federal Constitutional Court Human rights
Head of State President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD)
Executive Chancellor of Germany (list) Olaf Scholz (SPD) Vice Chancellor of Germany Robert Habeck (Grüne) Cabinet Scholz Federal agencies
Legislature Bundestag constituencies members Bundesrat Vermittlungsausschuss Gemeinsamer Ausschuss
Judiciary Federal Constitutional Court Federal courts Ordinary Administrative Fiscal Labour Social Joint Senate Other courts
Subdivisions State (Land) Minister president State Parliament (Landtag) composition Regierungsbezirk District (Kreis) list Collective municipality (Amt) Municipality (Gemeinde) list
Elections Electoral system Political parties Referendums Coalitions Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung) Presidential elections Weimar Republic (1919–1933) 1919 1925 1932 East Germany (1949–1960) 1949 1953 1957 Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949) 1949 1954 1959 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2010 2012 2017 2022 Parliamentary election 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 2017 2021 Next European elections 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
State and local politics State Politics Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia
Foreign relations Foreign relations by country France Italy UK USA China Russia International Relations Politics of the European Union Visa Passport
Political ideologies Political culture Communism Conservatism (Agrarian Conservatism) Far-right Liberalism Social Democracy
Germany portal  Politics portal Other countries
v t e

List seats

Aftermath

Konrad Adenauer remained Chancellor, governing in a broad coalition (two-thirds majority) with most of the minor parties except for the SPD and Centre Party.