1910 Hamburg state election

1910 Hamburg state election

← 1907 1910 1913  →
36 out of 160 in the Bürgerschaft
Turnout	93.61% [1]
First party Second party Third party   Leader Andreas Blunck Claus Umland Karl Anton Gutknecht Party VL SPD L Seats won 10 9 8 Seat change 6 1 0   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Heinrich Edmund Bohlen Hermann Bagge Party R LZ Seats won 5 4 Seat change 2 2

The 1910 Hamburg state election was held sometime during the year 1910 in the western part of Hamburg's territory, the so-called "right-Alster shore".

Background and electoral system

Enfranchised citizen, as defined for the Hamburg state elections, were males who paid a certain amount of income tax. Every voter had a total 12 votes.

After the voter disenfranchisement law of 1906, sparked by the electoral victory of the SPD, the subsequent state elections of 1907, 1910, and 1913 would use a system of heavily weighted class suffrage that divided the enfranchised male population into two groups. Group I was made up of citizen who had paid an average annual income tax of above 2,500 ℛ︁ℳ︁ for the last three years, whereas Group II was made up of citizen who paid between 1,200 and 2,500 ℛ︁ℳ︁ in taxes annually. Furthermore, landowners and the notables (primarily current and former MPs) were also enfranchised with 40 representatives per group. A weighted voting system as used to disenfranchise Group II as much as possible. It has been calculated by Margarete Wolters that a notable's vote counted 59 times, a landowner's vote 17 times, and the vote of any other Group I elector counted four times as much as a vote from any one Group II elector.

In the years 1910 and 1913, in the last elections according to the electoral law of 1906, the gradation of Hamburg's population was as follows:

Population group	Population	Allocated Seats [a]
In the urban areas	77,241	72 (36)
└ Group I	28,479	48 (24)
└ Group II	48,762	24 (12)
In the rural areas	5,946	8
Land owners	8,731	40
Notables	954	40
Wealthy voters total	38,164	128
Total voters	83,187	160
Total population	1,037,275	0

Results

Party		Group I			Group II			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Won	Not up	Total	+/–
	Social Democratic Party	8,652	5.68	1	133,939	57.05	8	9	11	20	+1
	United Liberals	41,644	27.34	7	48,465	20.64	3	10	19	29	+6
	Faction of the Left	40,611	26.66	7	22,858	9.74	1	8	29	37	0
	Faction of the Left Centre	28,852	18.94	4	13,767	5.86	0	4	31	35	–2
	Faction of the Right	32,581	21.39	5	15,751	6.71	0	5	35	40	+2
Total		152,340	100.00	24	234,780	100.00	12	36	125	161	+7
Registered voters/turnout			44.58			40.12
Source: Von der privilegierten Herrschaft zur parlamentarischen Demokratie p. 53/54 [2]

See also

• Elections in Hamburg
• 1919 Hamburg state election

Notes

1. The numbers in brackets indicate the number of seats up for actual election, the rest of representatives were the so-called elders (Erbgesessene) that were to keep a life-long seat.

References

1. Die Ergebnisse der Wahlen zur hamburgischen Bürgerschaft im Jahre 1910. p. 11
2. Von der privilegierten Herrschaft zur parlamentarischen Demokratie

Literature

• Eckardt, Hans Wilhelm (2002). Von der privilegierten Herrschaft zur parlamentarischen Demokratie. Landeszentrale für politische Bildung. ISBN   3-929728-66-4
• Borowsky, Peter (2005). Schlaglichter historischer Forschung Studien zur deutschen Geschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Hamburg University Press. ISBN   3-937816-17-8