1912 German federal election

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1912 German federal election
Flag of the German Empire.svg
  1907 12 January 1912 (1912-01-12) 1919  

All 397 seats in the Reichstag
199 seats needed for a majority
Registered14,442,387 Increase2.svg 8.16%
Turnout12,260,731 (84.89%) Increase2.svg 0.24pp
 First partySecond partyThird party
  August Bebel c1900.jpg
Hugohaase.jpg
Georg von Hertling (cropped).jpeg Portrait of Ernst Bassermann.jpg
Leader August Bebel
Hugo Haase
Georg von Hertling Ernst Bassermann
Party SPD Centre NLP
Leader since21 November 1892
& 1911
19091898
Last election28.94%, 43 seats18.79%, 101 seats14.80%, 56 seats
Seats won1109045
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 67Decrease2.svg 11Decrease2.svg 11
Popular vote4,250,4001,988,5041,662,700
Percentage34.82%16.29%13.53%
SwingIncrease2.svg 5.88ppDecrease2.svg 2.50ppDecrease2.svg 1.27pp

 Fourth partyFifth partySixth party
  Ernst von Heydebrand und der Lasa by E. Bieber.jpg Otto Fischbeck LCCN2014714907.jpg Ferdynand Radziwill c1914.jpg
Leader Ernst von Heydebrand und
der Lasa
Otto Fischbeck Ferdynand Radziwiłł
Party DKP FVP Polish Party
Leader since19116 March 19101889
Last election9.41%, 59 seats10.66%, 50 seats [1] 4.03%, 20 seats
Seats won414118
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 18Decrease2.svg 9Decrease2.svg 2
Popular vote1,006,5701,448,097441,744
Percentage8.25%11.86%3.62%
SwingDecrease2.svg 1.16ppIncrease2.svg 1.20ppDecrease2.svg 0.41pp

Karte der Reichstagswahlen 1912.svg
Map of results (by constituencies)

President of the Reichstag before election

Hans Graf von Schwerin-Löwitz
DKP

President of the Reichstag after election

Johannes Kaempf
FVP

Federal elections were held in Germany on 12 January 1912. [2] Although the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had received the most votes in every election since 1890, it had never won the most seats, and in the 1907 elections, it had won fewer than half the seats won by the Centre Party despite receiving over a million more votes. [3] However, the 1912 elections saw the SPD retain its position as the most voted-for party and become the largest party in the Reichstag, winning 110 of the 397 seats. [4]

Contents

Parties hostile or ambivalent to the ruling elites of the German Empire – the Social Democrats, the Centre Party, and the left-liberal Progressives – together won a majority of the seats. This allowed a successful censure vote against the government of Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg over the Saverne Affair in 1913 and the passage of the Reichstag Peace Resolution of 1917. However, the Centre and the Progressives were unwilling to act consistently in opposition, which left the government largely free to do as it wished.

Some historians, such as Fritz Fischer, have theorized that the First World War was partly a result of the strategy of the conservative Prussian Junkers to deal with the result. [5] In an attempt to increase support for conservative parties and policies and to distract the population from the SPD, they hoped to drum up patriotism in an external conflict with Russia or another Eastern European state such as Serbia.

Georges Weill, an SPD candidate who won a seat in Metz, defected to France at the start of World War I.

Electoral system

The members of the Reichstag were elected in single-member constituencies via the two-round system. There was no requirement that constituencies had to be of equal sizes population sizes, meaning that rural constituencies, which tended to have smaller populations, were overrepresented.

Since 1869, suffrage was available to all residents who:

Since 1888, a constitutional amendment required elections to be held every five years.

Results

Alemania Reichstag 1912.svg
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Social Democratic Party 4,250,39934.82+5.88110+67
Centre Party 1,988,50416.29−2.5090−11
National Liberal Party 1,651,11513.53−1.2745−11
Progressive People's Party 1,448,09711.86+1.2041−9
German Conservative Party 1,006,5708.25−1.1641−18
German Reich Party 396,9483.25−0.9414−10
Independent Polish246,2752.02−0.11100
Agrarian League 165,0341.35+0.185−2
Alsace-Lorraine parties 148,2021.21−0.119−2
Christian Social Party 104,2190.85+0.3330
Polish Catholic Party93,6290.77+0.334+1
German-Hanoverian Party 90,1680.74−0.085+3
Polish People's Party 81,1400.66−0.133−1
Independent conservatives74,3230.61+0.184+4
German Social Party 73,1690.60−0.183−5
ELD60,8860.50New1New
German Reform Party 60,7580.50−0.523−3
Independent liberals53,9390.44−0.320−3
Bavarian Peasants' League 48,2190.39+0.022+2
Peasants' League41,3520.34New2New
Democratic Union 29,4440.24New0New
Middle Class parties27,0950.22−0.440−2
Polish Court Party20,7000.17−0.181−1
Danish Party 17,2890.140.0010
Lorraine Land Party7,0390.06−0.1400
Lithuanian Party6,2270.05+0.0100
Independent anti-semites1,6040.01−0.1300
Other conservatives1,0810.01−0.0300
Other agrarians4,0270.03−0.240−1
Others9,4920.08+0.0100
Unknown6880.010.0000
Total12,207,632100.003970
Valid votes12,207,63299.57
Invalid/blank votes53,0990.43
Total votes12,260,731100.00
Registered voters/turnout14,442,38784.89
Source: Wahlen in Deutschland

Alsace-Lorraine

PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Social Democratic Party 110,69531.75+8.005+3
Alsace-Lorraine Center Party 96,64627.72+0.7570
ELD60,88617.46New1New
Independent Lorraine Party 36,33610.42−3.702−1
Alsace-Lorraine protesters 15,2204.37+2.080−1
Centre Party 13,7153.93−8.690−1
German Reich Party 7,3732.11+0.650−1
Lorraine Land Party7,0392.02−4.4700
Others7440.2100
Total348,654100.00150
Valid votes348,65498.36
Invalid/blank votes5,8071.64
Total votes354,461100.00
Registered voters/turnout417,70184.86
Source: Wahlen in Deutschland

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References

  1. Merger of the Free-minded People's Party (6.55%, 29 seats), Free-minded Union (3.01%, 14 seats), and the German People's Party (1.10%, 7 seats).
  2. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p762 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  3. Nohlen & Stöver, pp. 774–789
  4. Nohlen & Stöver, p789
  5. Fischer, Fritz (1961). Germany's Aims in the First World War . W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   0-393-09798-6.