Local elections in Hesse 1977
The local elections in Hesse in 1977 took place on March 20 and led to a landslide victory for the CDU Hesse, which received nationwide attention . They also caused a change of course in the social-liberal state government in school policy and the end of the city of Lahn .
initial situation
For more than thirty years, the SPD Hesse had been the determining force in Hesse, had provided all the Prime Ministers and was by far the strongest force in the municipalities. The word "red Hessen" had become proverbial. Although the SPD was no longer able to achieve absolute majorities at the state level in the 1970s , it was supported by a coalition partner , the FDP Hessen . Only three parties have been represented in the state parliament since 1970 and the CDU was the only opposition party.
One consequence of this decades-long dominance of the SPD was a penetration of many areas of the state with SPD party members, which the CDU denounced as "felt". This accusation of “red felt” was raised in the donation affair of the Frankfurt SPD and above all in the context of the Helaba scandal , as a result of which Prime Minister Osswald resigned on the evening of the 1976 federal election .
In addition to the so-called “red felt”, school policy and regional reform in Hesse were the main themes of the political debate.
Election results
Community level
The 3.8 million eligible voters showed a high level of interest in the election with a turnout of 79.6 percent. The CDU achieved a landslide victory, which was mainly at the expense of the SPD, which was replaced as the dominant city hall party.
| Political party | Result (%) | change |
|---|---|---|
| CDU | 44.8 | + 11.5 |
| SPD | 42.1 | - 7.4 |
| FDP | 4.8 | |
| FWG | 7.2 | - 4.3 |
District level
The same picture emerged in the election to the district assemblies: 82 percent of the 2.8 million eligible voters in the districts (excluding urban districts) voted.
| Political party | Result (%) | change |
|---|---|---|
| CDU | 47.4 | + 9.2% |
| SPD | 42.7 | - 4% |
| FDP | 5.1 | -0.8% |
When looking at the map, the distribution of votes made it clear that the catchphrase “red Hessen” no longer applied, at least at the municipal level. The CDU had won an absolute majority in nine districts and a relative majority in six districts. The SPD could only in four counties ( district of Kassel , Werra-Meissner , Schwalm-Eder-Kreis , district of Gross-Gerau ) absolute and in six counties ( district Rotenburg , Vogelsbergkreis , Gießen district , Darmstadt-Dieburg , Lahn-Dill-Kreis , Odenwaldkreis ) have relative majorities. The CDU achieved in the district of Fulda , Limburg-Weilburg , Hochtaunuskreis Main-Taunus-Kreis , Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis , Offenbach district and county mountain road absolute and in the districts of Waldeck-Frankenberg , Marburg-Biedenkopf , Wetterau and the Main-Kinzig -Circle relative majorities. This election result showed that the strongholds of the parties were still intact: While the CDU has and had its strongholds in the Catholic city of Fulda and in southern Hesse, the SPD remained dominant in northern Hesse.
Surrounding association
For the first time, the Association Day of the Frankfurt Umlandverband was elected in March 1977 in five electoral districts. This was dominated by the CDU.
Single results
Frankfurt
The election result in Frankfurt am Main , Hesse's largest city, sent a special signal . Frankfurt had been the focus of the student revolt. With the Frankfurt house- to- house war , left-wing students took up the protest against the social democratic urban development policy, which, however, at least in many of its goals, was also shared by broad sections of the bourgeois population. Frankfurt suffered from a high crime rate and was described in the media as both Krankfurt and Bankfurt .
Like the country, Frankfurt had been ruled by Social Democrats since the war. Although the big cities, with their high proportion of workers, were strongholds of the SPD and this also applied to Frankfurt until this ballot, the CDU won massively, even achieved an absolute majority and appointed Walter Wallmann as the new mayor.
| Political party | Result (%) | change |
|---|---|---|
| CDU | 51.3% | + 11.5% |
| SPD | 39.9% | - 10.2% |
| FDP | 6.0% | - 1.2% |
| Others | 2.7% | - 0.2% |
See also the results of the local elections in Frankfurt am Main
City of Lahn
The population's resistance to the regional reform in Hesse was particularly pronounced in Central Hesse. In the art town of Lahn , which was formed from Gießen and Wetzlar , the Union won a landslide victory in the local elections in Hesse in 1977. In the city of Lahn, the CDU achieved an increase of 30.2 percentage points and came to 50.7 percent. In the same year Wilhelm Runtsch (CDU) was elected Lord Mayor of the city of Lahn. However, Wilhelm Runtsch died shortly after taking office.
For the results in selected Hessian cities see:
consequences
The consequences of the election were profound. There were serious changes in school policy. Against the will of large parts of the population and now also the majority of the districts, the state government was no longer able to enforce the comprehensive school as a regular school, so that the formation of comprehensive schools was still required and promoted through certain measures, for example better teacher assignments However, there was a juxtaposition of comprehensive schools and a structured school system that still exists today.
After the unambiguous citizens' vote in the local elections, the city of Lahn was dissolved again on July 31, 1979.
At the county and municipal level, many of the Union's electoral wins have proven to be long-term. In many rural districts in the Rhine-Main area in particular, CDU majorities existed at least until the local elections in Hesse in 2011 .
Web links
- Union in Deutschland 12/77 : On page 4 there are individual results of the elections at district level and the evaluation of the election by the CDU
literature
- Wolfgang Bick: Local elections in Hesse 1946–1993, pages 199–200
- Election atlas Hessen, Alfred Behr, Gotthart Breit, Herbert Lilge, Jakob Schissler, 1986, ISBN 3-89057-021-6 , pages 36–39
Individual evidence
- ↑ Werner Wolf: New beginning and struggle for the majority. The CDU Hessen under Alfred Dregger 1967–1982; in: Bernd Heidenreich and Werner Wolf: The way to the strongest party 1945–1995 / 50 years CDU Hessen, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-8046-8827-6 , page 59-93
