Election to the city council of Greater Berlin in 1948

← 1946City council
assembly 19481950 →

(in %)

 %

70

60

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

64.5

19.4

16.1

n. k.

SPD

CDU

LDP

SED

Gains and losses

compared to 1946

 % p

 14th

 12

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

-12

-14

+12.8

-4.9

+5.9

-13.7

SPD

CDU

LDP

SED

   

A total of 98 seats

• SPD : 60
• LDP : 17
• CDU : 21

The election to the city council of Greater Berlin on December 5, 1948 took place during the Berlin blockade only in the three western sectors . It resulted in a clear victory for the SPD .

background

The election took place in exceptional circumstances. The Magistrat of Greater Berlin ( Magistrat Ostrowski ), formed a few weeks after the election to the city council on October 20, 1946 , fell apart due to the political division of the city into East and West . Mayor Otto Ostrowski ( SPD ) was already on 11 April 1947 at the request of his own faction by the city council by vote of no confidence voted out because he refused the SED functionaries to be dismissed from since December 5, 1946 he led magistrate.

Ostrowski therefore resigned on April 17, 1947, and Reuter (SPD) was elected as his successor on June 24, 1947 , but due to the Soviet veto he was unable to take up his post in the Allied headquarters . Thereupon the official business of the mayor was taken over by the first deputy mayor Louise Schroeder (SPD).

In addition, there was the fact that after the unannounced, separate currency reform on 23/24. June 1948 in the three western sectors and the subsequent Berlin blockade the economic and administrative unity between the western parts and the Soviet sector was no longer given. The three western sectors were separated from the supply from western Germany and the Soviet occupation zone and could only survive through the airlift . On August 26 and September 6, 1948, demonstrators broke into the New Town Hall and prevented the city council from meeting properly. This then met in the student house of the Technical University on Steinplatz in Charlottenburg, which belonged to the British sector. The SED city council boycotted this move.

On November 30, 1948, the 2nd Deputy City Councilor Ottomar Geschke (SED) called an "extraordinary city council meeting" in the Admiralspalast in the Soviet sector. The 26 city councilors of the SED as well as a few city councilors of the CDU and LDP came together with 1151 delegates from East Berlin companies (“ democratic bloc ”) appointed on the same day and declared the magistrate deposed. A “provisional democratic magistrate” under the control of the SED was formed for East Berlin, with Friedrich Ebert junior (SED) as Lord Mayor. This was the end of unified local government in both East and West. The new elections for the city council on December 5, 1948 were only held in the western sectors.

As the leading candidate of the SPD joined Ernst Reuter on, for the CDU Ferdinand Friedensburg .

Result

The SPD experienced its greatest electoral success to date: it gained 15.8 percentage points and, with 64.5% of the vote, achieved the highest result that any party has ever achieved in democratic elections in Germany. The CDU dropped 2.8 percentage points to 19.4% of the vote, while the LDP got 16.1% of the vote. Other parties did not stand because the SED considered the elections to a (only West Berlin) city council as illegitimate and accordingly did not take part in the election.

Although the SPD had a clear absolute majority, it formed a black-red-yellow coalition with the CDU and LDP due to the crisis . As a result, Ernst Reuter was elected Lord Mayor. After confirmation by the Allied Command , in which only the three Western Allies were represented, he was now officially allowed to exercise the office in their sectors. The Soviet military administration , however, viewed it as illegitimate. Instead, it had recognized Friedrich Ebert as Lord Mayor.

See also : List of members of the city council of Berlin (2nd electoral period)

Election of December 5, 1948
Eligible voters	1,586,461
voter turnout	1,369,492	86.3%
SPD	858.461	64.5%	60 mand.
CDU	258,664	19.4%	21 mand.
LDP	214.145	16.1%	17 mand.
to hum	1,331,270	100.0%	98 mand.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Election for the city council in Berlin on December 5, 1948 ( Memento from June 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Office for Statistics Berlin-Brandenburg
2. ^ Election to the Berlin-West House of Representatives. Retrieved March 1, 2018 . 
3. ^ Gerhard Keiderling: To Germany's unity. Ferdinand Friedensburg and the Cold War in Berlin 1945–1952. Böhlau Verlin, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2009, p. 349.
4. ^ Office for Statistics Berlin-Brandenburg: [ https://www.wahlen-berlin.de/Historie/wahldatenbank/Tabellen/1948agh2a.asp Election for the city council in Berlin on December 5, 1948 according to districts and parties]
5. ↑ Gerhard. A. Ritter, Merith Niehuss: Elections in Germany 1946–1991, page 150