State election in Hamburg 1949
On October 16, 1949 the election for the second electoral period of the citizenship of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (state election ) took place in the post-war period. This article deals with the election, the distribution of seats and the main topics of the electoral term.
choice
A new electoral law was passed in the first electoral term . The superiority of a single party (in this case the SPD ) and the pure majority voting system should be replaced. New were the increase in mandates from 110 to 120 parliamentarians, a system of majority suffrage (72 mandates) and proportional representation (48 mandates) as well as a four-year electoral term (previously three years). A threshold clause was not provided. Since this right to vote still meant a clear preference for the strongest party, the regional associations of the CDU , FDP and German Conservative Party reactivated the Father City Association of Hamburg, founded by Paul de Chapeaurouge in 1946, as an electoral alliance in order to break the supremacy of the Social Democrats. The VBH had the advantage that it had already been licensed by the Allies and therefore did not need a new license. The German party , originally planned as a member of the VBH, was not involved at the insistence of the FDP.
The turnout of 70.5% was almost 10 percentage points below that of 1946.
Election result and distribution of seats
The official final result of the election for citizenship was:
| Political party | be right | in percent | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | 337.697 | 42.8% | 65 |
| VBH | 272,649 | 34.5% | 40 |
| DP | 104,728 | 13.3% | 9 |
| KPD | 58.134 | 7.4% | 5 |
| RSF | 15,505 | 2.0% | 1 |
| FKB | 353 | 0.0% | - |
| Individual applicants | 174 | 0.0% | - |
New government
Max Brauer (SPD) remained First Mayor; the Senate Brauer II , which consisted exclusively of SPD politicians, was elected on February 28, 1950. It was the first single SPD government in a federal state. (Since the FDP left the Senate on November 1, 1949, only SPD members had belonged to the old Senate.)
Main issues during the 2nd electoral term
The main themes of the second electoral term from 1949 to 1953 continued to be the reconstruction of the destroyed city and the drafting of a new constitution. In addition, a school reform was decided, which was highly controversial and partly responsible for the loss of the majority in the 1953 election.
Sources and literature
- Hamburg citizenship: The Hamburg citizenship 1946–1971. Reconstruction and new construction . illustrated by Erich Lüth , Verlag Conrad Kayser, Hamburg 1971
- Hans Wilhelm Eckardt: From privileged rule to parliamentary democracy . State Center for Political Education Hamburg (ed.), Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-929728-66-4
Individual evidence
- ^ Elections in Hamburg. The general election from 1946 to 2001 Spiegel Online
- ^ Citizenship elections Hamburg state votes elections in Germany
- ↑ Christof Brauers, The FDP in Hamburg 1945 to 1953, Martin Meidenbauer Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 2007, page 404.
- ↑ The results and statistics are based on the information from: Die Hamburger Bürgerschaft 1946–1971, pp. 175–195 and: Helmut Bilstein (Ed.): State and parties in the city state of Hamburg or the “Ungovernability of Cities” , State Center for Political Education Hamburg, 1996.
- ↑ The VBH as an amalgamation of CDU , FDP and DKP
