Local elections in Hesse 1946
The local elections in Hesse in 1946 took place from January to May 1946 and were the first democratic elections after the end of the Nazi dictatorship .
General
The parties had only a short time to prepare for these elections. The first local party branches were established in mid-1945. The first party to be approved by the American occupation authorities at the state level was the KPD Hessen on December 13, 1945 . Due to the short period of time, the parties were not able to run nationwide with their own candidates. The appointed mayors and district administrators also had a good starting position, as possible opposing candidates did not have time to make themselves known. As a result, the proportion of mayors with no party was above average after the election.
The electoral process was basically in line with democratic principles, although it was carried out under occupation law . Parties and candidates required the approval of the American occupation authorities . This approval was also given as long as the candidates were not burdened by their activities during the National Socialist era . Functionaries of the NSDAP and their organizations as well as other incriminated persons had no right to vote.
A threshold clause of 15 percent was required for the election, which meant that the two major parties, the SPD Hessen and the CDU Hessen , were slightly preferred.
All parties had the option of campaigning through their own publications. A preference for individual parties through the allocation of paper quotas and printing capacities, as was the case in the state elections in the Soviet Zone in 1946 , did not take place in Greater Hesse .
The organization of the elections was made difficult by the massive influx of refugees from eastern Germany .
Municipal elections
As a first step, elections to the local councils took place in January 1946 . These were carried out in 17 counties on January 20th and in the remaining 22 counties on January 27th. The population fully embraced the possibility of democratic elections , with voter turnout of 84.9 percent, a maximum that was never reached again in local elections in Hesse.
| Political party | electoral proposals |
Result in% |
Seats in% |
Mayor's post in% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | 1497 | 44.5 | 45.0 | 38.0 |
| CDU | 967 | 31.0 | 30.0 | 15.0 |
| KPD | 406 | 5.7 | 2.1 | 1.1 |
| LDP | 101 | 2.7 | 2.3 | 1.7 |
| Other | 1203 | 16.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Non-party | 20.0 | 43.7 |
District elections
In April 1946 the elections for the district assemblies followed. Here the chances of the smaller parties were much better, since the broad range in the individual places was no longer so important. These elections were therefore much better suited to give a picture of the mood about the political landscape and the strength of the parties.
The turnout in the 39 districts, at 75.5 percent, was below the record level of the January elections, but it confirmed the high level of public interest in the elections.
| Political party | Participation (circles) |
Result in% |
Seats | Seats in% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | 39 | 44.1 | 539 | 50.0 |
| CDU | 38 | 38.0 | 446 | 41.4 |
| KPD | unknown | 8.3 | 11 | 1.0 |
| LDP | 23 | 6.2 | 43 | 4.0 |
| Other | unknown | 3.4 | 39 | 3.6 |
One district cities
In May, the final step was the local elections in the nine independent cities. The turnout of 75.5 percent was exactly the same as in the district elections.
Cumulative result in the independent cities:
| Political party | percent |
|---|---|
| SPD | 41.2 |
| CDU | 34.5 |
| KPD | 11.5 |
| LDP | 9.8 |
| Other | 2.9 |
For the results in selected Hessian cities see:
literature
- Walter Mühlhausen: Hessen 1945–1950: on the political history of a country during the occupation . 1984/85, ISBN 3-458-14292-4 , pp. 145-146
