State election in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1958
The elections to the state parliament for the fourth electoral period of North Rhine-Westphalia took place on July 6, 1958.
The election campaign was strongly influenced by Konrad Adenauer's federal policy. The discussion focused in particular on nuclear policy . In opposition circles, the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia were made to test the mood for Adenauer's course on the question of nuclear armament in the Bundeswehr.
None of the parties entered the election campaign with a coalition statement, but the top candidate of the CDU, Karl Arnold , was a supporter of a grand coalition with the SPD . Arnold had been a member of the German Bundestag since the Bundestag election in 1957 , but his goal was to become Prime Minister again after his fall in 1956 . The SPD advertised with the slogan "In town and country continue with Steinhoff ". The FDP advertised with: "Labor peace on the Rhine and Ruhr" and tried to advertise with a future topic, the incipient coal crisis. The KPD , which had been banned since 1956 , was no longer allowed to compete. It had not been represented in the state parliament since 1954. The center could no longer count on help from the CDU. Four years earlier it had only come to the state parliament through a change in the electoral law that was no longer applied in 1958 and a constituency agreement with the CDU. The GB / BHE did not appear after the so-called KO group around Waldemar Kraft and Theodor Oberländer left.
The election campaign was overshadowed by the sudden death of Karl Arnold. He died of a heart attack on June 29, 1958 in Düsseldorf .
In the end, the CDU was able to prevail. She won both an absolute majority in mandates and votes and was able to rule alone. For the CDU, this represents its best result in state elections in this federal state to date. Although the SPD was able to record considerable gains both compared with the last state election and the federal election in North Rhine-Westphalia, it lagged far behind the CDU. The big losers were the small parties and the FDP.
- Eligible voters: 10,507,956
- Voters: 8,046,198
- Turnout: 76.57%
- Valid votes: 7,948,178
| Political party | agree completely |
Share in% |
Electoral kreisbe- tors |
Direct MAN date |
Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | 4,011,419 | 50.47 | 150 | 92 | 104 |
| SPD | 3,115,738 | 39.20 | 150 | 58 | 81 |
| FDP | 566.258 | 7.12 | 150 | 15th | |
| DP | 125,696 | 1.58 | 147 | ||
| center | 83,720 | 1.05 | 86 | ||
| DRP | 43,299 | 0.54 | 81 | ||
| DSU | 540 | 0.01 | 2 | ||
| DG | 220 | 0.00 | 1 | ||
| BdD | 176 | 0.00 | 1 | ||
| Individual applicants | 1,112 | 0.01 | 3 | ||
| Total | 7,948,178 | 771 | 150 | 200 |
Only after the election did the CDU determine who should become Prime Minister. In the parliamentary group, Franz Meyers won a secret election against Josef Gockeln , Josef Hermann Dufhues and Wilhelm Johnen . Meyers was elected Prime Minister on July 21st with 103 votes in favor, 94 abstentions and 94 abstentions. On July 24th, the remainder of the cabinet, in which Dufhues became Minister of the Interior, was sworn in. Dufhues, who in 1959 became chairman of the CDU regional association Westphalia-Lippe, developed into Meyers' long-term rivals.
See also
- Meyer's I cabinet
- List of state constituencies in North Rhine-Westphalia 1958
- List of members of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia (4th electoral period)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article on the state election "Adenauer's victory" from the time
- ^ History of North Rhine-Westphalia
- ^ Rhenish history of the LVR - Karl Arnold
- ^ The State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia - Elections in North Rhine-Westphalia
- ↑ Spiegel 31/1958, p. 27
source
Announcement of the official final result in the Ministerialblatt for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia of July 28, 1958 (PDF; 1.2 MB)
