State election in Lower Saxony in 1951
The second election to the Lower Saxony state parliament took place on May 6, 1951.
Initial situation and result
Compared to the first state election in 1947, more parties were allowed. In particular, the displaced party BHE and the right-wing extremist SRP, which were running for the first time, were able to win large shares of the vote.
After the 1947 election, a coalition of SPD, CDU, Zentrum and KPD was formed, from which first the KPD, then the DP and FDP, left. The strongest party, the SPD, was able to defend its top position in the election, but lost a lot of voters.
The second and third strongest party, the CDU and DP, which formed a coalition at the federal level, ran together for this election under the name of Low German Union . The background to this was the new electoral law, which made voting arrangements for direct candidates from competing parties impossible. Despite voting together, they lost a lot of votes. The National Socialist Socialist Reich Party won 11 percent of the vote, which aroused great public displeasure and was seen as a sign of a continued National Socialist attitude in parts of the population.
The SPD also lost a lot of votes, but remained the strongest party. The All-German Bloc / Federation of Expellees and Disenfranchised (GB / BHE), which appeared for the first time, received almost 15 percent of the vote. Due to the high proportion of displaced people in Lower Saxony, this was not surprising. The FDP achieved almost the same result as in 1947, with slight losses.
- Eligible voters: 4,475,688
- Voters: 3,393,371 (turnout: 75.82%)
- valid votes: 3330440
| Political party | be right | Share of votes (%) |
Direct mandates |
Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) | 1,123,199 | 33.73 | 64 | 64 |
| Low German Union ( DP / CDU ) | 790.766 | 23.74 | 23 | 35 |
| All-German block / Federation of expellees and disenfranchised (GB / BHE) | 496,569 | 14.91 | 1 | 21st |
| Socialist Reich Party (SRP) | 366.793 | 11.01 | 4th | 16 |
| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 278.088 | 8.35 | 3 | 12 |
| German Center Party (DZP) | 110,473 | 3.32 | - | 4th |
| German Reich Party (DRP) | 74,017 | 2.22 | - | 3 |
| Communist Party of Germany (KPD) | 61,364 | 1.84 | - | 2 |
| German Social Party (DSP) | 25,546 | 0.77 | - | 1 |
| German Right Party (RP) | 3,406 | 0.10 | - | - |
| 2 individual applicants | 219 | 0.01 | - | - |
| total | 3,330,440 | 95 | 158 |
The 16 MPs elected for the SRP were stripped of their mandates on October 23, 1952 with the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court banning the party. The result of the state election was then re-established on April 1, 1953 without taking into account the votes for the SRP. This gave the other parties 13 additional seats (CDU / DP 5, BHE 4, FDP 2, Center 1, KPD 1). In addition, the composition changed significantly due to several substitute elections for outgoing directly elected MPs and numerous changes in parliamentary groups. The distribution of seats at the end of the electoral term was in 1955: SPD 59, DP / CDU 43, BHE 20, FDP 15, LP 4, KPD 3, Zentrum 2, DRP 2, FSU 1, GVP 1, Liberaler Bund 1, non-party 3. One seat was vacant.
consequences
Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf (SPD) formed a new government together with the GB / BHE and the center . The center left the government with the resignation of the previous Minister of Justice, Otto Krapp, on December 1, 1953. Prime Minister Kopf also took over the post of Justice Minister.
