Election to the city council of Greater Berlin in 1946

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19461948 →

(in %)

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

48.7

22.2

19.8

9.3

SPD

CDU

SED

LDP

    

A total of 130 seats

• SED : 26
• SPD : 63
• LDP : 12
• CDU : 29

The election to the city council of Greater Berlin on October 20, 1946 was the only all-Berlin election between the end of World War II and German reunification . The city ​​council of Greater Berlin and the twenty district councils were elected .

The clear winner of the election was the SPD under Otto Ostrowski , which narrowly missed the absolute majority with 48.7% and 63 of 130 seats . In second place came the CDU under Ferdinand Friedensburg with 22.2% of the votes and 29 mandates. The SED , which only came into being in April 1946 through the forced unification of the KPD and SPD , suffered a severe defeat with 19.8% of the votes and 26 mandates. The remaining 9.3% of the vote went to the LDP , which received 12 seats. The turnout was 92.3%.

Result

Election of October 20, 1946
Eligible voters	2,307,122		Mandates
voter turnout	2,128,677	92.3%
SPD	1,015,609	48.7%	63
CDU	462.425	22.2%	29
SED	412,582	19.8%	26th
LDP	149,722	9.3%	12
Sums (valid votes)	2,085,338	100.0%	130

Election result in the Soviet sector  % 50 40 30th 20th 10 0 43.6 29.8 18.7 7.8 SPD SED CDU LDP

Election result in the three western sectors  % 60 50 40 30th 20th 10 0 51.7 24.3 13.7 10.2 SPD CDU SED LDP

This was the only election in which the SED, which arose under Soviet pressure, ran against the part of the SPD that opposed the forced unification (especially in the western sectors). The result was seen as a clear rejection of the SED favored by the Soviet occupying power . In the eastern districts, too, the SPD was well ahead of the SED. According to the historian Hermann Weber , this showed “that the SED had absolutely no chance of achieving the desired hegemony in really free elections”.

consequences

On December 5, 1946, the city council elected the top SPD candidate Otto Ostrowski as Lord Mayor of Greater Berlin , who presided over a three-party coalition made up of the SPD, CDU and LDP. When Ostrowski refused to dismiss the SED functionaries from his magistrate, his own parliamentary group put a motion of no confidence against him on April 11, 1947, which was also accepted with a majority.

Ostrowski resigned on April 17, 1947, and Ernst Reuter was elected as his successor on June 24, 1947 , but he was unable to take up his post at the Allied headquarters due to the Soviet veto . In the Magistrate Reuter was therefore Louise Schroeder acting mayor until the election to the city council in December 1948 .

See also

• List of the members of the city council of Berlin (1st electoral period)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Election to the city council of Berlin on October 20, 1946 ( Memento from May 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), Office for Statistics Berlin-Brandenburg
2. ^ State elections: Berlin-East second votes. Retrieved November 15, 2017 . 
3. ↑ State elections: Berlin-West second votes. Retrieved March 1, 2018 . 
4. ^ Hermann Weber: The GDR 1945-1990. 4th edition, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2006, p. 19.