From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1994 German federal election

none

Field	Value
country	Germany
type	parliamentary
previous_election	1990 German federal election
previous_year	1990
election_date
next_election	1998 German federal election
next_year	1998
outgoing_members	List of members of the 12th Bundestag
elected_members	List of members of the 13th Bundestag
seats_for_election	All 672 seats in the Bundestag
majority_seats	337
registered	60,452,009 0.0%
turnout	47,737,999 (79.0%) 1.2 pp
image1
candidate1	Helmut Kohl
party1	CDU/CSU
last_election1	43.8%, 319 seats
seats1	294
seat_change1	25
popular_vote1	19,517,156
percentage1	41.4%
swing1	2.4 pp
image2
candidate2	Rudolf Scharping
party2	Social Democratic Party of Germany
last_election2	33.5%, 239 seats
seats2	252
seat_change2	13
popular_vote2	17,140,354
percentage2	36.4%
swing2	2.9 pp
image3
candidate3	Ludger Volmer &
Marianne Birthler
party3	Alliance 90/The Greens
last_election3	5.1%, 8 seats
seats3	49
seat_change3	41
popular_vote3	3,424,315
percentage3	7.3%
swing3	2.2 pp
image4
candidate4	Klaus Kinkel
party4	Free Democratic Party (Germany)
last_election4	11.0%, 79 seats
seats4	47
seat_change4	32
popular_vote4	3,258,407
percentage4	6.9%
swing4	4.1 pp
image5
candidate5	Lothar Bisky
party5	Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)
last_election5	2.4%, 17 seats
seats5	30
seat_change5	13
popular_vote5	2,066,176
percentage5	4.4%
swing5	2.0 pp
map_image	1994 German federal election.svg
map_size	400px
map_caption	Results of the election. The main map shows constituency winners, and results for the proportional list seats are shown in the bottom left.
title	Government
before_election	Fourth Kohl cabinet
before_party	CDU/CSU-FDP
posttitle	Government after election
after_election	Fifth Kohl cabinet
after_party	CDU/CSU-FDP

Marianne Birthler

A federal election was held in Germany on 16 October 1994 to elect the members of the 13th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU alliance led by Helmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor in a narrowly re-elected coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP). This elected Bundestag was the largest in history until 2017, numbering 672 members.

Even though this election did not lead to a switch in government, it saw the election of many people to the Bundestag who would play an important role later. Future CDU leaders Friedrich Merz and Armin Laschet were first elected to the Bundestag in 1994, as were future cabinet ministers Norbert Röttgen and Peter Altmaier. This was the last election until 2009 that a centre-right government was elected.

Issues and campaign

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) let its members elect a candidate for chancellor against Helmut Kohl after SPD leader Björn Engholm and chancellor candidate-designate had to resign in 1993 amid scandal. Rudolf Scharping, Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate, beat Gerhard Schröder and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul in the SPD's internal election. Scharping was only elected with 40 percent of the vote and relied on campaigning with other SPD leaders and rivals such as Oskar Lafontaine and Gerhard Schröder, both self-confident and outspoken, in a "troika". Tension between them greatly hurt his campaign. In addition, Scharping was seen as a weak leader due to his lack of charisma and media skills, and therefore did not induce a lot of enthusiasm.

For the first time in their existence, Alliance 90/The Greens seemed to be willing to join a government in case a centre-left SPD–Greens coalition had a workable majority in the Bundestag.

The election also saw a "red socks" campaign used by the centre-right, including the CDU/CSU and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), to scare off a possible red–red–green coalition (SPD–Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS)–Greens). Analysts have stated that such a strategy likely paid off, as it was seen as one of the decisive elements for the narrow victory of Kohl for the CDU/CSU–FDP. The campaign was criticized as an obvious attempt to discredit the whole political left; the PDS reinterpreted it for itself by printing red socks.

Results

Seat results – SPD in red, combined Greens in green, PDS in purple, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black

Results by state

Second vote (Zweitstimme, or votes for party list)

State results in %	CDU/CSU	SPD	GRÜNE	FDP	PDS	REP
43.3	30.7	9.6	9.9	0.8	3.1	2.6
51.2	29.6	6.3	6.4	0.5	2.8	3.2
31.4	34.0	10.2	5.2	14.8	1.9	2.5
28.1	45.1	2.9	2.6	19.3	1.1	0.9
30.2	45.5	11.1	7.2	2.7	1.7	1.6
34.9	39.7	12.6	7.2	2.2	1.7	1.7
40.7	37.2	9.3	8.1	1.1	2.4	1.2
38.5	28.8	3.6	3.4	23.6	1.2	0.9
41.3	40.6	7.1	7.7	1.0	1.2	1.1
38.0	43.1	7.4	7.6	1.0	1.3	1.6
43.8	39.4	6.2	6.9	0.6	1.9	1.2
37.2	48.8	5.8	4.3	0.7	1.6	1.6
48.0	24.3	4.8	3.8	16.7	1.4	1.0
38.8	33.4	3.6	4.1	18.0	1.0	1.1
41.5	39.6	8.3	7.4	1.1	1.0	1.1
41.0	30.2	4.9	4.1	17.2	1.4	1.2

Constituency seats

State	Total
seats	Seats won	CDU	SPD	CSU	PDS	Christian Democratic Union of Germany}};"	Social Democratic Party of Germany}};"	Christian Social Union in Bavaria}};"	Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)}};"	Baden-Württemberg	37	Bavaria	45	Berlin	13	Brandenburg	12	Bremen	3	Hamburg	7	Hesse	22	Lower Saxony	31	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	9	North Rhine-Westphalia	71	Rhineland-Palatinate	16	Saarland	5	Saxony	21	Saxony-Anhalt	13	Schleswig-Holstein	11	Thuringia	12	Total	328	177	103	44	4
37
	1	44
6	3		4
	12
	3
1	6
14	8
17	14
7	2
31	40
12	4
	5
21
10	3
9	2
12

List seats

State	Total
seats	Seats won	SPD	CDU	Grüne	FDP	PDS	CSU	Social Democratic Party of Germany}};"	Christian Democratic Union of Germany}};"	Alliance 90}};"	Free Democratic Party (Germany)}};"	Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)}};"	Christian Social Union in Bavaria}};"	Baden-Württemberg	42	Bavaria	47	Berlin	14	Brandenburg	11	Bremen	3	Hamburg	7	Hesse	27	Lower Saxony	36	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	6	North Rhine-Westphalia	77	Rhineland-Palatinate	17	Saarland	4	Saxony	18	Saxony-Anhalt	10	Schleswig-Holstein	13	Thuringia	12	Total	344	149	67	49	47	26	6
25		8	8	1
28		6	6	1	6
6	3	3	2
	6		1	4
	2	1
	4	2	1
11	6	5	4	1
14	11	5	5	1
2			1	3
26	27	11	12	1
10	3	2	2
	4
9		2	1	6
4		1	1	4
8	1	2	2
6		1	1	4

Post-election

The coalition between the CDU/CSU and the FDP was able to continue in power with Helmut Kohl as chancellor.

The PDS won four constituency seats in its power base of the former East Berlin, qualifying it for proportional representation even though the party won 4.4 percent of the vote, just short of the 5% electoral threshold required for full parliamentary status. Under a longstanding electoral law intended to benefit regional parties, any party that wins at least three constituency seats is entitled to its share of proportionally-elected seats, regardless of vote share.

This was the first time in the history of the Federal Republic that the FDP was not the third-largest party in the chamber.

References

Sources

References

(2 August 2013). "Das Versagen der SPD".
"Vor 20 Jahren: Rudolf Scharping im Wahlkampf".
Fürstenau, Marcel. (24 September 2021). "German election: Could there soon be a left-wing government?".
(2007). "The Left Party in Contemporary German Politics". [[Springer Publishing.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

federal-elections-in-germany 1994-elections-in-germany helmut-kohl october-1994-in-germany

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1994 German federal election — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report