ABSTRACT
Chancellor by one vote The election of 14 August 1949 to the first Bundestag did not yield a decisive result. The Christian Democrats pulled slightly ahead with 7.3 million votes (31 per cent). Schumacher’s Social Democrats gained 6.9 million votes (29.2 per cent) and the F D P 2.7 millions (11.9). The Communits must have been disappointed with their 1.3 million votes (5.7 per cent) thinking back to their millions in the Weimar Republic. Another 21.1 per cent of the votes were given to seven or so other parties and independents such as the remnants of the old Centre Party, the Bavarian Party, the Right-wing groups like the German Party (d p) and the German Rights Party (d r p). The result was not too bad for the S P D considering the difficulties it
was up against. It was cut off from many traditional centres of Social Democracy-Berlin, Erfurt, Halle, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Dresdennow in the Soviet Zone. The Christian Democrats benefited from the greater proportion of Catholics in the Federal Republic as compared with the Weimar Republic. This ensured them a mass basis for their party. They also got help from the Catholic Church. The American and French military authorities favoured the Christian Democrats and gave them discreet support. Moreover, the Christian Democrats could claim they, together with the f d p and the DP, by holding office, were partly responsible for the Western Zones, improving economic and political situation. Since June 1947 these parties had headed the Economic Council of the Western Zones. The indecisive result of the election left some room for manoeuvre.
