1928 German federal election

1928 German federal election

← December 1924 20 May 1928 (1928-05-20) 1930 →
All 491 seats in the Reichstag 246 seats needed for a majority
Registered	41,224,678 ( 5.7%)
Turnout	75.6% ( 3.2pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Hermann Müller Otto Wels Arthur Crispien Kuno von Westarp Wilhelm Marx Party SPD DNVP Centre Last election 26.0%, 131 seats 20.5%, 103 seats 13.6%, 69 seats Seats won 153 73 61 Seat change 22 30 8 Popular vote 9,152,979 4,381,563 3,712,152 Percentage 29.8% 14.3% 12.1% Swing 3.8 pp 6.2 pp 1.5 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ernst Thälmann & Philipp Dengel Gustav Stresemann Erich Koch-Weser Party KPD DVP DDP Last election 8.9%, 45 seats 10.1%, 51 seats 6.3%, 32 seats Seats won 54 45 25 Seat change 9 6 7 Popular vote 3,264,793 2,679,703 1,479,374 Percentage 10.6% 8.7% 4.8% Swing 1.7 pp 1.4 pp 1.5 pp
Results by electoral constituency Results by district and independent city Results for each party
Government before election Fourth Marx cabinet Z–DNVP–DVP–BVP Government after election Second Müller cabinet SPD–DVP–DDP–Z–BVP

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Federal elections were held in Germany on 20 May 1928 to elect the fourth Reichstag of the Weimar Republic.^[1][2][3]

The previous three and a half years had seen Germany governed by a series of conservative cabinets, variably including the radical nationalist German National People's Party (DNVP). The fourth Marx cabinet collapsed in February 1928 due to a dispute over education policy, with new elections called for May. The results were a defeat for the parties of the centre-right cabinet: the DNVP particularly suffered, falling to 14%, as did the conservative German People's Party (DVP) and German Democratic Party (DDP). The Catholic Centre Party saw a substantial decline in its support for the first time since 1920. The winners of the election were the parties of the left: the Social Democratic Party, in opposition since 1923, won 30% of the vote. The Communist Party also improved to 10.6%. Much of the bourgeois and conservative electorate turned to small splinter parties representing special interests, including the Economic Party, Landvolk Party, and Revaluation Party.^[3]

With a strong left-wing and the splintered right, there was little alternative to a government led by the SPD. Social Democrat Hermann Müller, who had previously served as Chancellor briefly in 1920, was charged with forming a new cabinet. The only viable majority was a Great Coalition stretching from the SPD to the DVP. Negotiations proved difficult: it took two weeks for the cabinet to be formed and sworn in, and only as a "cabinet of personalities" rather than a formal coalition, comprising ministers from the SPD, DVP, DDP, and Bavarian People's Party (BVP). The Centre sent only one minister, Theodor von Guérard, as a so-called "observer". It took until ten months later in April 1929 for a coalition agreement to be signed and the Centre to officially enter cabinet.^[3]

This second Müller cabinet was to be the final democratic government of the Weimar Republic. Its fall in March 1930 and marked the end of the parliamentary system and the beginning of the presidential cabinets.^[3]