1953 West German federal election

Federal Chancellor Adenauer (who was also the Christian Democratic leader) campaigned on his policies of economic reconstruction and growth, moderate conservatism or Christian democracy, and close relations with the United States. The new Social Democratic leader – Kurt Schumacher had died in 1952 – was Erich Ollenhauer, who was more moderate in his policies than Schumacher had been. He did not oppose, in principle, the United States' military presence in Western Europe. In fact, he later – in 1957 – supported a military alliance of most European countries, including Germany.[1][2] Adenauer managed to convince clearly more West German voters of his leadership abilities and economic and political success to easily win a second term, although he had to form a coalition government with the Free Democrats and the conservative German Party to gain a majority in the Bundestag.

Party		Constituency			Party list			Total seatsa	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	9,577,659	34.8	130	10,016,594	36.4	61	191	+76
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	8,131,257	29.5	45	7,944,943	28.8	106	151	+20
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	2,967,566	10.8	14	2,629,163	9.5	34	48	−4
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	2,450,286	8.9	42	2,427,387	8.8	10	52	+28
	All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (GB/BHE)	1,613,215	5.9	0	1,616,953	5.9	27	27	New
	German Party (DP)	1,073,031	3.9	10	896,128	3.3	5	15	−2
	Communist Party (KPD)	611,317	2.2	0	607,860	2.2	0	0	−15
	Bavaria Party (BP)	399,070	1.5	0	465,641	1.7	0	0	−17
	All-German People's Party (GVP)	286,465	1.0	0	318,475	1.2	0	0	New
	Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP)b	204,725	0.7	0	295,739	1.1	0	0	−5
	Centre Party (ZENTRUM)	55,835	0.2	1	217,078	0.8	2	3	−7
	Dachverband der Nationalen Sammlung (DNS)	78,356	0.3	0	70,726	0.3	0	0	New
	South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW)	44,339	0.2	0	44,585	0.2	0	0	−1
	Schleswig-Holsteinische Bauern- und Landarbeiterdemokratie (SHBLD)	6,269	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	New
	Patriotic Union (VU)	2,531	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	New
	Party of the Good Germans (PdgD)	654	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	New
	Independents and voter groups	17,185	0.1	0	–	–	–	0	−3
Valid votes		27,519,760	96.6	–	27,551,272	96.7	–	–	–
Invalid/blank votes		959,790	3.4	–	928,278	3.3	–	–	–
Total votes		28,479,550	100.0	242	28,479,550	100.0	245	487	+85
Registered voters/turnout		33,120,940	86.0	–	33,120,940	86.0	–	–	–
Source: Bundeswahlleiter

^a – excludes the non-voting delegates for West Berlin (11 SPD, 6 CDU, 5 FDP).

^b – previously the Deutsche Rechtspartei (German Right Party).

Konrad Adenauer remained Chancellor, governing in a broad coalition (two-thirds majority) with most of the minor parties except for the SPD and Centre Party.