1961 West German federal election

Election posters

For the first time, the SPD announced a Chancellor candidate who was not chairman of the party: Willy Brandt, the Governing Mayor of West Berlin. After the building of the Berlin Wall, he gained more and more sympathy, while chancellor Konrad Adenauer was criticised for not showing enough support for the people of West Berlin. Adenauer had to save the absolute majority of CDU and CSU, but, considering his age and his long term as chancellor, there were big doubts if he should lead the country in a fourth term.

Party		Constituency			Party list			Total seatsa	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	11,672,057	36.5	91	11,427,355	36.2	99	190	+21
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	11,622,995	36.3	114	11,283,901	35.8	78	192	−23
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	3,866,269	12.1	0	4,028,766	12.8	67	67	+26
	Christian Social Union (CSU)	3,104,742	9.7	42	3,014,471	9.6	8	50	−5
	All-German Party (GDP)b	859,290	2.7	0	870,756	2.8	0	0	−17
	German Peace Union (DFU)c	587,488	1.8	0	609,918	1.9	0	0	0
	Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP)	242,649	0.8	0	262,977	0.8	0	0	0
	German Community (DG)	21,083	0.1	0	27,308	0.1	0	0	0
	South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW)	24,951	0.1	0	25,449	0.1	0	0	0
	Electoral Group for a Neutral Germany (WGnD)	778	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	New
	Independents and voter groups	2,164	0.0	0	–	–	–	0	0
Valid votes		32,004,466	97.4	–	31,550,901	96.0	–	–	–
Invalid/blank votes		845,158	2.6	–	1,298,723	4.0	–	–	–
Total votes		32,849,624	100.0	247	32,849,624	100.0	252	499	+2
Registered voters/turnout		37,440,715	87.7	–	37,440,715	87.7	–	–	–
Source: Bundeswahlleiter

^a – excludes the non-voting delegates for West Berlin (13 SPD, 9 CDU).

^b – merger of the German Party and the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights.

^c – previously the Alliance of Germans (Bund der Deutschen, BdD).

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  Seat results—SPD in red, FDP in yellow, CDU/CSU in black, others (moderate right) in gray

The absolute majority was lost by the conservative union due to the gains of the liberal FDP under Erich Mende. From 1961 on, the Union, SPD and FDP established an electoral "triopoly" in the Bundestag that would last until 1983.

Konrad Adenauer remained Chancellor, building a coalition between the CDU/CSU-FDP. In 1962 he had to announce a fifth cabinet: The FDP had temporarily left the coalition after the secretary of defense, Franz Josef Strauß (CSU), had ordered the arrest of five journalists for publishing a memo detailing alleged weaknesses in the German armed forces (known as the Spiegel scandal). In 1963 Adenauer finally retired; Ludwig Erhard took over his position as head of the coalition government.

• Barnes, Samuel H.; Grace, Frank; Pollock, James K.; Sperlich, Peter W. (1962). "The German Party System and the 1961 Federal Election". American Political Science Review. 56 (4): 899–914. doi:10.2307/1952792.

• The Federal Returning Officer
• Psephos