| Election Name: | 1976 West German federal election |
| Country: | West Germany |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1972 West German federal election |
| Previous Year: | 1972 |
| Next Election: | 1980 West German federal election |
| Next Year: | 1980 |
| Outgoing Members: | List of members of the 7th Bundestag |
| Elected Members: | List of members of the 8th Bundestag |
| Seats For Election: | All 496 seats in the Bundestag |
| Majority Seats: | 249 |
| Registered: | 42,058,015 1.5% |
| Turnout: | 38,165,753 (90.7%) 0.4pp |
| Candidate1: | Helmut Kohl |
| Party1: | CDU/CSU |
| Last Election1: | 44.9%, 225 seats |
| Seats1: | 243 |
| Seat Change1: | 18 |
| Popular Vote1: | 18,394,801 |
| Percentage1: | 48.6% |
| Swing1: | 3.7pp |
| Candidate2: | Helmut Schmidt |
| Party2: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Last Election2: | 45.8%, 230 seats |
| Seats2: | 214 |
| Seat Change2: | 16 |
| Popular Vote2: | 16,099,019 |
| Percentage2: | 42.6% |
| Swing2: | 3.2pp |
| Candidate3: | Hans-Dietrich Genscher |
| Party3: | Free Democratic Party (Germany) |
| Last Election3: | 8.4%, 41 seats |
| Seats3: | 39 |
| Seat Change3: | 2 |
| Popular Vote3: | 2,995,085 |
| Percentage3: | 7.9% |
| Swing3: | 0.5pp |
| Map Size: | 350px |
| Government | |
| Before Election: | First Schmidt cabinet |
| Before Party: | SPD–FDP |
| Posttitle: | Government after election |
| After Election: | Second Schmidt cabinet |
| After Party: | SPD–FDP |
Federal elections were held in West Germany on 3 October 1976 to elect the members of the 8th Bundestag. Although the CDU/CSU alliance became the largest faction in parliament, Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party remained Chancellor.
The coalition of the SPD and the FDP wanted to be re-elected, with the SPD, since 1974 led by Helmut Schmidt, the party's candidate for Chancellor. The CDU and the CSU tried to achieve an absolute majority of the votes to make CDU chairman Helmut Kohl Chancellor.
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample size | Union | SPD | FDP | Others | Abstention | Lead | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 federal election | data-sort-value="1976-10-03" | 3 Oct 1976 | – | 48.6 | 42.6 | 7.9 | 0.9 | 9.3 | 6.1 | |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | data-sort-value="1976-09-01" | Sep 1976 | N/A | 49 | 41 | 8 | 2 | — | 8 | |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | data-sort-value="1976-08-01" | Aug 1976 | N/A | 48 | 43 | 7 | 2 | — | 5 | |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | data-sort-value="1976-07-01" | Jul 1976 | N/A | 47 | 44 | 8 | 1 | — | 3 | |
| Emnid for SPIEGEL | data-sort-value="1976-06-01" | Jun 1976 | N/A | 51 | 41 | 8 | 0 | — | 10 | |
| Allensbach | data-sort-value="1975-11-30" | Nov/Dec 1975 | N/A | 50.7 | 39.7 | 8.6 | 1.0 | — | 10.0 | |
| Infratest | data-sort-value="1975-11-30" | Nov/Dec 1975 | N/A | 47 | 40 | 11 | 2 | — | 7 | |
| Emnid | data-sort-value="1975-11-30" | Nov/Dec 1975 | N/A | 45 | 43 | 10 | 2 | — | 2 | |
| 1972 federal election | data-sort-value="1972-11-19" | 19 Nov 1972 | – | 44.9 | 45.8 | 8.4 | 0.6 | 8.9 | 0.9 |
| State | Total seats | Seats won | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | CDU | CSU | |||
| Baden-Württemberg | 36 | 4 | 32 | ||
| Bavaria | 44 | 4 | 40 | ||
| Bremen | 3 | 3 | |||
| Hamburg | 8 | 8 | |||
| Hesse | 22 | 17 | 5 | ||
| Lower Saxony | 30 | 18 | 12 | ||
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 73 | 45 | 28 | ||
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 16 | 6 | 10 | ||
| Saarland | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Schleswig-Holstein | 11 | 6 | 5 | ||
| Total | 248 | 114 | 94 | 40 | |
| State | Total seats | Seats won | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | CDU | FDP | CSU | |||
| Baden-Württemberg | 35 | 22 | 6 | 7 | ||
| Bavaria | 44 | 25 | 6 | 13 | ||
| Bremen | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Hamburg | 6 | 5 | 1 | |||
| Hesse | 25 | 5 | 16 | 4 | ||
| Lower Saxony | 32 | 11 | 16 | 5 | ||
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 75 | 25 | 38 | 12 | ||
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 15 | 7 | 6 | 2 | ||
| Saarland | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Schleswig-Holstein | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | ||
| Total | 248 | 100 | 96 | 39 | 13 | |
The coalition between the SPD and the FDP remained in government, with Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor. Between the "sister parties" of CDU and Bavarian CSU there emerged a critical conflict, as the CSU leader Franz Josef Strauß wanted to break both the united Bundestag group of the parties and the agreement not to compete against each other in any Land. Later, this attack was withdrawn, while Strauß became candidate for chancellor for the 1980 elections.