| Election Name: | 1946 Bavarian state election |
| Country: | Bavaria |
| Flag Year: | striped |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | June 1946 Bavarian state election |
| Previous Year: | 1946 |
| Next Election: | 1950 Bavarian state election |
| Next Year: | 1950 |
| Seats For Election: | All 180 seats in the Landtag of Bavaria |
| Majority Seats: | 91 |
| Election Date: | 1 December 1946 |
| Turnout: | 3,048,337 (75.7%) 3.6% |
| Leader1: | Alois Hundhammer |
| Party1: | Christian Social Union in Bavaria |
| Seats1: | 104 |
| Popular Vote1: | 1,593,908 |
| Seat Change1: | 5 |
| Percentage1: | 52.3% |
| Swing1: | 6% |
| Leader2: | Jean Stock |
| Party2: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Seats2: | 54 |
| Popular Vote2: | 871,760 |
| Seat Change2: | 3 |
| Percentage2: | 28.6% |
| Swing2: | 0.2% |
| Leader3: | Alfred Loritz |
| Party3: | WAV |
| Colour3: | 8B4513 |
| Seats3: | 13 |
| Popular Vote3: | 225,404 |
| Seat Change3: | 5 |
| Percentage3: | 7.4% |
| Swing3: | 2.3% |
| Leader4: | Hermann Schirmer |
| Party4: | Communist Party of Germany |
| Seats4: | 0 |
| Popular Vote4: | 185,023 |
| Seat Change4: | 9 |
| Percentage4: | 6.1% |
| Swing4: | 0.8% |
| Leader5: | Thomas Dehler |
| Party5: | Free Democratic Party (Germany) |
| Seats5: | 9 |
| Popular Vote5: | 172,242 |
| Seat Change5: | 6 |
| Percentage5: | 5.7% |
| Swing5: | 3.2% |
| Minister-President | |
| Before Party: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| After Election: | Hans Ehard |
| After Party: | Christian Social Union in Bavaria |
The December 1946 Bavarian state election was held on 1 December 1946 to elect the members of the First Bavarian Landtag. The election came after the dissolution of the Bavarian Constituent Assembly after the passing of the Constitution, which stipulated that a democratically elected Landtag would elect the Minister-President. It saw Bavaria's first democratically chosen Minister-President since Heinrich Held.
Bavaria was completely occupied by American troops at the end of April 1945. General George S. Patton appointed Christian democrat Fritz Schäffer as interim Minister-President on 28 May 1945, before being dismissed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower on 28 September 1945 due to Schäffer's past anti-Semitic positions, and hiring of ex-Nazis within his administration.[1]
The ministry was then handed over to social democrat Wilhelm Hoegner, who oversaw the creation of a new Bavarian constitution in the spring and summer of 1946. To aid him, the Advisory State Committee was formed, with its members being appointed by the political parties or the state. The body was eventually dissolved, with direct elections being called for a Constituent State Assembly to oversee the passage of the Constitution. After the Constitution had been ratified by the State Assembly, the body was dissolved and elections were called for the first official Landtag since the Weimar Republic. On the same day of the Landtag elections, Bavaria held a plebiscite whether to affirm the newly written Constitution.[2]
The Wilhelm Hoegner regime had been installed by the American military forces in Germany and did not reflect the popular opinion of Bavarians. The Constitution stated that the Minister-President was to be elected by the Landtag, thus when the CSU gained a majority of the seats, the SPD entered a coalition with the CSU and WAV, with a CSU Minister-President, Hans Ehard. In September 1947, the SPD withdrew its ministers and the CSU abandoned its partnership with WAV, forming a sole majority government.[3] This was also the first election in post-war Bavaria that introduced the ten-percent rule, in which a seat would only be allotted to a candidate if they received at least ten percent of the vote in any given constituency. The KPD, while gaining a net positive in overall votes, failed to meet this requirement in any constituency and lost all of their seats.[4]
The table below lists parties represented in the Constituent State Assembly of Bavaria.
| Name | Ideology | Leader(s) | June 1946 result | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | |||||||
| bgcolor= | CSU | Christian Social Union in Bavaria | Christian democracy | Alois Hundhammer | 58.3 | |||
| bgcolor= | SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany | Social democracy | Jean Stock | 28.8 | |||
| bgcolor= | KPD | Communist Party of Germany | Marxism–Leninism | Hermann Schirmer | 5.3 | |||
| bgcolor= | WAV | Economic Reconstruction Union | Right-wing populism | Alfred Loritz | 5.1 | |||
| bgcolor= | FDP | Free Democratic Party | Liberalism | Thomas Dehler | 2.5 | |||
|-! colspan="2" | Party! Votes! %! +/-! Seats ! +/-! Seats %|-| bgcolor=| | align=left | Christian Social Union (CSU)| align=right| 1,593,908 | align=right| 52.3| align=right| 6%| align=right| 104| align=right| 5| align=right| 56.1|-| bgcolor=| | align=left | Social Democratic Party (SPD)| align=right| 871,760| align=right| 28.6| align=right| 0.2%| align=right| 54| align=right| 3| align=right| 30|-| bgcolor= | | align=left | Economic Reconstruction Union (WAV)| align=right| 225,404| align=right| 5.1| align=right| 2.3%| align=right| 13| align=right| 5| align=right| 7.2|-| bgcolor=| | align=left | Communist Party (KPD)| align=right| 185,023| align=right| 6.1| align=right| 0.8%| align=right| 0| align=right| 9| align=right| 0|-| bgcolor=| | align=left | Free Democratic Party (FDP)| align=right| 172,242| align=right| 5.7| align=right| 3.2%| align=right| 9| align=right| 6| align=right| 5|-! align=right colspan=2| Total! align=right| 3,048,337! align=right| 100.0! align=right| ! align=right| 180! align=right| ±0! align=right| |-! align=right colspan=2| Voter turnout! align=right| ! align=right| 75.7! align=right| 3.6! align=right| ! align=right| ! align=right||-|colspan=8 align=left|Source: Statistik Bayern and Historisches Lexikon Bayerns |}