| Election Name: | December 1946 Hessian state election |
| Country: | Hesse |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | June 1946 Hessian state election |
| Previous Year: | Jun. 1946 |
| Next Election: | 1950 Hessian state election |
| Next Year: | 1950 |
| Seats For Election: | All 90 seats in the Landtag of Hesse |
| Majority Seats: | 46 |
| Election Date: | 1 December 1946 |
| Turnout: | 1,741,416 (73.2% 2.2pp) |
| Candidate1: | Christian Stock |
| Party1: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Last Election1: | 42 seats, 44.3% |
| Seats1: | 38 |
| Seat Change1: | 4 |
| Popular Vote1: | 687,431 |
| Percentage1: | 42.7% |
| Swing1: | 1.5pp |
| Candidate2: | Werner Hilpert |
| Party2: | Christian Democratic Union of Germany |
| Last Election2: | 35 seats, 37.3% |
| Seats2: | 28 |
| Seat Change2: | 7 |
| Popular Vote2: | 498,158 |
| Percentage2: | 31.0% |
| Swing2: | 6.3pp |
| Candidate4: | August-Martin Euler |
| Party4: | LDP |
| Color4: | FFED00 |
| Last Election4: | 6 seats, 8.1% |
| Seats4: | 14 |
| Seat Change4: | 8 |
| Popular Vote4: | 252,207 |
| Percentage4: | 15.7% |
| Swing4: | 7.6pp |
| Candidate5: | Oskar Müller |
| Party5: | Communist Party of Germany |
| Last Election5: | 7 seats, 9.8% |
| Seats5: | 10 |
| Seat Change5: | 3 |
| Popular Vote5: | 171,592 |
| Percentage5: | 10.7% |
| Swing5: | 0.9pp |
| Map Size: | 250px |
| Government | |
| Before Election: | Geiler cabinet |
| Before Party: | SPD–CDU–KPD–LDP |
| Posttitle: | Government after election |
| After Election: | Stock cabinet |
| After Party: | SPD–CDU |
The December 1946 Hessian state election was held on 1 December 1946 to elect the 1st Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was an all-party coalition led by Minister-President Karl Geiler.
Compared to the elections for the Constituent Assembly held at the end of June, both the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) declined, while the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) particularly improved. The SPD remained the largest party with 43%, followed by the CDU on 31%, LDP on 16%, and Communist Party (KPD) on 11%. The SPD subsequently formed a grand coalition with the CDU, led by Minister-President Christian Stock.
The Landtag was elected via party-list proportional representation. 62 members were elected in multi-member constituencies, and 28 then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.
In the previous election held on 30 June 1946, the SPD emerged as the largest party with 44.3%, followed by the CDU on 37%, KPD on 10%, and LDP on 8%.
The table below lists parties represented in the Constituent Assembly.
| Name | Ideology | Lead candidate | June 1946 result | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | |||||||
| bgcolor= | SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany | Social democracy | Christian Stock | 44.3% | |||
| bgcolor= | CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | Christian democracy | Werner Hilpert | 37.3% | |||
| bgcolor= | KPD | Communist Party of Germany | Communism | Oskar Müller | 9.8% | |||
| bgcolor= | LDP | Liberal Democratic Party | Classical liberalism | August-Martin Euler | 8.1% | |||